University of Virginia Library

Here is my reaction to the
campaign for cancellation of classes
on October 15, in observance of the
Vietnam Moratorium:

The University is an institution
of learning, properly dedicated to
the promotion of studying and
teaching. It should not be available
for use by anybody or by everybody
as an ideological base or a
political instrument. In so far as it
permits itself to be used for the
latter purposes, it forfeits its claim
to the service of serious scholars,
the tuition of serious students, and
the financial support of taxpayers.

We all have our causes. In
promoting them, we have an
obligation not to implicate our
University, lest we distort it and
ultimately destroy it as an educational
institution. Our troubled
society has many needs, not least
among them the preservation and
the improvement of centers of
learning and teaching. We might all
profit by pondering the wisdom of
the University of Michigan student
who was reported, in yesterday's
Washington Post, as having responded
to a fellow-student who
interrupted a class to speak in
support of a student strike by
saying, in effect, "Would you please
take your demonstration outside?
I'm in class."