Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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acutely controversial issues. They must be sensitive to the dictates of good sense and good taste. Or, in words of another college president of more recent years: To be an ed- ucated person, freedom does not mean the right to be impulsive, but to think, speak, and act unimpeded by prejudice and im- maturity. Freedom of speech does not mean that anyone has the right to say anything at any time. It stands, instead, for society ' s right to hear all sides of each important issue. These are difficult times for all colleges and universities, for many different reasons and not just those that I have mentioned here. But I am confident that at Occidental we will respond to the challenges of these times, and that we will do so in such a way that will make this College a better place in years to come. It is my observation that most people within the academic community are not sufficiently aware of the deepening disenchantment, dismay, and even disgust among broad seg- ments of the general public as a result of what is happening, or is thought to be happening, on college campuses the country over... I am not going to dwell here upon the reasons for the decline in public confidence in our colleges and universities, but I do want to say to you as flatly and forcefully as I can that this decline in public confidence, in my judgement, constitutes the most serious and far-reaching threat to the freedom and au- tonomy of our educational institutions of all the problems that beset us today. The kind of college this will be is up to you. It is up to you to demonstrate responsibility in matters of governance. It is up to you to make freedom secure, it is up to you to keep Occidental strong and free. 19

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Richard Gilman completed his sixth year as President of Occidental Col- lege this year. At the beginning of the school year last September, Dr. Gilman spoke on academic freedom in the first convocation: I think our stated policies are reasonably clear and straightforward — policies relating to the freedom to teach and the freedom to learn, without interference or disruption; policies defending the right of both students and faculty to exercise their responsibilities as free citizens without fear of reprisal; pol- icies relating to campus speakers, to the right to dissent, and so on. It is not so much a case of defining our policies with respect to academic freedom as it is of defending them and making sure that they exist in practice as well as in theory here on this campus. First, to what extent do we permit emotion to ride roughshod over what should be ra- tional discourse in the presentation of issues? To what extent do we allow fuzzy thinking, sweeping generalizations, and the facile car- icature or irresponsible distortion of other points of view to go unchallenged, in the classroom or out on the Quad? To what ex- tent do we really engage one another in dialogue, rather than tossing cliches and slo- gans back and forth and not really listening or caring about what the other person has to say? James Rowland Angell, former President of Yale, put it succinctly when he wrote, If University men are to claim freedom of teach- ing and freedom of thought and speech, they must in turn justify the claim not only by a decent respect for the opinions of man- kind but also by sobriety of utterance on 18

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Robert Ryf Dean of the Faculty 20