The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, March 31, 1971 :: University of Virginia Library

The Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations of the Senate Committee
on Governmental Operations, whose report
followed a study of nine colleges and is
based on hearings held nearly two years
ago, is the same one from which Senator
Joseph R. McCarthy (D.-Wisc.) terrorized
the nation in the early fifties.

The latest charges were considerably more
temperate. While attacking SDS, the Black
Panthers and "others of similar philosophy" for
inciting disruptions, the report also chides
college administrators for failing to provide
"easy communication of grievances to persons
competent to act on these grievances."

'No Effect'

A staff member of a Senator on the
committee said that the report — coming as it
did after a more complete treatment of the
subject by the President's Commission on
Campus Unrest — is likely to have no effect at
all."

Three committee members filed additional
views calling the report outdated. Two — Jacob
K. Javits (R-N.Y.) and Charles Percy (R-Ill.) —
urged that it not be released at all.

The committee said of groups such as SDS
and the Panthers: "They do not want the issues
— the controversy — resolved. They seek to
agitate strong emotions and resulting violence
as vehicles for rebellion, revolution and
eventual destruction of the 'system.' "

'Travelling Organizers'

The report added that many disorders were
led and instigated by non-students and students
from other schools "travelling organizers and
fomenters of disruption and rebellion." It
noted that "the aims and tactics of local groups
often are patterned upon and are basically
identical with those of nationally known
militant and revolutionary organizations."

Administrators came under fire as well. "To
students who have attempted to find traditional
solutions and who have not engaged in
disorders," the committee said, "it frequently
appears that their college administrators have
succumbed to the effects of disruptions
generated by extremists...They have in too
many instances observed that the revolutionary
tactics of intimidation and violence produce
results."

Court Injunctions

Nonetheless, the report's recommendations
contain nothing stronger than a suggestion that
universities take pictures of riots and obtain
court injunctions against obstructive
demonstrations. The court injunction — not
used by the University and other schools before
the committee's hearing in July 1969 — has
become almost standard operating procedure
since then.

The University obtained an injunction last
Spring against the occupation of Maury Hall by
several hundred protesters following the fatal
shootings at Kent State University on May 4.

For its 1969 hearings, the committee
subpoenaed several leading university
administrators, including S.I. Hayakawa,
president of San Francisco State College, who
then told the committee his special secret for
handling disruptions: "When they said
the demands were non-negotiable, I took their
word for it and didn't negotiate."

In a minority view filed with the report.
Sen. Percy said that "it is clearly out of date,
has been overtaken by both events and superior
treatment of the subject, and might well make a
negative rather than a positive contribution. It
could well be charged that the Senate, by
issuing this report, simply does not understand
the issues involved."

'Additional View'

And in an "additional view," Sen. Abraham
Ribicoff (D-Conn.), who did not vote against
releasing the report, chastised it for failing to
see the problems in a larger focus.

"Universities are not the only institutions
under attack," Sen. Ribicoff said. "The family
is fragmenting, churches are said to be
irrelevant, and the government is stagnating."

But Mr. Ribicoff added later, "Student
dissent today merely reflects the suspicion
among the general populace that headless
horsemen are in the saddle leading us through
times of trouble and turmoil."

Chairman John L. McClellan (D-Ark.)
blamed the holdup in releasing the report on
members who delayed in making their
comments after its initial distribution in
January 1970. But a Senate aide said last week,
"that subcommittee has a track record of
holding hearings then years later releasing a
report."