Education: Universities: A New Balance of Power

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The students approved a list of tough new stands, including abolition of ROTC; no further university expansion without the consent of citizens facing dislocation; establishment of a student-faculty committee to recommend changes in Harvard's government; and direct election of the corporation by students, faculty and alumni. The students also backed a new demand by Negro undergraduates that Harvard's infant black-studies program be made more "meaningful." Then they voted to continue their strike for three more days.

The professors, many of whom were annoyed because the administration did not consult them before ordering in the police, spoke at two faculty meetings broadcast live on WHRB, the student radio station. In the presence of Pusey and Arts and Sciences Dean Franklin L. Ford,* the professors agreed on the make-up of a faculty-student committee to review Harvard's governing process. The faculty also supported the conclusions of a report on expansion prepared by Professor of Government James Q. Wilson at the administration's request and issued last December. Among the conclusions reached by Wilson's committee: Harvard should establish a powerful new administrative position, that of vice president for external affairs. Two days later, the professors voted overwhelmingly that Harvard should abandon all official ties with ROTC and no longer allow it any special privileges or facilities on campus.

End of the Strike. At week's end, the students reconvened in Soldiers Field and agreed to suspend their strike for seven days. The faculty's resolution on ROTC had removed the sting from that issue—though not as far as the extremists were concerned; they set up a mock graveyard, planting wooden crosses in front of University Hall. Shortly before the students met, the corporation had given them further encouragement by announcing that it would strip ROTC of all but extracurricular status. The corporation was also trying to persuade the Cambridge courts to drop criminal charges against most of the students arrested in the bust, and it promised to find housing for families dislocated by Harvard Medical School expansion.

Neither students, faculty nor administration could claim a clear-cut victory in the Harvard strike. Student radicals had to admit that their demands were not fully met. The decisions of the administration had been repudiated by moderate students and faculty alike. What did seem clear was that Harvard's students and professors were demonstrating their ability to influence the university's future. The brightness of that future depends largely on how well the academic community of Harvard, with its long-established tradition of teaching, has learned the lessons of its very recent past.