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On 27 February 1964, Seton Hall University President John J. Dougherty announced the suspension of the campus newspaper, The Setonian<\/em>. The suspension of the campus newspaper lasted 7 weeks, necessitated a rewrite of the bylaws of The Setonian<\/em> constitution, and resulted in an entirely new editorial board. The reason: some mocking over the university\u2019s strict regulations.<\/p>\n It was quite the departure from the warm welcome The Setonian<\/em> gave President Doughtery in 1959, writing, \u201cWe wish for a close and understanding association between our new president and student body.\u201d Even after a basketball scandal that rocked the Seton Hall campus in 1961, and its controversial punishments, The Setonian<\/em> still expressed pride in the fact that \u201cSeton Hall Now Is Only Catholic University with Bishop-President.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the strict rules piled up and students began to use The Setonian<\/em> to voice their frustration. From multiple \u201cLetters to Editors\u201d to controversial editorials from staff members, The Setonian<\/em> became a way for students to express their frustration with the administration\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The straw that broke the camel\u2019s 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<\/em> announced a satirical \u201cNotice to All Students,\u201d including such rules as:<\/p>\n All individuality must be lost on joining the Seton Hall family. Strive to be a cog in the machine.<\/p>\n Students must dress as uncomfortably as possible, i.e., suit jacket and tie must be worn to class.<\/p>\n Students must shave daily. Hair may be no longer than 2.31 inches (Found to be the average length at Princeton.)<\/p>\n Absolutely no females are permitted in off campus apartments. This includes mothers, nuns, sisters, wives, cafeteria workers and Mrs. Bayer\u2026.<\/p>\n Possession of alcoholic beverages or glue will result in immediate defamation of character by local newspapers in addition to expulsion\u2026.<\/p>\n Sneakers will no longer be tolerated\u2026.<\/p>\n On the same edition, \u201cMarvin Outlines Right Look in \u201964,\u201d The Setonian<\/em> even further mocks the administration by stating \u201cBeardliness is next to Devilishness.\u201d Here \u201cMarvin,\u201d in a tone draped in condescension, asserts that \u201cHair in itself is not an evil\u201d rather \u201cit is only when it is worn in excess that it becomes sinful.\u201d As proof, \u201cMarvin\u201d lists noted \u201cAtheists and Communists\u201d who \u201chad worn beards in our history\u201d like Marx, Frued, Hemingway, Darwin, Shakespeare, and Castro, among other.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cwhen, under normal circumstances, The Setonian<\/em> staff undergoes reorganization.\u201d<\/p>\n President Dougherty, who actually served as an associate editor for the 1928 edition of The Setonian<\/em>, believed that \u201can unwholesome spirit of cynicism [had] characterized too many of [The Setonian<\/em>] articles.\u201d He condemned the paper had become something of direct opposition to \u201cthe philosophy and theology to which the University [was] committed.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cWe Want a Newspaper\u201d outside of the administration building. When that was met with silence, the students marched down South Orange Avenue, disrupting traffic, with shouts of \u201cFreedom of the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201csuffered face cuts\u201d 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.<\/p>\n While this helped clear the streets, the demonstration attracted local press. Newspapers covered the protests over the suspension of The Setonian<\/em>, from the Newark Evening News<\/em> to The Daily Pennsylvanian<\/em> to The New York Times<\/em>. Students, academics, alumni, and more broadly Catholics from all over the nation wrote to Bishop Doughtery to voice their opinion.<\/p>\n One academic wrote Doughtery in support of his actions, praising his ability to \u201ccrack down on crack-pot, irresponsible, and out of hand students.\u201d One alumnus of the Class of 1931 wrote Doughtery advises him to be \u201cvery stern with\u2026 these students [who] are very resentful of discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President Rev. Thomas Fahy believed \u201cit [would] be a grave mistake if [the administration] does not resume publication of The Setonian <\/em>as soon as a reasonable reorganization had been worked out.\u201d\u00a0 Another person wrote to President Doughtery disappointed in the \u201csubstandard intellectual atmosphere\u201d found at Seton Hall. Associate Professor of Chemistry at Seton Hall Dr. R. T. Conley wrote to Doughtery voicing \u201ca minority opinion\u201d; 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 \u201cshortage of unkempt geniuses\u201d at Seton Hall.<\/p>\n There would not be another edition of The Setonian <\/em>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<\/em> until standard reorganization. There was a brief attempt to create an underground newspaper called The Mole<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Ultimately, when The Setonian<\/em> 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\u2019Leary. Dr. O\u2019Leary had felt some tensions between himself and the staff, at one point noting that he \u201c[seemed] to have been cast as an agent of the administration deputed to spy on their efforts and censor their efforts.\u201d However, relations eventually thawed to the point where Dr. O\u2019Leary helped secure a modest stipend for The Setonian<\/em> editors toward the end of the decade.<\/p>\n The Setonian<\/em> 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 \u201cgot fired,\u201d he believed there were benefits from the changes, stating, \u201cThe revisions gave The Setonian<\/em> an independent and strong constitution.\u201d De Pietro concluded his interview by affirming the importance of a campus newspaper like The Setonian<\/em>, stating, \u201cThere [will always] be issues\u2026 on campus like those in the past which The Setonian<\/em> must flush out.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s strict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5147,"featured_media":20,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/setonianinthe60s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}