University of Virginia Library

Rod MacDonald

The Strike Must Go On!

The chapel bells pealed a dozen
times as Professor William Harbaugh's
voice echoed across Main
Street from Madison Hall, imploring
President Richard Nixon to
declare a national holiday for the
six youths slain at Kent State. The
crowd, on its feet cheering, seemed
capable of being heard all the way
up Route 29 to the White House.

But even if it could, its cheers
would fall on deaf cars, for the
President of the United States has
decided to make war, to pursue the
war and to expand it into Cambodia.
Faced with that fact the same
crowd will probably reappear for
another rally, cheer for another
speaker, mourn some more for the
Kent State youths, and vanish buck
into the woodwork. Then there are
those who say nothing.

Nasty Words

I almost hate to say nasty things
about a basically good follow such
as President Shannon. After all, he
has now addressed the students, not
dodging them by requiring proper
channels, but openly and four
separate times. He has made no real
effort short of a court injunction to
repress masses of students around
the Rotunda. And he obviously
went to a good deal of trouble to
arrange a student meeting with
Virginia's Senators Spong and Byrd.

But all that mostly means he has
been accessible, which is theoretically
what a university president
should be anyway - it's
unexceptional even if a departure
from traditional practice. The big
disappointment has been that President
Shannon, faced with 3,000
imploring students and the shock of
six deaths not very far away at
Kent State, has still not taken a
stand.

To be sure, his position is the
official University's most of the
time, and unlike faculty members
he cannot go running off at the
mouth about just anything. But
Freedom Day is not for just
anything, it's for peace, an end to
the killing and an end to a
government's duplicity in "working
for peace" by expanding the
present war.

By his silence, I can only infer
that the President either supports
the Cambodian invasion or has
knuckled under to Governor Holton,
who does support Mr. Nixon's
invasion (remember who got him
elected?). The truth is that President
Shannon can, as a human
being speaking out against a human
outrage, condemn the National
Guard shootings at Kent State and
the U.S. Army shooting in Cambodia.
The sad fact is that he has not.

For that reason, the student
boycott is important. It is our
notice that we are more than
concerned, but that we are appalled
by Cambodia and Kent State, for
they are one and the same. It is the
University's first step, towards
pressuring Congress into a peace
policy and towards electing more
peace candidates to offices next
November. It must be our step, for
we have no leadership in the
administration.

Academic Neutrality

He would certainly like to
preserve the University's academic
neutrality, and such isolation is
usually worthwhile. But this university,
and even its president, are no
longer isolated. When the President,
a Captain in the Navy Reserve,
distributes medals at ROTC events
he is either acting as an individual
or as an official spokesman for the
University. In either case, he can
justify taking a stand against killing
civilians, whether at home or
abroad. To say "I share your
concern" is not even close, for
everyone shares it and therefore
means nothing.

The strike must go on, until the
University of Virginia has made its
protest felt. We are a part of a
greater whole, America's peace
movement, and we cannot quit
until our part is followed through.
Such action does not mean violence,
for that only brings the
Nixon-lovers out of
hiding with a domestic issue of
their own. But the boycott must
continue today and tomorrow, and
when Vice-President Agnew says we
are undermining the war effort, we
can reply "You're damn right."