University of Virginia Library

To The Editor

'Academic Hind Tit'

It should have surprised absolutely
no one to fine the Department
of Government and Foreign Affairs
sucking the academic hind tit in its
non-response to the current
national and local crises. With the
notable exception of individual
faculty members who have made
great efforts over the past week, the
very department that by definition
should be the most actively concerned
with the direction of this
nation's domestic and foreign policies
has sat dumbly silent. If,
indeed, silent implies consent, then
the department must be found
guilty of complicity in current
governmental and state police policies.

At a time when the nation and
the university cry out for effective
and responsive leadership, the abdication
of responsible action on
the part of the Department of
Government and Foreign Affairs is
all the more starkly obvious and
deplorable. To be in the "van"
these days may mean a ride to the
police station; hopefully, it should
also mean that a department that
aspires to national prominence will
begin assert enlightened leadership
on the local level.

Regarding Mr. Kuntzler's (tie)
speech in Charlottesville last week
may I quietly say that anyone who
even remotely equates conditions in
this country, which are not perfect,
with Nazi Germany has lost his
senses of reason and should have
been laughed out of town.

In the Monday edition of the
Cavalier Daily it was stated that 29
fraternities supported a statement
that was in favor of a strike at the
University. It was also reported that
four fraternities did not support
this statement. We are one of those
four fraternities.

In the past two days we have
received a sizeable amount of
negative feedback because of this
statement. Since the article implied
that we did not support the strike
we felt it necessary to clarify our
position.

We have no specific restriction
in our charter that prohibits this
type of action. However, it was
decided by a majority of the
members that as an organization
The Sigma Phi Society should
neither take an affirmative nor a
negative position on this political
issue; although individually 31
members support the strike, 8
oppose it, and 4 members' sentiments
are unknown.

I was very annoyed with the
attack in your editorial on Tuesday
about Dr. Hamilton. Apparently
the person who wrote the article
was using hear-say evidence and I
would like to set the facts straight.

Attendance has been taken since
September, and at that time we
were told that attendance would be
used if a student came asking for
help. Why should attendance taking
be any different now? Granted a
student should be given special
consideration for not attending at
this time.