University of Virginia Library

Class Attendance Falls
As Students Protest

By Bill Fryer
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Although classes were not formally
cancelled by the University yesterday,
many students chose to stay away from
class in support of the nationwide
Moratorium theme to suspend "business
as usual"

Likewise, many professors either
chose not to hold classes or at least make
them optional and not cover any material
vital to the course in their lectures
yesterday.

There were noticeable absences in almost
every undergraduate class as many students
chose to stay away to show their opposition to
the policies of the Nixon administration in
Vietnam.

The primarily first-year classes seemed to be
least affected by the Moratorium walkout. For
instance in Marcus Workman's Chemistry I
class, 90 per cent of the students attended as he
covered course material. Although Philip Best |

made his Psychology I class optional, approximately
65 per cent of the students were there.
On the other hand 90 per cent of the students
regularly attending Mr. Marshall's Philosophy I
class were absent.

Courses with large numbers of upperclass
students were more affected by large absences.
Most English courses were very poorly attended
- two students out of 40 in James Louck's
English 44 class. William Harbaugh, who
teaches U.S. Twentieth Century History,
encouraged students who were opposed to the
war to stay away. Only eight out his
seventy-two regular attending students came to
class. The story was the same elsewhere in the
College.

Many of the discussions in those classes that
were meeting centered around the problems
and issues generated by the war. In Howard
Hamilton's Biology I sections students hard
about the ROTC program and were given a
chance to ask about chemical and biological
warfare. Robert Wood's International Relations
class heard a guest lecture on the foreign policy
aspects of United States involvement in
Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

At least one professor. Frederick Morse of
the Engineering School, decided the Moratorium
did not merit the cancellation of his
scheduled quizzes in his sections of Mechanical
Engineering 487 and General Engineering 451.

Members of the Moratorium Committee
were busy in the morning putting up signs
encouraging students to come to the "Rally for
Peace" in front of the Rotunda. "Bring Home
the Troops" and "40000 Killed, 250,000
Maimed/Wounded" were representative of the
type of slogans which were on the placards.

Also members of the Committee were
distributing a sheet to the sparse number of
students around the Cabell and Wilson Hall area
to implore them to stay away from today's
classes to attend the Committee's protest
activities: "Those who participate in the
Moratorium will be interpreted as demanding
an end to the war or at least recognizing the
importance of discussing it. Those who go to
class today (regardless of intentions) will be
deemed as indicating unreserved support for the
Nixon Vietnam Policy and for the Continuation
of American Military Commitment to
the Thieu Ky Regime."