University of Virginia Library

Shannon Bars Cancellation
Of October 15 Classes

By Peter Shea
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

In a letter to Student Council
President Bud Ogle, President Shannon
has announced that the University will
not cancel classes in support of the
moratorium for the Vietnam War on
October 15.

President Shannon was asked by Mr.
Ogle at the request of the Council to
consider the possibility of official action
by the University to cancel classes for the
moratorium.

Provost, Deans Advise

Mr. Shannon's letter explained that: "I have
requested the advice of the Provost...and of the
Deans; and I have taken into account the views
and thoughts of a number of the members of
the University - students, administrative
officers, and faculty - which have been
expressed to me."

In supporting his decision, the President
said: "The University has an obligation to
maintain an atmosphere in which all views can
be expressed, in which individuals can oppose
the war or defend it, or advocate various means
of ending it, as a matter of academic and
intellectual freedom.

Obligation

"For the University to suspend classes or to
encourage its faculty to suspend classes in
support of a position on these issues would be
inconsistent with this obligation.

"The University will therefore adhere to its
established academic calendar on October 15,"
the President decided.

"The issues of the war in Vietnam, which
are proposed to be discussed on October 15, are
of grave concern to every one of us," the letter
admitted. "This seems to be the feeling of
Student Council, and I share it.

"While individuals as citizens are free, and
even have an obligation in a republic, to express
their views and to participate in lawful means
of making their views known to their elected
representatives in the national government, a
university is not a political institution, and the
personal views of the President, or of the
faculty members, or of the students on national
issues should not determine university policies.

"The educational objectives of the University
of Virginia, I believe, are seriously
endangered to the extent that it allows its
policies and official actions to be shaped in
accordance with political aims of the sort that
are sought to be mobilized for that day.

Sustain Ideals

"If the University is to remain a community
in which the ideals of freedom of inquiry and
expression are sustained, then it cannot as an
institution respond to political pressures for
specific political causes, however worthy."

Mr. Shannon stressed that students are still
able to participate in the moratorium on their
own.

"Individual students are, of course, free - as
they always are - to make their own decisions
in the light of their academic duties and ethical
responsibilities. It would be as wrong for me to
attempt to interfere with this freedom as it
would be for me to announce a University
position on the morality of the war."

Reaction to the President's decision was
varied.

Speaking for himself, John Israel of the
History Department and a strong advocate of
the moratorium said that the President's
decision "doesn't bother me."

'Sufficiently Concerned'

"The students and faculty are sufficiently
concerned that we will observe the moratorium
whether a class suspension is decreed by the
President or not," he explained.

Mr. Israel disagreed with the President's
claim that if the University took a stand on the
moratorium issue, it would be violating its
political neutrality.

Mr. Israel said that the University had
already "surrendered its neutrality by sponsoring
a ROTC program. The University has as
much right to prepare for freedom as for war,"
he said.

Councilman Charles Murdock felt that the
President's move was "for the better." He
explained that "the goal was not to convince
Mr. Shannon to support the moratorium; the
goal is convince all the students and the
University community to work with the rest of
the community to support it."

President 'Removed'

Council Vice-President Paul Hurdle reacted
differently. "I can't believe that President
Shannon is so far removed from the activity at
this and other colleges," he said.

Another Councilman questioned whether
the President was actually insuring the right to
discuss the issues involved in the war. He
compared the President's decision not to cancel
classes to the decisions made in Germany by
Adolph Hitler to disallow discussion of politics
in the German universities.