University of Virginia Library

Students Relay
Nixon Opinions

By Tom Jenks

" 'Why hasn't Nixon spoken on
Vietnam?' seems to be the main
campaign concern of students at
the University as well as of students
on campuses all over the country,"
said Jeffrey Laird, a representative
of the United Citizens for
Nixon-Agnew who visited the
University yesterday.

Mr. Laird and the University
Young Republicans co-sponsored a
"Speak to Nixon-Agnew" program
yesterday in which students and
faculty were invited to tape-record
messages, opinions, and questions
to Richard M. Nixon or Spiro T.
Agnew.

Mr. Laird said that the
University was chosen to be one of
the 28 schools in the program
because of its geographically
southern location, because it is a
men's school, because it is a state
university of higher than average
caliber, and because of the large
number of graduate and
professional students here.

Results

Concerning the results of the
program, Mr. Laird said, "Although
there has been less participation
here at rallies than at other schools,
we have collected better and more
meaningful tapes at the University
than at almost any other school. We
have achieved our best results here
and at Syracuse University.

"After their concern over the
war in Vietnam and Mr. Nixon's
stand on it, the students here are
worried about how Mr. Nixon
planned to unite dissident groups
and assure the rights of minority
groups in the United States," Mr.
Laird went on, and added that
these views were characteristic of
college students across the nation.

No One Favored

No one that visited Mr. Laird's
booth favored the present draft
system, but one student did
support some system of
compulsory military service. Most
people seemed to advocate a
volunteer army for the United
States.

Mr. Laird went on to say that
no one he talked to represented
strong, traditionally-southern
conservative, anti-civil rights views
and, in fact, that anyone who
mentioned race relations at all was
in favor of integration in one form
or another.

Mr. Orfield

One notable faculty member
who made a tape to the Republican
presidential candidates was Gary
Orfield, an associate professor of
government and foreign affairs at
the University. Mr. Orfield gained
public notice last summer when he
wrote two articles for The
Washington Post and one for The
New Republic magazine, all three
warning against the presidential
candidacy of George Wallace and
suggesting how to combat his
campaign. A supporter of Hubert
Humphrey, Mr. Orfield spoke out
for civil rights on the tape he
recorded. It might be noted here
that no one indicated support for
Mr. Wallace on the tapes.

The University is the only
school in the state that Mr. Laird
plans to visit; however, he does plan
to swing further into the South and
visit such schools as Duke, the
University of Texas and the
University of Miami.

Although Mr. Laird will visit
more southern schools than
northern ones, he has been to
various schools above the
Mason-Dixon Line. Among them
are Cornell, Syracuse, Fordham,
Pennsylvania State University,
Queens College, Boston University
and the University of Pennsylvania.

37 Tapes

There were 37 tape-recordings
made at the University yesterday,
as opposed to from 75 to 100 made
at most other schools. Mr. Laird did
not feel that the low number was
indicative of student apathy in
politics, but that it was
commensurate with the size of the
school. "Most of the schools
included in the program are quite a
bit larger than the University and,
consequently, a larger number of
tapes were made at those schools,"
said Mr. Laird. "We feel that the
program was quite a success here
and are very satisfied with the
results."

Photo by Tom Duncan

Student Records Question For Presidential Candidate

Vietnam Leading Issue At "Speak To Nixon-Agnew" Booth