Teaching and administration often is clearly separate on higher education campuses; twain seldom meet. One area precludes this notion: The teaching of student journalists to effectively deal with and report on actions of public officials. On most campuses, first encounter by an inexperienced budding journalist begins with a walk to administration building. Here are people operating mechanism by which functions. Campus officials figure significantly in journalist's experience and education. They are teachers in this role, regardless of any preparation for its challenges. As conveyers of information, administrator's role is crucial to success of student reporter, to perception of student newspaper, and to image of public officials occupying administration and other buildings on campus. How these factors converge can heavily influence an administration's posture toward newspaper. Operating under First Amendment, censorship appears precluded. However, certain actions remain possible to inhibit flow of information that democracy demands. Administrators seeking to cut higher education budgets have examined duplication of journalism and mass communications program content. They raise questions of a program's centrality to university missions, and an absence of visible, effective leaders from these programs (Beasley, July 1994 and September 1994; Dennis, 1994). No other university department of study or activity produces, with such regularity and finality, evidence of its work. Even if others did, seldom would they directly involve, quote, or misquote very people at highest level of authority. This study examines administrators' perceptions of treatment by student reporters, how respondents' views as sources differ, and what journalism teachers, student newspaper advisers, and interested administrators might learn from these findings. Literature review Student journalists routinely interview and quote collegiate administrators for campus-based news stories; however, role of these administrators as news sources apparently has not been examined. Researchers have studied some aspects of college media (Bodle, 1993a; Adams, Bodle and Nanney, 1993; and Jasinski,1994), but apparently no one has examined college administrators' views of accuracy, bias or saliency of student newspapers. College daily newspapers rely on campus-oriented news, with 40 percent of their total coverage coming from administrative functions, faculty senate meetings, student government proceedings, and actions of other governing bodies. Extracurricular student club meetings, social functions, physical plant, and academic honors comprise another 18.5 percent (Gibson, 1991). Sources, knowing neither reputations nor reliability of student interviewers, become wary and less cooperative after a bad experience. Misquoted professors or administrators not only have long memories, they have more permanence on than any student reporter (Moore, 1992). Academic journals and trade publications may enhance administrators' aggravation with collegiate journalists and their newspapers. Educational Record and Chronicle of Higher Education have published unflattering stories about collegiate newspapers or suggested ways to manage them better (Martindale, 1983; Hirschorn, 1987; Biemiller, 1989). On other hand, Peter Flawn (1990), former president of University of Texas, wrote that presidents would not want to lead a university that did not have a student newspaper. Student publications add life, color, and excitement to campus (p.100). Also, he noted, sardonically, First Amendment rights extend to the most childish and sophomoric student Administrators may hold perception that these newspapers contain reporting and writing inferior to that of professional publications. …