Primary Document Two
Brooklyn College Suspends Six Vanguard Editors
50 Others on Staff of Undergraduate Paper Reprimanded
Brooklyn Eagle
May 21, 1950
Six student editors of Vanguard, official undergraduate newspaper at Brooklyn College, have been temporarily suspended from classes and all college functions, and 50 other staff members have been officially reprimanded and placed on probation for the remainder of the Spring semester.
Suspensions came as the result of a dispute between the student editors and the college administration.
Often critical of President Harry D. Gideonse and his administrative policies on the Flatbush campus, Vanguard's editors were forced to suspend editors forced to suspend publication last Friday following the resignation of faculty adviser Dr. Julius Portnoy, a philosophy instructor, who said his position was "untenable because of a series of incidents which occurred despite my advice."
Unable to function officially without a faculty adviser, the undergraduate editors circulated 5,000 copies of their own newspaper as a replacement at the campus gates Friday.p
Draugnav (Vanguard spelled backward), the substitute publication, was identified as an "independent publication." The 56 students placed on probation yesterday were listed on the masthead as staff members.
Arthur Lack, 21, of 5510 13th Ave., editor-in-chief of both the official and independent paper drew the stiffest penalty. He received a one-week suspension starting tomorrow and continuing through Saturday.
Three-day suspensions up to Wednesday were meted out to the executive editors, Herbert Dorfman, Norman Gelb, Harry Baron and Gene Bluestein, in addition to the business manager Martha Wechsler.
A campus protest rally on the over-all dispute is scheduled to be held tomorrow. It is sponsored by the Democratic Coalition Committee, comprising several college organizations. Dorfman is listed as one of the chief speakers.