Dealing with Disruption

Even to a nation which is becoming accustomed to news of campus unrest, it was a week to be worried about. In addition to the turmoil at Harvard, there were sit-ins or strikes at Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Atlanta, Kent State in Ohio, Queens College in New York, Mount St. Mary's in Maryland, Albright College in Pennsylvania, Southern University in Louisiana. The potential dangers from continuing disorders at U.S. schools was brought into sharp relief when the American Council on Education, which represents 1,500 institutions and associations of higher learning, issued a stern four-page warning to the universities. "The academic community," the Council said, "has the responsibility to deal promptly and directly with the disruptions."

Realistic Codes. The statement was drafted by a small group of university heads and foundation officials, including Nathan Pusey of Harvard and Father Theodore Hesburgh of Notre Dame. It conceded that there were legitimate causes for student alienation, but deplored the "cult of irrationality and incivility" that has developed, warned that students who violate the law "must be prepared to accept the due processes and the penalties of the law."

The educators feared that "if universities will not govern themselves they will be governed by others." The current wave of student unrest, unless solved by the schools, could lead to backlash legislation that would be harmful to the universities. Thus the Council urged its member institutions to carry on with curriculum reform and develop a more open pattern of governance, and to create realistic disciplinary codes in cooperation with students and faculty. Police action may sometimes be necessary, the report noted, but it is better that universities "deal with disruptive situations" before it becomes necessary to bring in the forces of the law.

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