SETONIAN SUSPENDED

On 27 February 1964, Seton Hall University President John J. Dougherty announced the suspension of the campus newspaper, The Setonian. The suspension of the campus newspaper lasted 7 weeks, necessitated a rewrite of the bylaws of The Setonian constitution, and resulted in an entirely new editorial board. The reason: some mocking over the university’s strict regulations.

It was quite the departure from the warm welcome The Setonian gave President Doughtery in 1959, writing, “We wish for a close and understanding association between our new president and student body.” Even after a basketball scandal that rocked the Seton Hall campus in 1961, and its controversial punishments, The Setonian still expressed pride in the fact that “Seton Hall Now Is Only Catholic University with Bishop-President.”

However, the strict rules piled up and students began to use The Setonian to voice their frustration. From multiple “Letters to Editors” to controversial editorials from staff members, The Setonian became a way for students to express their frustration with the administration’s seemingly archaic standards. Such restrictions that drew the ire of students included the wearing of beards, the enforced formal dress code, the decision to de-emphasize basketball, and the banning of female guests in off campus apartments, among other rules.

The straw that broke the camel’s back happened in early February 1964 when two Seton Hall students were threatened with expulsion for having beards, prompting outrage from a large and vocal percentage of the student body. Because of this threat by the administration, the 20 February 1964 edition of The Setonian announced a satirical “Notice to All Students,” including such rules as:

All individuality must be lost on joining the Seton Hall family. Strive to be a cog in the machine.

Students must dress as uncomfortably as possible, i.e., suit jacket and tie must be worn to class.

Students must shave daily. Hair may be no longer than 2.31 inches (Found to be the average length at Princeton.)

Absolutely no females are permitted in off campus apartments. This includes mothers, nuns, sisters, wives, cafeteria workers and Mrs. Bayer….

Possession of alcoholic beverages or glue will result in immediate defamation of character by local newspapers in addition to expulsion….

Sneakers will no longer be tolerated….

On the same edition, “Marvin Outlines Right Look in ’64,” The Setonian even further mocks the administration by stating “Beardliness is next to Devilishness.” Here “Marvin,” in a tone draped in condescension, asserts that “Hair in itself is not an evil” rather “it is only when it is worn in excess that it becomes sinful.” As proof, “Marvin” lists noted “Atheists and Communists” who “had worn beards in our history” like Marx, Frued, Hemingway, Darwin, Shakespeare, and Castro, among other.

In the wake of this controversial edition, and a similarly mocking 27 February 1964 edition, President Dougherty believed the best course of action was to suspend the newspaper indefinitely. Or at least until April “when, under normal circumstances, The Setonian staff undergoes reorganization.”

President Dougherty, who actually served as an associate editor for the 1928 edition of The Setonian, believed that “an unwholesome spirit of cynicism [had] characterized too many of [The Setonian] articles.” He condemned the paper had become something of direct opposition to “the philosophy and theology to which the University [was] committed.”

To say the student body was less than enthused would be a dramatic understatement. With estimates ranging from 500 to 1000 students, the students at Seton Hall protested the suspension. The students started by chanting “We Want a Newspaper” outside of the administration building. When that was met with silence, the students marched down South Orange Avenue, disrupting traffic, with shouts of “Freedom of the Press.”

When confronted by the police and firemen, the students began throwing snowballs. Some of these snowballs had been snow covered rocks. One of the firemen “suffered face cuts” when hit by one of these snowballs. The firemen and policemen retaliated by spraying a low pressured hose at the protesters forcing them back on campus.

While this helped clear the streets, the demonstration attracted local press. Newspapers covered the protests over the suspension of The Setonian, from the Newark Evening News to The Daily Pennsylvanian to The New York Times. Students, academics, alumni, and more broadly Catholics from all over the nation wrote to Bishop Doughtery to voice their opinion.

One academic wrote Doughtery in support of his actions, praising his ability to “crack down on crack-pot, irresponsible, and out of hand students.” One alumnus of the Class of 1931 wrote Doughtery advises him to be “very stern with… these students [who] are very resentful of discipline.”

Vice President Rev. Thomas Fahy believed “it [would] be a grave mistake if [the administration] does not resume publication of The Setonian as soon as a reasonable reorganization had been worked out.”  Another person wrote to President Doughtery disappointed in the “substandard intellectual atmosphere” found at Seton Hall. Associate Professor of Chemistry at Seton Hall Dr. R. T. Conley wrote to Doughtery voicing “a minority opinion”; Dr. Conley believed that the question of beards was one that had gotten out of hand. Conley believed the university by allowing students to feel more comfortable, their academic work would improve. Conley dismayed at the “shortage of unkempt geniuses” at Seton Hall.

There would not be another edition of The Setonian until 22 April 1964. Despite the resignations of the entire editorial board, President Doughtery stuck to his threat that there would not be another Setonian until standard reorganization. There was a brief attempt to create an underground newspaper called The Mole headed up by a former Setonian writer. However, after just two editions and expense operating costs the former writer ceased publication and actually sent an apology letter to President Dougherty.

Ultimately, when The Setonian returned, it was armed with a new constitution and pledges of journalistic responsibility on the part of contributors. Tensions between administration and students cooled as the unpopular strict rules and regulations were laxed. There was, at first, some tension between the staff editors and faculty moderator, Dr. Kenneth O’Leary. Dr. O’Leary had felt some tensions between himself and the staff, at one point noting that he “[seemed] to have been cast as an agent of the administration deputed to spy on their efforts and censor their efforts.” However, relations eventually thawed to the point where Dr. O’Leary helped secure a modest stipend for The Setonian editors toward the end of the decade.

The Setonian has continued publication to this day. In 1984, the newspaper interviewed two former staff members twenty years after the suspension of the paper, including the former editor in chief Rocco De Pietro. While he lamented that he essentially “got fired,” he believed there were benefits from the changes, stating, “The revisions gave The Setonian an independent and strong constitution.” De Pietro concluded his interview by affirming the importance of a campus newspaper like The Setonian, stating, “There [will always] be issues… on campus like those in the past which The Setonian must flush out.”