Universities: A Convenient Retirement

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Students Come First. Just how much Kirk's retirement will ease tensions is not at all clear. The student Strike Coordinating Committee insists that its argument is with university policies, not personalities, and that "the board of trustees still remains in absolute control of our university." Acting President Cordier, however, seems sympathetic to some student complaints. He has told both administrators and professors that they must find the time to meet with students, even if it means curtailing "research work and off-campus commitments." But he also issued a sharp warning to the still defiant radicals: "There is no place for willful disruption at a university."

Critics could hardly object to his 16 years (1946 to 1962) of service as Under Secretary of the U.N., or to his 17 years as history and political science chairman at Indiana's Manchester College. But some dissidents still found absurdly farfetched excuses to attack Cordier's record. They noted sourly that he was Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold's special representative during the U.N.'s 1960 Congo operations. His hands, said the students, were bloody with the murder of Congo Rebel Patrice Lumumba. They also charged vaguely that he had supported CIA activities. Within an hour after Kirk's resignation, a small band of rebels was chanting a new battle cry: "Cordier must go! Cordier must go!"