University of Virginia Library

Faculty Faux Pas

The faculty's failure last Thursday even to
consider the issues raised by last week's
demonstrations was a distinct betrayal on its
part of its commitment to higher education
and of its pretended commitment to justice
and all things egalitarian. It was, further, a
betrayal of the students who had "stuck their
necks out" so far to organize the
demonstration in the name of ideals which so
many faculty members preach, as well as of
the students who attended and supported the
demonstrations. The faculty of the University
has long been considered (by itself as well as
by others) unique among faculties of academic
institutions in that it is supposedly
more liberal than the student body, but its
failure to endorse or even take notice of
students' most obtrusive single effort in behalf
of liberal ends cast serious aspersions on the
validity of that allegation. From the faculty's
reaction one would think that massive demonstrations
were nothing unusual at the University,
that massive efforts to shake the racism
which characterizes the state were commonplace.
Such a reaction is embarrassing, at best.

Some members of the faculty, motivated
either by that embarrassment or by their
genuine commitment to the goals involved,
are circulating petitions in the hope of adding
faculty support to the demonstrations' goals
through them. We urge everyone on the
faculty to sign them, if only to "save face."
We hope, however, that everyone will sign
them conscientiously. Only when unity
among faculty and students of the sort that
would thus be established is demonstrated can
we be certain that the whole movement will
have maximum effect. If that unity cannot be
developed, it will be no time before things
"quiet back down" and we return to a system
of sporadic demands and sporadic accommodations,
which profits little, if anything.