On Campus: Blame Enough for All

AN elite presidential commission directed to find the underlying causes of campus disruptions completed its search last week and found some blame everywhere--in student bodies harnessing violence to dissent, in police adding brutality to law enforcement, and in a President who alone can provide the leadership to reunite a dangerously polarized nation.

In a 300-page report prepared under the chairmanship of former Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, a prominent Republican, the commission unavoidably announced its findings in the middle of an election campaign, with the certainty that the report itself will become part of the divisiveness it deplores. Republicans, led by Vice President Spiro Agnew, are campaigning hard on the law-and-order theme and have repeatedly identified Democrats with violence on the campus. But the commission--whose membership is predominantly Democratic--asked Richard Nixon to silence those who are trying to capitalize on the issue of campus unrest.

Set the Climate. Highlights of the commission's report:

> On presidential leadership: "We urge that the President exercise his reconciling moral leadership as the first step to prevent violence and create understanding. It is imperative that the President bring us together before more lives are lost and more property destroyed and more universities disrupted. We recommend that the President seek to convince public officials and protesters alike that divisive and insulting rhetoric is dangerous. In the current political campaign . . . the President should insist that no one play irresponsible politics with the issue of 'campus unrest' . . . Although it may not be easy for the President to communicate with some students, we are strongly of the opinion that the effort to do so will be of great benefit . . . Government leaders from the President on down should also recognize that their words and actions . . . help set the climate for law enforcement." The commission also told the President that to end campus disturbances and violence, "nothing is more important than an end to the war in Indochina."

> On violence: "Too many Americans have begun to justify violence as a means of effecting change or safeguarding traditions. We believe it urgent that Americans of all convictions draw back from the brink . . . Students who bomb and burn are criminals. Police and National Guardsmen who needlessly shoot or assault students are criminals. All who applaud these criminal acts share in their evil. We must declare a national cease-fire."

The commission pleaded for a clear separation in the public mind between "peaceful, orderly and lawful protest," which the university and society should tolerate and even encourage, and "violent and terroristic protest," which must be dealt with by the law.

> On the student protest movement: "Most of its members have high ideals and great fears . . . They see their elders trapped by materialism and competition, and prisoners of outdated social forms . . . They feel they must remake America in its own image. Less and less do students and the larger community seek to understand or respect the viewpoint and the motivations of the other. If this trend continues . . . the very survival of the nation will be threatened." The report also contained one pointed recommendation to students that might help make them "worthy of the mature treatment that they rightfully claim. The [college] administration is not always wrong," the commission admonished, "and more students must be willing to say so."

> On campus administrators: "At many universities today, students encounter little formal deterrence because university administrators and faculties have often failed to punish illegal acts . . . The university should . . . announce in advance what measures it is willing to employ in response to impermissible conduct."

In carrying out its presidential mandate, the commission also listed a number of steps that it said should be taken to diminish campus unrest. Among the commission's recommendations: removal from the campus of as much defense-related research as possible; replacement of the ROTC with an off-campus training program unrelated to campus life; added riot-control training for National Guardsmen and a policy limiting weapons in campus flare-ups to specially trained anti-sniper units; the preparation of contingency plans by college administrators who may face disorders.

No Comment. While the commission stressed national reunification, it seems inevitable that its emphasis on the role of the President and his chief lieutenants will receive the widest public attention because of its political implications.

The President made no comment on the report, saying that he has not yet read it. But two of his aides, Robert Finch and Patrick Moynihan, held an acrimonious press conference that produced little hope for a change in the political atmosphere. Questioned about some of Agnew's speeches, Finch said: "I'm not going to pass judgment on individuals. We're all free to say what we please." In a press conference of his own, Scranton himself appeared reluctant to go much beyond the wording of the report.

Add FBI Men. Even before the Scranton report was made public, the President had taken action on his own last week to clamp down on campus violence. In a move that meshed well with Republican campaign strategy, he asked Congress to add 1,000 FBI men to the existing force of 7,000 and make it a federal crime to bomb any "organization or institution receiving federal financial assistance"--a description fitting almost all colleges.

Despite Administration claims that the added force would be used for both campus investigations and antihijacking work, it was likely that most of the 1,000 new agents would actually become involved in anti-bookmaking investigations, which they would inherit under a provision of the omnibus crime bill now before Congress.

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