Letter sheds new light on mag removal

A letter sent over two years ago is the cause of serious disagreement in the controversial removal and dumping of materials belonging to The Red and Blue Friday night. The issues and volumes -- with an estimated total value of over $100,000 -- were removed from their storage space in Irvine Auditorium by members of Penn Musicians Against Homelessness and Houston Hall employees. Many of the materials are thought to have had historical value. In a letter dated February 19, 1993, the Office of Student Life told groups that had had space in Irvine the previous year that applications for space renewal were due March 5, 1993. Student Life Director Fran Walker said The Red and Blue did not reapply for space. The letter states that student organizations failing to apply to renew space must remove all of their property by July 1, 1993. "Any materials left in the offices of departing groups will be considered abandoned and your organization will be billed for their removal," it states. Walker said the Houston Hall Board had a right to order the removal of the materials. "So far as anyone in the office or the Houston Hall Board knew, The Red and Blue wasn't in the office since the spring of '93," Walker said. But The Red and Blue Editorials Editor and College junior Thor Halvorssen said the Office of Student Life cannot prove the letter was sent or received. "We have no record of the letter ever being received," Halvorssen said. "They have no record that proves the letter was sent." But Walker said she believes the letter was sent. "It's sent to everybody -- it's routine," she said. "Do we have actual, provable, O.J. evidence that they sent it? I don't know. But there's no reason they shouldn't have." Halvorssen also questioned why the removal occurred when it did. "We cannot understand why the Office of Student Life would act two years late on something they say should have been done in 1993," he said."At any time they could have informed us of our 'illegal status.' They did not do so." He added that the fact that the decision was based on a "letter that is more than two years old laughable." Walker said the fact that the current Red and Blue editorial board was not in place in early 1993 did not obligate the Houston Hall Board to contact the magazine's current Editor-in-Chief, College junior Christopher Robbins. "We would have had no reason to notify Christopher Robbins because The Red and Blue wasn't supposed to be there," Walker said. In a statement released yesterday, Halvorssen made a formal request to Director of Special Collections of the University Libraries, Michael Ryan, "to place any and all surviving issues of The Red and Blue into protective custody immediately."

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