Rekindling the Cause

Though calm prevailed on most of the nation's campuses last week, student activists were hard at work. The work was directed toward making a success of "Moratorium Day," a massive nationwide antiwar protest scheduled for Oct. 15 (see THE NATION). The day is supposed to be marked by class boycotts, mass rallies, teach-ins, the distribution of leaflets and doorbell ringing to mobilize both town and gown sentiment for ending the Viet Nam war. A two-day demonstration is scheduled to follow on Nov. 14-15, with one day of protest added each successive month --an ambitious effort to build up a nationwide strike.

The movement is directed from the crammed Washington offices of the Viet Nam Moratorium Committee, which was organized over the summer by Sam Brown, 26, a former McCarthy campaign aide. Mainly a "goading agency," Brown's committee has left specific tactics to each of the 700 or so local campus chapters that have joined the movement so far. Many campus administrators were still undecided last week about how best to cope with the call for a moratorium.

Among the responses:

> The University of North Carolina will regard any disruption of classes on Oct. 15 as a violation of school policy. Faculty members will be allowed to participate in the antiwar protest activities on their own time "so long as participation does not conflict with the performance of validly assigned duties."

> Rutgers' President Mason W. Gross, who also heads the American Council on Education, promised to suspend all classes, and will conduct a discussion with students on the Viet Nam war.

> The University of Pennsylvania will be open on Moratorium Day, but teachers are free to call off their classes and students may decide whether to attend "as their consciences dictate."

> Columbia University's governing senate authorized students and faculty to join in the Oct. 15 activities "without penalty or prejudice," and issued a call for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Viet Nam. -- Berkeley took no official stance for or against. Moratorium sympathizers mobilized a wide segment of the political spectrum in their community, from McCarthyites to various radical groups. The Women for Peace will toll church bells all day long to commemorate the war dead; others are planning vigils at draft boards and induction centers. Speakers invited to address a mass rally include Coretta King, Dr. Benjamin Spock and Wayne Morse. The Berkeley City Council voted 5 to 4 to support the goals of the moratorium but decided against closing down city hall.

> San Francisco State's embattled President S. I. Hayakawa pondered an answer to a call by his teachers' union to suspend classes Oct. 15 "so that the entire college community can actively participate in the antiwar action planned for that day."

>Cornell's new president, Dale R. Corson, picked chiefly for his popularity with students and faculty, left it up to individual professors whether to hold classes. The boycott proposal has already been endorsed by the departments of psychology, chemistry and Romance studies, and moratorium organizers lined up a leading war critic, Republican Senator Charles Goodell of New York, as the speaker at a peace rally.

> The University of Kansas decided to approve any "peaceful protest," but the divided organizers could not agree on how to make use of their mandate. Sidewalks in the prairie town of Lawrence were chalked with "Oct. 15" and "Stop . . . Oct. 15" signs.

>Amherst College, whose official policy allows great freedom to express antiwar sentiments, produced a broadly based coalition planning a door-to-door canvass and rally in downtown Amherst. Several local clergymen promised to speak about the forthcoming event from the pulpit, and some merchants will demonstrate by shutting down their stores one hour early.

Moratorium Day is shaping up as a test of strength for antiwar feeling in the academic community. If the boycott succeeds, it may reveal whether the colleges can carry with them important segments of the population in demanding a speedy conclusion to the Viet Nam war.

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