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FREEDOMWAYS                FOURTH QUARTER 1972

"Can We Look to Harvard?" by Nathan Wright, brings to mind a more basic question. When could we ever look to Harvard? Wright, an alumnus of Harvard, says he is "one that has always loyally questioned its somewhat sophisticated presumptuousness" and yet, he was dumbfounded by the social perversions manifested by police in the maintenance of law and order on the campus and the overlooking of this brutality by the Harvard administration. He is reminded of the publicly condoned police behavior in the 1967 riots or at the Chicago convention. Rightfully outraged, he is nonetheless a bit naive when he appeals that "we cannot hope to continue long as a free nation when the agents of law are implicitly encouraged to turn law into caprice." One can ask for a point of clarification here: When has this ever been a "free" nation. Mr. Wright considers Harvard "traditionally responsible." One knows, after reading a copy of "Who Rules Harvard?" to whom Harvard is responsible. Harvard has always been an elitist institution used by patrician families and industrial sector to educate leaders and experts. Incidentally, Harvard did not have one black full professor until 1949, and that rank was attained by Dr. William A Hinton just before his retirement. 

More to the issue, Wright makes some important observations. Policemen do face a dilemma, trying to enforce law while society makes a mockery of it. Education for adults is a vital necessity, but one of the most potent instruments for this, the public media, is the passive reflector of the brutal, sensational images of a violent culture. Mr. Wright's concluding remarks are nobly motivated, but given the miseducation of the mass of American citizens and the repressive controls internal to educational resources and institutions it is difficult to see how "illustrious, traditional institutions as Harvard" can be looked to "for continued excellence in the disciplining of the mind," if they are not engaged in challenging the nation's "questionable or archaic values." Other institutions shall rise in its place embodying not only the attainments of the mind but also the renewed values of service to mankind and the advancement of humane civilization. 
   
Wright includes another editorial in the section "The University Scene." "The Campus Confrontation" is a didactic piece, loaded with implied and articulated "we musts" addressed to white authorities. The analysis of student protest is faulty. Black students, when confronting institutions of high learning, are saying a lot more than "Up the quotas-or else!" The massacre of students at the black state-supported institution at Orangeburg, S.C., or at Texas Southern, make such an explanation seem silly. And white students across the 

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-19 23:44:09