Retired Star-Bulletin editor Chuck Frankel offered up a most interesting bit of personal and professional history on the issue of journalists’ political involvement.

I’m old enough to remember when Jack Burns and Tom Gill made separate campaign speeches in the city room of the Star-Bulletin. When Tom finished talking, I was pleased to march up and give him a campaign check in his race for governor in front of God and editors (there is a difference, you know). I was not fired for my political activity.

I remained active politically in my 28 years at the Star-Bulletin, from 1960 to 1988, contributing small checks, attending candidates’ rallies, marching in anti-war rallies.

There are hazards, of course. I remember attending a session at a friend’s house where the focus was on dumping Democratic state Senator Dennis O’Connor. One person said editor Bud Smyser was blatantly supporting O’Connor, ordering his picture to be in the paper frequently. I protested that I –nut Bud — put his picture in the paper because he was news worthy. I was not believed.

The papers miss out by not attending political fund raisers. News and gossip can be picked up at these rallies and readers are poorer because newspapers want to be “politically pure.”

From Chuck’s experience, the model of “objective” and uninvolved journalism hasn’t been around all that long. I can’t help speculating that it represented a capitulation to the Spiro Agnew-Richard Nixon attacks on the media. Rather than standing up to the ad hominem attacks, media owners tried to wipe out appearances of liberalism among their employees, and eventually this was internalized within the profession.

Any references to the political history of this new “ethic” would be appreciated.

A group of UH students are developing a web site devoted to “100 years of women at the University of Hawaii at Manoa”, which eventually will include a walking tour of the campus from a women’s perspective. Here’s a very rough draft of the tour highlights. I imagine offers of additional information or assistance would not be turned away.

Speaking of UH, an e-mail from a member of the Geography faculty concerning conditions in Saunders Hall was circulating last week and set of considerable discussion. The memo was addressed to UH Manoa Social Science Dean Dick Dubanoski.

Dear Dick,

Your office has in the past asked for ideas that could assist in the upcoming challenge of recruiting and retaining new faculty resulting from the numerous upcoming retirements in the college. Some issues that need to be dealt with are large and expensive (research funding, physical space, salaries) while other issues are smaller and inexpensive. A recent example of a smaller problem that the university has recently addressed was allowing foreign faculty to be classified as tenure-track prior to obtaining their permanent residence status. This change cost the university little or nothing but removed a significant, needless irritant to many recently recruited foreign faculty.

It is with regard to another one of these smaller issues that I am writing you today. To be blunt Dick – our working environment in Saunders is unacceptably dirty and neglected. I can only speak to what happens on the 4th floor – but my office and windows are never cleaned unless I do it myself and the shared hallways are swept once a month at best. The elevators that you and your staff worked so hard to clean and restore are filthy again and have not been cleaned in ages. All the broken and abandoned office equipment that lined our hallways was finally removed this week – but that took months and it made our building look like a trashy used office equipment outlet.

The floors in Saunders were painted recently but not sealed – and as a result – stains are everywhere and it looks terrible.

Some may say that having a clean and attractive work environment isn’t really important in the grand scheme of things – but if we are serious about recruiting and retaining quality faculty – it makes a difference and it is important. How can we expect quality people to join us when we clearly don’t care very much about the way things look – and looks speak to the way things operate at other levels.

Would anyone who is serious about a job go to an interview wearing a torn shirt and dirty trousers? Essentially that is what the college is doing when we bring potential faculty for interviews at Saunders in it’s current condition.

I’m not getting into blaming anyone for the current situation – it’s irrelevant. But fixing this should be a priority for the college as it does make a difference to the recruitment of new faculty and the moral of existing faculty in the college. It is also a very low cost issue – which if resolved – would make all of us prouder to be part of CSS.

With respect – Brian Szuster, Department of Geography

It has launched an interesting exchange of views, some noting that this level of disrepair is quite common across state government. In many cases it’s the result of the accumulated small things that aren’t done. What to do about it? That’s the question.