Students: It Runs in the Family

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In theory, the most embarrassed Americans these days are the parents of student activists. Their own children — leaders in campus rebellions across the country — have been denounced by public officials who range from state legislators right up to the President of the U.S. Campus disorder is topic Among businessmen, at cocktail parties, on editorial pages — and the tone is 99% disapproving. But are the parents really unhappy?

Yes — to the extent that publicity hurts their families. When the press names student leaders, for example, some fathers receive hate mail, lose business orders or feel subtle disapproval by employers. Some fathers are also public officials, an extra burden. The presence of the son of Air Force Secretary Robert C. Seamans Jr., at the recent Harvard sit-in, for instance, was widely noted in press accounts. Like other prominent men in this situation, Seamans refuses to discuss the matter. Equally upset are the parents of some first-generation college students, including poor Negroes, who are baffled when their children seem to reject the grail — a middle-class education.

Help from Home. Even so, a surprisingly large number of parents contacted by TIME reporters are far from angry at the rebels. Of those willing to talk, a majority approved their children's goals but opposed the use of violence, partly because they favor peaceful campus reform and partly because they worry greatly about their children's safety. Contrary to much theory about the activists' psychological motives, there seems to be little or no generational conflict within such families. Most are very close. In fact, many of the rebels first acquired their liberal ideals from their parents, and have simply taken those ideals a step farther—in some cases, quite a few steps farther.

Many studies have shown that the majority of student activists come from upper-middle-class families of liberal stripe. In a survey of 50 student activists at the University of Chicago last year, Sociologist Richard Flacks found that their parents tended to be highly permissive, intellectual and well-educated; 45% were Jewish (TIME, May 3, 1968). According to Bernice Neugarten, another Chicago sociologist, many activists "seem to be carrying out the family value system [of liberalism] in ways that reflect the 1960s instead of the 1940s." She calls them "new chips off the old block."

"Really Delighted." Not only do most campus rebels get implicit support from their parents in the form of money for college costs, but some also receive explicit endorsement for their activism. "I'm quite certain that if I were 23 or 24, I'd be out there with the students," says Novelist Laura Z. Hobson (Gentleman's Agreement), whose son was among the 42 rebels expelled after last winter's sit-in at the University of Chicago. Using newspaper advertisements, Mrs. Hobson is helping to conduct a parental protest campaign against the expulsions, which she denounces as "overkill" in reaction to a nonviolent dissent.