University of Virginia Library

Consistency, Please

President Shannon expressed some interesting
thoughts Monday in his letter to
Student Council concerning the Vietnam
Moratorium and his decision not to officially
recognize it by cancelling classes or making
them optional on October 15. He stated that
the University "has an obligation to maintain
an atmosphere in which all views can be
expressed, in which individuals can oppose the
war or defend it...as a matter of intellectual
freedom. For the University to...support a
position on these issues would be inconsistent
with this obligation."

Laudable sentiments, indeed. It is unfortunate
that the University and the President
choose to uphold them on the one hand and
callously disregard them on the other. There
can be no official sanction of the Vietnam
moratorium; but the University can sponsor
and award academic credit for ROTC. The
ROTC program is specifically designed to
indoctrinate undergraduate students in the
positions and beliefs of the armed services. A
pacifist is no more able to teach in such a
course than would a student be allowed at a
Board of Visitors meeting.

It is bad enough that the University feels
an obligation to allow such a program,
demonstrably opposed to the principles
outlined in Mr. Shannon's letter onto the
Grounds. But to then award academic credit
to the program, acknowledging that it
operates under the same academic principles
as do the other University schools and
departments is to make a mockery of these
principles.

The fact remains that Mr. Shannon is a
former Naval Reserve officer himself and an
avowed supporter of the ROTC program. We
do not realistically expect that he will change
his position on ROTC. But if we also cannot
realistically expect him to be consistent in
applying the principles he purports to uphold,
then there is something very wrong in Pavilion
VIII.