University of Virginia Library

The Harvard Experience

Now it's happened at Harvard - the school
that was once considered the model of
reasoned and rational free relations between
students, administrators and faculty. The
system broke down there. It would seem that
if it could happen at Harvard, which used to
prove that a liberal student body could get
along well with a responsible administration,
it could happen anywhere. It could even
happen here.

Harvard had always had good relations
between the moderate students and the
administration. When the students spoke, the
faculty listened, for they respected the
students' opinions. Moderate change, however,
worked within existing structures,
something that SDS had no intention of
doing.

The Harvard radicals admittedly wanted
more than just the abolition of ROTC. Their
attack was aimed at ROTC because the
program reflected Harvard's commitment to
the U.S. Government. They felt that, since
American foreign policy was, in their minds,
criminally imperialist, Harvard had no business
in associating itself with the "military-industrial
complex" that formulated it. So
they refused to accept the Harvard Corporation's
offer to strip ROTC of academic credit.
Their position was that by making ROTC
available, Harvard was assenting to U.S.
policy. They rejected the possibility of
academic neutrality, and they called on
Harvard to take a stand against the military
commitments of the nation by abolishing
ROTC.

They felt that the existing structure
supported certain political ideas by allowing
them on the campus. They wanted a new
structure which discriminated in favor of their
own concepts. And, having rejected the old
idea of a university, they felt no compunction
about rejecting the old channels - they took
over University Hall.

Most students, however, rejected the idea
of abolishing ROTC. They felt that for
students who wanted it, ROTC should be
available on an extracurricular basis, much as
the Harvard Corporation had decided it would
be. So SDS had failed in its objective to
radicalize the students by presenting an issue.

Unfortunately for Harvard, President
Pusey called in the police who had less respect
for reasoned dissent than the SDS people
whose heads they busted. So, with the
assistance of the administration, the radicals
had succeeded in creating an issue and
mobilizing student support for their position.
They had characterized the Harvard administration
as repressive and militaristic.
Nobody believed them until the administration
itself proved them right.