Bauls, 1969

File — Box: 2, Folder: 5

Identifier: MSP 99, Series 1, File 10

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Includes six issues of Bauls, a counterculture newspaper produced by students at the Purdue University West Lafayette campus.

Dates

1969

Access Information

Collection is open for research.

Historical Information

Bauls was an underground student newspaper published by Bauls of the Brickyard Incorporated and sold at Purdue University Memorial Union, among other places, by the Peace Union, a student organization. The Bauls staff included Marty Simon, Jeff Brandt, Will Peters, Carole Scheiber, George Stavis, Scott Dobberstein, Mary Louise Hickman, Stanley Addicks, Margaret McKritrick, Lee Koch, Laurie Hunt, and Noel Beasley. Articles in Bauls covered a range of topics including resistance to the Vietnam War, marijuana, racial equality, and religion. In addition, it also published poetry and artwork, including drawings and photographs of people in the nude. It was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate and the Liberation News Service.

The first issue of Bauls went on sale in the Union on January 6, 1969. In this issue, articles covered a variety of topics, but of particular concern to the administration was a nude photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The following day, Deans Scott and Zissis banned the Peace Union from selling Bauls in the Memorial Union building, but the group continued to distribute the newspaper and extended their solicitation to the dorms, fraternities, and other areas on campus. Campus police did not arrest students, but photographs were taken of students distributing the paper so that they may be identified later. On January 11, 1969, students George Stavis, William Peters, Carol Scheiber, and William Davenport contacted William Erbecker, a lawyer in Indianapolis, regarding the Bauls controversy. Erbecker notified Dean Donald Mallet, Vice President of Student Affairs, that he was investigating whether Purdue had violated the rights of students in suspending the selling of Bauls on campus. Concurrently, Deans Scott and Zissis conferred with Purdue legal counsel on the matter of allowing Bauls to be sold on campus. The legal counsel affirmed the right of students to sell Bauls on campus because it did not meet the state criteria for obscenity.

On January 30, 1969, Bauls staff used the Purdue Exponent office in the Union building to produce some of the second issue, hiring a typist and renting Exponent equipment. The Bauls staff were asked to leave by Mr. Smalley, as they did not have permission to work on the newspaper in the Union. On February 3, the second issue went on sale. This issue chronicled the controversial events following the publication of the first issue and included an unflattering comment allegedly made by Mr. Bredemier, the assistant to the Dean of Men. The third issue was sold on February 18 and featured nude photographs on the front and back covers, photos of nude students, and a sexually-explicit masthead. This issue prompted the Purdue legal counsel to reverse its opinion, declaring the issue of Bauls legally obscene. President Hovde sought to ban the issue from campus but did not find support with the Chairmen of Faculty and Student Senate Committees nor the student body President and Vice President. As a result, he requested recommendations from the aforementioned committees regarding the matter. An unkown number of urther issues of Bauls were printed thereafter.