The Atlanta Inquirer

Albany PR Man Denies Discontent

Albany State College officials this week vigorously denied charges of unrest on the Albany campus made last week by a suspended student, Stanley William Jones, in an interview with an Inquirer reporter.

O. H. Brown, Director of Public Relations for the college, declared that "there is no unrest here, classes and all other routines are proceeding in a normal manner."

Brown, who said he was speaking for the administration of the institution, stated that Jones, a freshman who had been attending Albany State on a football scholarship, was one of the suspended students who had been readmitted.

"We were expecting him to return to the campus this week," he said.

Since the Board of Regents referred the student appeals to the college, all suspended students have been sent letters indicating the terms of readmission, Brown said.

In response to a question concerning the number who have been readmitted, Brown said he did not know.

"Of the 37 students suspended originally," Brown said, "35 were local students who lived off campus. We have 918 students here, 153 of them from Albany.

"Only a very small percentage of them were ever involved in any demonstrations after they went downtown twice and returned quietly to the campus when asked to do so."

Asked about reports from members of the Albany Movement that there was considerable faculty discontent and some possibility that a good many faculty members might leave, Brown stated, "You always have people leaving for one reason or another, but I doubt there will be any faculty members leaving because of discontent associated with the demonstrations and suspensions."

Brown said that school officials attribute many of the "misinterpretations concerning the college to people who have "personal reasons for wanting to get back at the school."

He charged that "they have used the newspapers and other media all over the country to misrepresent us."

He suggested that several Atlantans, including Preston York, Sr., at whose home Stanley Jones was living, have relatives attending Albany State who are "clearly not discontent."