Mala Mater

In Re: SLU Bars Avis Meyer from The University News Office

To the Editor:

When Avis Meyer registered the name of the U. News last spring, he was doing what he thought was best for the newspaper that he has shepherded for more than 30 years. But when he found out that keeping the name might be a considerable hassle for the students at the paper, he relinquished his claim.

That should have been the end of it. An action was taken that was thought to be helpful, but turned out to be hurtful, and the party responsible made amends. This is the way that reasonable people behave—they fix the problems that exist rather than inventing problems for selfish reasons. It is the way that adults ought to behave. Would that Saint Louis University’s administrators understood this.

They saw an advantage, and they pounced. Originally, they seemed to have a sound, if excessive, legal claim. They wanted to be comped for alleged legal fees they incurred getting Dr. Meyer to drop the name (although if the University is really hard up, they should hire a less expensive typist—Six Large for a couple of letters?). But now, a year later, since Dr. Meyer still hasn’t paid, they’ve revealed the prize they really want. Rather than spring for the fees, now upwards of $40,000, SLU is willing to forfeit almost all of the compensation they have been demanding (all but a few thousand) if Dr. Meyer quits the U. News forever. How can they expect us to believe this is anything but a campaign to eliminate their old nemesis? Only a few months ago, Fr. Biondi wrote of how essential this recompense would be as the school struggled to “stretch every dollar to fund scholarships, salaries and other expenses.” Now, it seems, DuBourg Hall would gladly forgo the purse—which was apparently needed desperately for paychecks and electricity bills!—so long as it can have its pound of flesh.

It used to infuriate me (and, yes, still does a little) that the administration has been so barbaric in its treatment of the U. News. (Although, I will say, if I learned nothing else in my ten years of Jesuit education, it was to revere power—and Fr. Biondi certainly has that! May his chest swell with pride when he thinks of how he and his team of full-time helpers repeatedly blitzed and bombarded one of the only student groups on campus that gives a damn about the affairs of Saint Louis University! You sure showed us what for!)

But I’m over that, more or less. And now I’m worried more as an alumnus than as a former editor. It’s sickening that the only time our alma mater is in the press is when it’s done something wrong. And, unlike Fr. Biondi, I don’t blame the news media for that; I blame the reckless behavior of the administration. Saint Louis University is beginning an age of great growth—and, yes, that is largely due to the leadership of Fr. Biondi. Why, then, are we allowing this petty personal scuffle to cloud these accomplishments and taint a name that more and more people are finally starting to respect?

Apparently the new arena and research building are not enough for our president. He sees his triumph not in the prosperity he ensures for the future of the SLU community, but in the professional tombstone of Avis Meyer, a man who more than 30 years of students and colleagues can attest is a model professor.

When Dr. Meyer first acquired the paper’s name, he did so with the best interest of the U. News in mind. He did it not for himself, but for everything that the U. News has stood for at SLU. He did it so there would continue to be an independent voice on campus. Opinions of Dr. Meyer vary, but almost everyone who knows him will admit that he’s fair and usually selfless to a fault. To persecute him like this goes against everything the University should stand for.

Perhaps, now that Fr. Biondi has fluffed his feathers and shown the greater St. Louis area who’s really boss, Dr. Meyer should pay some sort of fine. But to strip him of his family—and, yes, the U. News is his family—at a time in his career when most professors are thanked for their decades of service and allowed to savor a lifetime of accomplishments? It would be despicable.

Is this who we are at Saint Louis University? Is that how we show our appreciation for a professor who has taught generations of students, in the newsroom and the classroom, the value of critical thinking, accurate reporting, tireless editing, and clear and power writing? A man who is an example of hard work and selflessness, showing up every U. News production night like clockwork despite a full courseload and, until recently, a part-time job at the Post-Dispatch copy desk? A man who when he realized he had made a mistake owned up to it quickly and without all the moaning we hear so often when his counterpart in DuBourg Hall is criticized?

I’d like to think we are better than that, and that someone will be an adult and broker a reasonable compromise that appeases the University but lets Dr. Meyer keep the honor he has earned in his time at the U. News.

It is not too late to fix this situation and let all parties involved—most importantly, Saint Louis University itself—abide with their reputations intact. It is not too late, that is, but it might be very soon. And what will people think of our school then?

Andrew Ivers ’06

U. News Editor in Chief, 2004-2006

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