Education: A Healer for Columbia

Would Columbia University succumb to anarchy? The question was real enough in the tumultuous spring of 1968 after the student rebellion had paralyzed the Morningside Heights campus. The situation called for a skilled negotiator, a man expert at the resolution of conflicts. Such a man emerged from the law-school faculty. Overnight, Professor Michael I. Severn, 36, found himself struggling to reunite and reform the badly shaken university. Last week the trustees rewarded Severn's largely successful efforts by naming him to succeed William C. Warren as dean of Columbia Law School.

Valid Process. In helping to heal Columbia after the 1968 crisis,...