On the evening of Wednesday, 26th June, 1968, while my Hall Council was in session, the attention of members was drawn to a number of obscene articles and scurrilous attacks against various Hall Officers and members of staff in the latest issue of our students’ magazine, the Siren, which had appeared that very day. The Council felt that the articles, especially the obscene ones, were so bad that immediate steps should be taken to withdraw the entire issue of the Siren from circulation and thus save the good name of the Hall. Unfortunately, we were unable to get the President of the Junior Common Room, but we summoned the Editor and the Editor-in-Chief of the paper to the meeting and told them what we felt about their publication. They agreed that many of the articles were obscene and that a number of the attacks against the Hall authorities were unfounded. It was pointed out to them that their offence in publishing such obscenities was serious enough to warrant dismissal from the University, but that the Council would take a lenient view of their offence provided they made a genuine effort to withdraw as many copies as possible of the paper from circulation and issued an apology to all readers. They agreed to do as the Council requested and left the meeting. The Council did not genuinely intend to pursue the matter further provided the two students did what they were told and we had every belief that they would comply.

At 12.30 p.m. the following day while I was at home I heard shouting and singing in the direction of Mensah Sarbah Hall. Shortly afterwards, the Head Porter rang to tell me that the students of the Hall were marching in procession towards my house, but he could not tell me why. In due course I heard and saw them marching along the road leading to my house and singing a rather vulgar song, “Daa daa nkwasiasem”, which I regret to say has become all too fashionable among students on this campus when they are demonstrating. I met them just outside the entrance to my house and asked what this was all about. Mr. E. Kenneth Andoh, President of the J.C.R., came forward and handed me a document which he said was an apology from the J.C.R. for the obscene articles which had appeared in the Siren and asked me to read it. I glanced very quickly through the document and realised that although the first two paragraphs did represent an apology, the rest consisted of a list of complaints which the students had to make about the running of the Hall. One of these was directed against a Tutor whom apparently they wanted to see dismissed. By this time Mr. E.0. Dodoo, Senior Assistant Registrar, had arrived at my house and taken his place by my side as I faced the students formed up above on my drive. I said a few words to the students about the concern of the Hall authorities for their welfare and assured them that we would look into all their grievances.

I also assured them that the Hall had no intention of dealing arbitrarily with the Editors of the Siren. I explained, however, that I could not answer their petition in detail there and then, because I needed to consult my Hall Council as well as the Senior Tutor and other Tutors. Although their conduct at my house was not too bad, there were a number of rude interruptions while I spoke to them and some of them apparently shouted at the Head Porter and pelted him with stones when they discovered that he had followed them to my house. A number of them also called for the removal of the Senior Tutor although this point was not seriously pressed. At one point when I threatened to resign as Master if this was what they wanted they insisted that this was not so and urged me to remain. After assuring them again that we would look into their complaints. I dismissed them.

I had thought that after my assurances, they would return quietly to the Hall. However, they made their way back as noisily as they had come, and I understand that when they arrived at the Hall some of them rushed to the kitchen and demonstrated with shouts and abuses against the cooks and domestic staff. They tried to force their way into the kitchen itself but were held back by the secretary to the Food Committee.

That evening I summoned an emergency meeting of my Hall Council and requested all members of the J.C.R. Committee and the Editorial Board of the Siren to appear. Not all came, but the President himself, Mr. E. Kenneth Andoh, the Editor-in-Chief, Mr. J.K. Clottey and the Editor. Mr. J.E. Bawah and a few others, including one or two “friends” of the J.C.R. Committee invited by the President attended. The President of the J.C.R. insisted that the aim of the demonstration had not been to present a protest but rather to offer an apology for the obscene articles which appeared in the Siren. Although we pointed out to him and the other students that this could not be so in view of the way in which the resolution had been presented and also because a large portion of its contents consisted of anything but an apology, the President and the other students insisted that their intention had been to offer an apology in support of the apology published by the Editors of the Siren. We questioned all the ac students together at great length for several hours about the events of the past 24 hours and then decided to adjourn since term was ending the next day. One of the things we tried to establish, but without much success, was the authorship of the obscene articles. When the Hall Council saw the Siren the previous day we did not realise that one page was missing. By the time of this second meeting members had seen that page which consisted of cartoons, one of which was very obscene indeed. This cartoon represented  a woman student in bed, and in a separate part of the page was a very obvious drawing of the female genitals. We tried as hard as we could to establish the authorship of this cartoon but without success.The two editors were prepared to disclose the author of the other cart but in the case of this one they stated that they preferred to accept responsibility themselves.

A week later the students who had by then dispersed for the long vacation, were again summoned to appear before an emergency meeting of the Hall Council and the Tutorial Board to answer questions. It was a very long meeting and the students were questioned collectively and individually. At the end the Council and the Tutorial Board decided on disciplinary action to be taken against the persons responsible for the trouble.

What emerged from our two meetings with the students was briefly as follows: At the time the Hall Council first summoned the Editor ani the Editor-in-Chief, a student get-together was in progress in the dining hall, which adjoins our meeting place. It appears that after leaving us these two students conveyed the impression to other students that they were in danger of being dismissed from the University and that they had been ordered to withdraw copies of the Siren from circulation and issue an apology. The two students themselves summoned as many members of the Editorial Board as possible and proceeded to work on their apology. At the and to arrange for the recall of the original issue of the Siren. same time the secretary of the J.C.R. Committee having heard about the matter, convened an emergency meeting of the Committee and a decision was taken to bring the whole matter to the attention of the junior members of the Hall so that they might consider what steps to take to prevent the two editors from being dismissed as the Hall authorities had supposedly threatened. Later, the President of the J.C.R., who had been out of the Hall, joined the meeting and he decided that the J.C.R. should be informed immediately. He and the Secretary therefore went to the dance hall and he announced over the microphone to the hearing of all present, including students from other Halls, that the Hall authorities had objected to the latest issue of the Siren and the Editor and the Editor-in-Chief had asked to recall all copies. He went on to say that a meeting of the J.C.R. would be held to consider the matter early the following morning.

It is noteworthy that although we questioned the President of the J.C.R. at great length at our two emergency meetings on his actions between the time he first heard about the Council’s decision and the time the students came to my house, he never once told us that he made such an announcement publicly in the dining hall during the students’ dance on Wednesday night. We only got this vital piece of information from the Secretary of the J.C.R., who disclosed it and only when the President was confronted with this information did he admit that he made such an announcement. He attributed his failure to inform us about this himself to an oversight. The following morning, the students met as had been arranged and appointed a committee consisting of the J.C.R. Secretary four other students to prepare a resolution to be presented to the Master at his house by the entire student body after lunch that day. The Pres of the J.C.R. stated that he had wanted only a small delegation to go to the Master’s house, but that he was overruled by a majority of the J.C.R.. The drafting sub-committee, which was convened by the Secretary of the J.C.R., prepared the resolution, got the President to sign it on behalf of the student body, and then cyclostyled copies for almost all junior members of the Hall. Copies were also intended for the Vice-Chancellor and the Tutors of the Hall but somehow these were subsequently withdrawn. At lunch time the President read out the resolution in the dining hall to the student body and, we are informed, announced that after the meal they should all march solemnly to the Master’s house to present it. No sooner, however, had the procession started than it got out of hand and became a disorderly mob. According to the President he tried to control the procession but was unsuccessful, so he proceeded to lead it to my hours.

The view of the Hall Council and the Tutorial Board is that a very serious case of misrepresentation, possibly malicious, took place following our first meeting with the Editor and the Editor-in-Chief. Somehow the student body was informed that the Hall Council intended to dismiss the two editors at all costs, thus creating the impression that their intervention was necessary in order to save the two men. We could not establish who was responsible for this serious distortion. We suspect that the two editors in their fright probably gave a somewhat distorted account of their meeting with the Hall Council to some other students. We also suspect that the J.C.R. Committee, hearing the story, felt that this was much too good an opportunity to miss and added some colour to it for the purpose of arousing the entire student body and rallying them behind the Editorial Board since they themselves were obviously in agreement with, if not indeed the brains behind, some of the attacks which the Siren contained against the Hall authorities. Even so, the editors proceeded to comply with the Council’s request. There was no need whatsoever for the rest of the student body to hold a meeting to decide on any further action. The decision to hold such a meeting was taken by the J.C.R. Committee led by the President and the Secretary. To make things worse, the matter was announced publicly at a dance in the presence of students from other Halls, thus creating the kind of electric atmosphere bound to lead to trouble. Again, the J.C.R. Committee appears not to have exerted itself particularly hard to avoid the entire student body marching to the Master’s house. If the rest of the committee, like the President, disliked the idea of a procession, they could have dissociated themselves from the march or at least informed the Master in advance. However, they did nothing of the sort and meekly joined the march. Again, the language of the resolution was most intemperate, and yet the President accepted it and read it out to the entire student body in the dining hall circum…. which were bound to arouse feelings. The plain fact of the matter is that in the course of the term the President and his committee had m a number of unreasonable and intemperate demands from the Hall author which could not obviously be met, and they no doubt felt that this resolution gave them an excellent opportunity for returning to the …

In view of the foregoing we consider that the President of the J.C.R. and the Secretary primarily, and the other members of the J.C.R Committee, to a lesser extent, must be held responsible for the march to my house.

The two editors and the rest of the Editorial Board must also bear a large share of the responsibility. If the two editors had genuinely felt sorry for their action in publishing the obscenities and misrepresentations complained of by the Council, they would have proceeded simply to do as the Council had requested without getting involved in the demonstrations. As it was, they participated fully in the march to the Master’s house and did not apparently do anything to correct the impression conveyed to the rest of the student body that Council was more or less determined to expel them. The very obscene cartoon, to which I have already referred was drawn by the Editor-in-Chief Mr. J.K. Clottey, according to his own admission made after our first meeting to me and later to the Hall Council and the Tutorial Board. The Editor, Mr. J.E. Bawah, only wrote some of the leading articles. But we feel that all members of the Editorial Board, except Mr. Rex Apau and Mr. C.K. Sekyi, who did not see any of the articles before the issue appeared and did not take part in the procession, must be held responsible in varying degrees for the obscenities as well as the scurrilous attack and misrepresentations directed against the Hall authorities. But the people who are most guilty are the Editor-in-Chief and the Editor. In the light of the above findings the Council and the Tutorial Board he a decided to recommend disciplinary action as follows for the leading characters in this episode. The rest of the student body, especially those who participated in the demonstration, also deserve punishment but because of the large numbers involved and the difficulty of identify those concerned it is not possible to administer such punishment. propose, however, to consider other methods of dealing with them when they return into residence next term.

• Mr. E. Kenneth Andoh  (President of the Junior Common Room): To be suspended for one term and made to lose credit for a whole year’s work
• Mr. E.K. Amankwata (Secretary of the Junior Common Room): To be suspended for one term and made to lose credit for a whole year’s work.
• Mr. J.K. Clottey (Editor-in-Chief of the Siren): This student has just taken his final degree and is therefore not amenable to suspension. We therefore recommend that his degree result, if he is successful, should be withheld for one academic year. If he is unsuccessful, he will not be allowed to return into residence and the Hall will consider what further action to take.
• Mr. J.E. Bawah (Editor of the Siren):  To be suspended for one term and made to lose credit for a whole year’s work.

Other members of the J.C.R.Committee and the Editorial Board of the Siren, except those who did not take part in the procession of the Master’s house or in the drafting of the resolution. The Council felt that these should all be suspended for 27 days, just one day short of the permissible 28 day limit, and made to pay a fine of N₵10.00 each. I feel; however, that in view of the large numbers involved and the need to avoid turning too many people into martyrs it would be better simply to issue a very strong warning to these people and allow them to return into residence.

E.A. Boateng
Master.
9/7/68

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