'Red and Blue' returns to publication

After a nearly two-semester hiatus, The Red and Blue -- Penn's "non-partisan journal of ideas and chronicle of events" -- is back with a vengeance. This semester's issue, which appeared all over campus yesterday, features articles condemning affirmative action, criticizing the University's dormitory renovation plans and questioning the policy of giving housing space on Locust Walk to student groups instead of fraternities. It features the original editorial from the first issue, published in 1889, as well as a mission statement proclaiming the right-leaning magazine's intention to "rescue? the intellectually barren landscape of our campus." The magazine had not appeared all semester because its then-editor-in-chief, ironically, was not as conservative as the magazine. The 110-year-old Red and Blue vanished last semester when College sophomore and former editor-in-chief Jeff Hill said he couldn't justify spending the University's money to put out views he couldn't morally defend. "In working for the magazine last year, I became well aware that it was largely ignored on campus," Hill explained. "It has a horrible reputation for being a mouthpiece of the right and saying nothing of substantive interest to the community at large." Hill said he felt the magazine -- which is currently completely funded by the Student Activities Council -- was politically biased and catered to the interests of too few students to justify its publication with SAC funding. "I knew it was a right-leaning magazine? but I wasn't aware of the lack of gentility and the vulgarity that have earned The Red and Blue its reputation as a purveyor of right-wing demagoguery and hate," Hill said, adding that he had hoped to turn the magazine into a "journal that would be read and respected for risk-taking, not toe-stepping." But Hill said he did not receive the necessary support from previous editorial boards to follow through with his vision for the magazine. He had an issue prepared earlier this semester but decided not to publish it because of its heavy political bias and poor quality of writing. But now, a new editorial board has revived the defunct publication. Engineering sophomore Andrew Bressler, who serves as the magazine's new editor-in-chief, said The Red and Blue -- though it holds true to its conservative ways -- "does not intentionally shut out any viewpoints." In fact, Bressler --Ewhose older brother Michael, a Wharton and Engineering senior, ran the magazine last year -- maintained that the magazine's goal is to create "a forum for the debate of campus issues." But he admitted that because "other publications already represent more liberal viewpoints, when The Red and Blue asks for all viewpoints, we get more from those who are underrepresented -- the conservatives." And without question, The Red and Blue's conservative bent does appeal to many students, including College sophomore Dan Amiram, one of the magazine's officers. "Last year when I was a freshman I would pick it up and I agreed with a lot of what they were saying," Amiram said. "I really liked what they were trying to do so I decided to contribute an article."

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