DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | University of Iowa anti-war protests, January-April 1971 | 1971-01-25 Des Moines Register Article: ""'Punishing' Campus Unrest""

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University of Iowa anti-war protests, January-April 1971

1971-01-25 Des Moines Register Article: ""'Punishing' Campus Unrest""

Mon., Jan. 25, 1971
The Des Moines Register
An Independent Newspaper
Gardner Cowles, Chairman of the Board
David Kruidenier, President and Publisher
Kenneth MacDonald, Editor
A. Edward Heins, Managing Editor
Lauren Soth, Editorial Page Editor
Lous H. Norris, Business Manager

'Punishing' Campus Unrest
University of Iowa President Willard Boyd has warned that legislative "punishment" of the state's universities by appropriations cuts would incite students rather than subdue them.
Republican State Senators Francis Messerly of Cedar Falls and Charles Balloun of Toledo took the warning as a threat. Messerly interpreted the comments to mean that unless the legislature appropriates the full amount of university requests, "the students will engage in violent protest with President Boyd's blessing." Balloun objected to "any statements by administrators which tend to polarize views."
Both sides could aruge endlessly about this. It would be a pointless argument. Understanding is needed  —understanding of student motivation, understanding of a university's role in contemporary society, understanding of the legislative function in sustaining the objectives of higher education.
A nationwide survey by the Carnegie Higher Education Commission revealed a few days ago that sizable majorities of professors, graduate students and undergraduates feel that students disrupting college operations should be suspended or expelled. To punish an entire student body — whether with legal penalties or monetary sanctions —beause of the misdeeds of a minority is an injustice that is bound to provoke a sensitive majority.
Appropriations cuts would have little effect on students now in the universities. But such cuts would have a long-range effect on faculties and future students. As Boyd pointed out, the investment in education "is our best guarantee that our society will be regenerative and not degenerative."
The campus has become a convenient place, if not an appropriate one, to test the impulses for change in society at large. Seymour Martin Lipset, the Harvard sociologist who has been studying student activism for several years, has pointed out that the campus is an ideal place "to find large numbers of people in a common situation." He observed that students can be easily mobilized by leaders representing a small minority, especially if the minority comes under attack from outside the campus.
In a sense, today's students are filling the void left when labor unions, militant farm organizations and political reform groups lost their zeal and became quiescent and moderate in their views. Recognizing the range of social issues troubling the nation, Lipset has suggested that student activism is not at all remarkable. He has posed the argument that "a politically inactive student population is a cause for greater misgivings and puzzlement than an active one."
Punitive reprisals against the universities because of student activism — if any legislators are thinking along that line — will only play into the hands of militant extremists, whether of the left or the right. The state's educational institutions cannot thrive in a vindictive atmosphere.

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Mon., Jan. 25, 1971 The Des Moines Register An Independent Newspaper Gardner Cowles, Chairman of the Board David Kruidenier, President and Publisher Kenneth MacDonald, Editor A. Edward Heins, Managing Editor Lauren Soth, Editorial Page Editor Lous H. Norris, Business Manager 'Punishing' Campus Unrest University of Iowa President Willard Boyd has warned that legislative "punishment" of the state's universities by appropriations cuts would incite students rather than subdue them. Republican State Senators Francis Messerly of Cedar Falls and Charles Balloun of Toledo took the warning as a threat. Messerly interpreted the comments to mean that unless the legislature appropriates the full amount of university requests, "the students will engage in violent protest with President Boyd's blessing." Balloun objected to "any statements by administrators which tend to polarize views." Both sides could aruge endlessly about this. It would be a pointless argument. Understanding is needed —understanding of student motivation, understanding of a university's role in contemporary society, understanding of the legislative function in sustaining the objectives of higher education. A nationwide survey by the Carnegie Higher Education Commission revealed a few days ago that sizable majorities of professors, graduate students and undergraduates feel that students disrupting college operations should be suspended or expelled. To punish an entire student body — whether with legal penalties or monetary sanctions —beause of the misdeeds of a minority is an injustice that is bound to provoke a sensitive majority. Appropriations cuts would have little effect on students now in the universities. But such cuts would have a long-range effect on faculties and future students. As Boyd pointed out, the investment in education "is our best guarantee that our society will be regenerative and not degenerative." The campus has become a convenient place, if not an appropriate one, to test the impulses for change in society at large. Seymour Martin Lipset, the Harvard sociologist who has been studying student activism for several years, has pointed out that the campus is an ideal place "to find large numbers of people in a common situation." He observed that students can be easily mobilized by leaders representing a small minority, especially if the minority comes under attack from outside the campus. In a sense, today's students are filling the void left when labor unions, militant farm organizations and political reform groups lost their zeal and became quiescent and moderate in their views. Recognizing the range of social issues troubling the nation, Lipset has suggested that student activism is not at all remarkable. He has posed the argument that "a politically inactive student population is a cause for greater misgivings and puzzlement than an active one." Punitive reprisals against the universities because of student activism — if any legislators are thinking along that line — will only play into the hands of militant extremists, whether of the left or the right. The state's educational institutions cannot thrive in a vindictive atmosphere.