The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Comic Opera in Columbus I have recently had word about a free-speech conflict at my alma mater, Ohio State University, which centers around a meeting...
...Then, as though reading from the libretto of a comic opera, the dignified President added: "In making this decision it should be understood that the University believes strongly in free speech and responsible inquiry...
...Clark Foreman, Director of the ECLC, and Burton White, a member of the California Committee Opposing the House Un-American Activities Committee...
...Shephard Leverant, an associate professor of psychology and adviser of the Students for Liberal Action, believes the students had a right to invite the speakers to the campus...
...Some of the faculty were inclined to disagree...
...The person responsible for calling off the meeting was the University's President, a man with the improbable name of Novice G. Fawcett...
...Under University law, the President is without authority in such matters...
...Let her and falsehood grapple...
...who ever knew truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter...
...Any professor who is not willing to live under the rule of the University as laid down by the trustees and fixed by the legislature and administered by the President and his staff can look for another job as far as I am concerned...
...Former U.S...
...Now compare this young man's feelings with a few lines from John Milton's Areopagetica, written in 1644: "And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength...
...The speaker in question was Phillip A. Luce, a former graduate student at OSU who is now connected with the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC...
...Additional jollity was provided by a local statesman who some years ago was removed from the national scene by the voters of Ohio...
...The reason this action had been taken, it turned out, was that the University objected to one of the three speakers scheduled to address the meeting...
...David Spitz, of the political science department, put the problem this way: "The issue in this case is whether or not the President of the University is prepared to abide by the rules of his own Trustees...
...The other two speakers were to be Dr...
...Senator John W. Bricker, who is now serving his state and his country as Chairman of the Columbus campus' Board of Trustees, had several strong impressions: "This whole reaction is typical of reactionary groups who would convert the University into a sounding board for their propaganda and even possibly subversive interest...
...It never ceases to astound me how some things remain essentially the same from age to age...
...It is my personal feeling that students who are trying to run the University rather than get an education had better move on...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Comic Opera in Columbus I have recently had word about a free-speech conflict at my alma mater, Ohio State University, which centers around a meeting never held...
...When a few hundred students gathered outside the Law Building, where it was to take place, they found the police in charge, the building locked and the meeting canceled...
...If certain ideas are less sound than others, surely the intelligent student is able to find this out himself...
...Luce is not qualified to contribute to the intellectual growth of the students of this University...
...According to regulations, Leverant has the authority to approve the organization's programs, and he had given his approval to the forbidden meeting...
...Early in the spring, a perfectly legal campus organization known as the Students for Liberal Action arranged an evening meeting to discuss civil liberties...
...As for the students, the editor of Lantern, the student newspaper, wrote: "The university campus is the proper place for any and all ideas to be freely presented...
...In part, his charge against Luce reads: "After the fullest possible investigation of his competency to address a student group, I was forced to conclude that in accordance with University regulations it is necessary to postpone indefinitely this scheduled meeting...
...It would appear on the basis of my investigation of this matter that Mr...
Vol. 45 • June 1962 • No. 13
