Strife at St. John's

St. John's University in New York City is the largest Roman Catholic school in the U.S. (enrollment: 13,125). Academically, it has never ranked high among Catholic schools; in troubles, it outdoes them all. Last week many of its teachers were in open revolt against the administration, police guarded the gates of its Queens campus, and the university faced a strike by both professors and students when classes resume next week.

The blame for the crisis is not onesided. A tough, paternalistic administration has for years done little to improve faculty salaries, denied teachers any real voice in policy decisions. But many faculty members, led by two teachers' groups, have recently undertaken a campaign of harassment against the school, refusing to wait for reforms promised by the university's new president, the Very Rev. Joseph T. Cahill.

No Freedom. Operated by the Vincentian Fathers, a congregation noted more for missionary work than scholarship, St. John's has a full-time faculty of 510. About 60 are priests (40 of them Vincentians); most of the rest are Catholic laymen--competent teachers generally but few with national reputations. Even by the standards of other Catholic schools, St. John's teachers were for many years an underprivileged lot. Partly because St. John's has only a small endowment and 90% of its income derives from student fees, faculty pay is the lowest of the ten largest Catholic universities.

According to the teachers, academic freedom at St. John's is heavily restricted. Philosophy professors complain that the school insists upon a narrow, dogmatic approach to Thomism, using Aquinas only to criticize other thinkers. The university insists on the right to clear all articles and books to be published by faculty members.

Self-Study. Last March 200 teachers walked out of a faculty meeting in protest over low salaries. After the walkout came a mass demonstration of support by students, which stung the trustees into ordering an ambitious self-study of the university. The report urged a sharp hike in salaries, more lay representation on the clergy-dominated board, creation of an advisory faculty council. To carry out the reforms, the board last July brought in Father Cahill, who had been president of the Vincentians' Niagara University.

The good beginning was not enough for the two faculty organizations that had set up shop to negotiate-with the administration for professorial rights. The 100-member local of the United Federation of College Teachers, .and a branch of the American Association of University Professors representing 200 professors (many teachers belong to both) took turns badgering the administration. The teachers' union opened a drive to win collective bargaining for the faculty, a right that no U.S. university grants. The A.A.U.P. set deadlines for the trustees to act on changes recommended by St. John's new faculty council. Impatient for reforms, 18 philosophy professors--with the intent of embarrassing the university--ran an ad in the New York Times saying that they were seeking new jobs.

"A Purge." Fed up, Father Cahill fired at least 31 teachers, effective next summer; 23 of them, members of the teachers' union, were immediately suspended from classroom duties. Among them was the Rev. Peter O'Reilly, a philosophy teacher and head of the union. The faculty reaction was predictable. Many teachers indicated that they will quit if the dismissals are carried out, and Francis Souer, a chemistry professor who was not fired, called Cahill's action "a purge of liberal Catholicism." The teachers' union, backed by the students, called for a faculty strike.

Pledging that there would be "no interruption of the educational process" at St. John's, Father Cahill last week announced a new faculty senate to advise on policy. He bitterly condemned the fired professors for "unprofessional conduct," and for issuing "libelous and slanderous statements" about St. John's. He also pointed out, sensibly enough, that it is the job of the administration to run a university, and that no board of trustees can simply rubber-stamp anything a faculty demands. There is academic freedom at St. John's, he insisted, and it is necessary. But, he added, "freedom without responsibility becomes license."

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