Agenda - Council - 04/08/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA Office of the President 202 Morrill Hall 100 Church Street S,E. Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 April 1, 1980 Mr. !~]omas Gamec, Mayor, City of Ramsey Nkk. Arnold L. Cox, Councilman Mr. David Mickelson, Councilman Mr. Gary Reimann, Councilman Mr. Allen Scrag, Councilman Dear C~ntle~en: I want to respond to your recent letter in which you raised two fundamental concerns about the Minnesota Daily and certain faculty members at the Uni- versity of Minnesota. First, as I trust you are aware, the Minnesota Daily is a semi-autonomous stud~_nt enterprise that is neither funded by state taxpayers nor managed by the University administration. Primary control of the Daily resides in the hands of a Board of Student Publications, the majority of w~ose m~mbers are elected by the student body. Primary responsibility for recommending funding levels for ttte Daily resides in the hands of a Student Fees Co~Tmittee, again, ~he majority of whose members are determined through an electoral process. The fo~naer group has already implemented certain changes in the operation of the Daily and the latter group has entertained recon~endations for changing the funding of the paper. Within the next week, the Board of Regents will act upon those and other rec~l,,,~adations dealing with the Daily's finances. One of the more important changes involves the mandatory fee suppo:L'~ question, an issue that has been reviewed in detail over the past nine ~gnths not only by the Board of Student Publications and the Student Fees Cc~mittee, but also by the Board of Regents, the entire University community, and com- mittees of the Minnesota State Legislature. Although the majority of the ],'~r~rs of the above groups might not agree upon all the specific changes tt~at could be made, t~ey do agree that there is 8_n appropriate University process for i~le~enting change and that this process must be permitted to ~nke its course. As elected government officials, you appreciate, I'm sure, the J3~portance of adhering to such duly authorized processes and the irm. ppro- priateness of any preemptive legislative intervention. It is more difficult to respond to your concern regarding professors who "express opinions in the media which are inconsistent with the best interests of this country and those of the founding fathers." First, I have little idea as to which faculty or opinions fall into the category you describe. Second, I am unaware of any national or state body that has the authority to detemm~ne which expressions by American citizens are in the best interests of the country and which are not. ThLrd, and most importantly, I am confused by your defense of "our country's principle of freedom" w~en contrasted with