University of Virginia Library

As coordinator of the petition
to influence cancellation of all
University activities on Oct. 15, I
feel it necessary to reply to some
issues and criticisms forwarded in
the last few days.

First, it has been frequently
asserted that the University, as an
environment for higher learning,
should not involve itself officially
in the political arena regardless of
the worth of any issue. The
underlying premise of this stance is
that the University is presently
neutrally oriented or at least close
enough to center to consider
modest reforms such as expulsion
of ROTC from the campus as
sufficient to achieve a balance. The
facts of course are completely to
the contrary. For neutrality is only
achieved when both sides of the
issue are examined. This is clearly
not the case at an institution where
the faculty and administration are
periodically purged (as was the
Economics Dept. two years ago and
the Sociology Dept. last year) to
insure that the consensus rests far
right of center, in an academic
community where a realistic consideration
of whether a Black woman
who is a member of the Communist
Party should be allowed to conduct
a course for credit is inconceivable.
In fact what is meant by neutrality
is passive resistance in the face of
an attempt to change the status-quo.

Secondly, it has been forwarded
by another faction that the Moratorium
will be much more dramatic
and influential if each person
decides individually to cut classes
on that day. While this school of
thought has some honest appeal, it
stems from a misunderstanding of
the major purpose of the Moratorium.
For the primary theme of
that day is not a passive absence
from class but an active devotion of
twenty-four hours to educating
ourselves further on the implications
of American involvement in
Vietnam as well as encouraging
others, some of whom would
otherwise be in class, through
rallies, speeches, and symbolic gestures
to re-examine their positions
on the war.

Thirdly, in answer to those
critics who claim their payment of
tuition fees entitles them to the
opportunity to attend class on that
day, I refer them to the promise
made at Geneva in 1954 by the
United States to the Vietnamese
people concerning elections to be
held. Since that contract was
violated over one million people
have died. To a man bleeding in the
field your legal threats would seem
nauseatingly absurd.

Finally, to further clarify a
point overlooked by most people,
the petition requests that all official
functions at the University be
cancelled that day. This was intended
specifically to include employees
of the University by giving
them the day off with pay and to
remind students that they are
hardly alone on the battlefield. For
D.O.D. statistics show that the
major burden of this war and all
wars falls heaviest on the shoulders
of the poor.