Jon Dalton, vice president for student affairs, confirmed Friday that copies of the racially-derogatory newspaper, Thunderbolt, were mailed to students in four NIU residence halls last week.

Dalton said he talked Friday with John Felver, associate director of Student Housing Services. “Mr. Felver checked with the residence halls, and we have determined that four of them have received Thunderbolt. The paper was mailed bulk-rate and was addressed to individual students,” he said.

Dalton identified Grant Towers North and South as two of the residence halls to receive the newspaper. He said he was unsure of which two were the remaining halls involved.

Front-desk employees of Grant North and South, Douglas and Neptune said Thursday that envelopes fitting the description of those containing Thunderbolt were mailed to residents of those halls.

Felver could not be reached for comment.

Thunderbolt, which is edited by Dr. Edward R. Fields in Marietta, Ga., was found on Greek Row last fall. The distributors of the newspaper were not identified at that time.

Dalton said, “No more than ten copies of Thunderbolt were found in each of the residence halls identified (Friday).”

Elizabeth Wilson, a GTN senior staff member, said she had talked to the student who put Thursday’s mail in GTN residents’ mailboxes. “There seems to have been approximately 10 to 20 in Grant North,” she said.

Joanna Freda, an NIU student living off-campus, said she found a copy of Thunderbolt in her mail Thursday. However, Dalton said he had heard of no other off-campus findings.

Tom Zur, Interfraternity Council president, said Saturday he had heard of no distribution of the newspaper on Greek Row.

Dalton said, “We are wondering why and how the names of those students who received Thunderbolt were chosen. Right now, it appears as though someone had taken a phone book to just randomly pick names. Obviously someone is supplying some information about our students to whoever is mailing the papers, but we have no way of knowing who or how right now.”

He said there have been no similarities found among the Thunderbolt recipients that would indicate why they were singled out to the newspapers’ senders.

Dalton said students were angry they received the newspaper, which he said “provokes and offends many.”

DeKalb Postmaster R.J. Silverman said students who are offended by materials they receive in the mail can contact the post office to have the materials examined by the Postal Inspection Service.

University Legal Counsel George Shur agreed that people wishing to stop the mailing of Thunderbolt have few methods of doing so. “This is unsolicited mail, and the senders of such mail sometimes have mailing lists,” he said.

Shur said, who called the newspaper “absolutely outrageous,” said, “In this country we have the freedoms of speech and expression, and (allowing the distribution of Thunderbolt) is one of the prices we pay to keep those freedoms,” Shur said.

He said, “People like the editor of Thunderbolt have a knack for walking the fine line between protected and unprotected mail.”

Larry Robertson, Student Association minority relations adviser, said his office had received “a couple” of complaints from angry Thunderbolt recipients.

Robertson said he wants angry students to write letters to Fields, expressing their displeasure. He also said students who received the newspaper should call the NIU discrimination hotline “so we can see its effectiveness.”

He said, “I want everyone who got a copy of Thunderbolt to bring it to my office. I will send the papers back.”

Robertson said, “It’s not an issue because students can still get Thunderbolt in the library here.” He said he was concerned that offensive materials such as Thunderbolt are available in NIU’s Founder’s Memorial Library.

Last semester, Robertson campaigned to have Thunderbolt removed from the library.

Carroll Varner, assistant director Technical Services at Founder’s, said the library “ran Thunderbolt through an academic screening process” when Robertson made his complaint in the fall.

“Faculty members in the library consult with faculty in the various departments on whether to cancel any materials,” he said.

Varner said, “A university is a place for academic questioning, where all questions are considered. We have to recognize that giving both sides of an issue will offend someone. But we think censorship is as scary as racism.