Wabash College - Wabash Yearbook (Crawfordsville, IN)

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Bae lear tis SSG Bor the Wabash student whose political convoc- TRA tions lie somewhere left of center, the academic A year, 1969-1970 proved to be one of the most excit- Oise tng i, quite a while. If the radical student at Wa- ‘bash was bored or. inactive, it certainly was not due toa dearth of i issues. The issues concerning radical an students, ranged from. the appropriation (or malap- a . propra ition) of funds for the. Athletic department to, coeducation, with varying degrees of success. er many. of. these issues is an indication of the ns. made by the ‘ ‘vocal leftist minority”. olleges. across the | mation, ‘was the Indochinese War. Over the past four years, ‘the war’’ has prov- ded ills students with a political context from: 1; ‘eb ary our | aptnidtration Hiaved aside two ays. for the whole Wabash ppeaininty to discuss ‘By far’ the most. ielebesstul tradical” movement of days. and was the result of Nixon’s decision to in- ‘vade Cambodia, and. the killing of four Kent State students. During the Strike an Alternate Univer- “sity was set up, and alternate courses were offered. These | courses generally dealt with some of the Panne aH j pressing problems of the day, and how we as col- ra Loan } i lege: students should best ameliorate some of our ee pen : ie society’ S$ social inequities. ae The faculty stopped short of seals endorsing the 7 4. | Strike, and instead voted to help implement it. eA a Seni aa action illuminates the intellectual haitus Feet between faculty members and radical students. | Whereas the faculty member’s primary concern is ee the continuance of: ihe university’s academic pro- ‘The fact: that the college has even begun to con- » he: major issue. at’ Wabash, and indeed at most , ‘the ‘year was, the Student Strike. It lasted for four cesses, irrespective of the political situation exter- nal to the confines of academia; the radical Student’s primary concern is an overriding com- mittment to social justice. These students feel that the university can not remain impervious to the realities of the world. The faculty member argues that the politicization of the university opens the door for the abridge- ment of all academic'freedoms. The radical student argues, rightly, that the conception of the univer- sity as free from politicization is illusionary, at best. They argue that as long as most large univer- sities accept large federal grants, then they are al- ready experiencing an abridgement of their academic freedom. Their freedom to use the money as they feel to is abridged because the grant generally carries with it some sort of stipulation as to how the money is to be used. The same is true for a private college like Wabash, except that in this case it is the private not the public sector that sets the limitations upon the college’s academic freedom. The radical student asks further, what good is my academic freedom if I am not free to relate my skills, presumably acquired as a result of that aca- demic freedom, to the world that lies beyond the confines of academia. The students at Wabash apparently felt that the question of an abridgement of the ‘‘academic’”’ free- doms was a moot one, especially when they recog- nized what was going on outside of Wabash. They | saw that what was happening outside was poten- ‘tially. more serious than th e loss academic free- doms; they recognized that the politicization of the university was inevitable if they were to curtail the abridgement of their civil liberties. They realized that because of the university’s abrogation of its sociopolitical responsibilities in the past they are now forced to acquire a relatively high degree of politicization. If the universities had always kept a relatively moderate sociopolitical awareness rather than aloofness, then they would not have to pay - such a high price to insure their present and future freedoms. This sort of recognition played a large part in the student body’s decision to endorse the “Bobby Seale Resolution”. This resolution de- manded that the Nixon administration do every- thing in its power to guarantee the constitutional liberties of Bobby Seale. On the more parochial issues, students saw their

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student strike, it can be seen how conformism through activism can be a fantastic force upon the individual. One cannot help but feel mass psy- chology at work: the arm bands, the red fist, the omnipresent rhetoric of “‘Power to the People”, all . | the the accoutrements of the Romantic young idealist. A free university program was, set up, one | 3 of which was to “educate” the students of the “fascist threat to America” strike was not apolitical. Why was the Young — Americans for Freedom denied recognition on the. grounds that it was a political group (even thous the AASU was given $1300) and in one month, the | Indisputable, the» Student Senate completely reverses its stand and Me supports the strike against U. S. involvement. nis Cambodia? Why wasn’t the anti-strike forces, led by YAF, given use of the Student News Sebvieg equipment? Is it too much to ask equal treatment | from those enlightened crusaders, of equality? Con- : servative students by nature are non-activists and» thus a disproportionate amount of the ‘‘action” on campus will inevitably emanate from the left. It ist this base of silent “support” that is the real. threat | to peace and justice on the campus and across the Ne nation. It is not enough to say you believe in an. idea, one has to be ‘versed enough to defend it t and | propagate it. or else . ane Q. So you believe we should be i in iis! E. Asn A. No one likes war. But there is such a square | thing called honor, committment, freedom. It was not the Neutralist and Rightist factions that left the Laotian coalition government and occupied, 1 3 of Laos. It was not neutralist Cambodia that ue invited the Communists to set up their headquar- ters and sanctuaries there. ‘Who is kidding ho 2 about liberations? Q. Here we go to the old policeman and commu- nist conspiracy bit. A. It seems funny that the Heoiolananiets are aa 6 same people who cry so much about equality ang justice and yet, they act as if the greatest threat to. those values, Communism, doesn’ t exist. Whatever happened to the anti-communist Left?: Are they serious when they say we should just get out of S.E. | Asia? What about our word to all those oa trusted in the U. S.? The Communists entered Hue’ - ialism breeds. ‘as much niet with blacklists and after the offensive ; 000 vedie Were uncovered. in mass Brae Be bins we power nation in the world, Iti is the price J his can only’ be termed Teactionayy | “that other candidate hh ad won the | ih Suerloak! the foe acid ones. In vile Per I

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