New Campus Mood: From Rage to Reform

As a frequent observer of troubled campuses across the U.S., TIME'S national education correspondent Gregory H. Wierzynski has lately noted some dramatic changes for the better. Just back from a nationwide tour of universities, ranging from Harvard to Wisconsin and Santa Barbara, he sent this report:

WE are in a new era," says U.C.L.A.

Chancellor Charles Young. "We are not going back to the apathy of the '50s, but the intensity of the last few years is no longer with us." Most of Young's colleagues nod only cautious assent. Student distrust of the Nixon-Agnew Administration remains high. The youth counterculture flourishes. Another Cambodian invasion or a heating up of the war in Viet Nam could touch off large-scale turmoil. Yet even the casual visitor finds a new climate on U.S. campuses this fall--a new mood of detachment that may well signal the end of large-scale student activism.

Classes are well attended; library lights burn into the night; almost all extremists of the white Weatherman variety have dropped out of school. In New Haven last spring, Yale students held a pretrial sympathy strike for Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby G. Scale, who is charged with murder. Last week only 60 people showed up for the trial. Some former protest targets now draw cheers instead of boos. When Harvard University President Nathan Pusey addressed Harvard freshmen in September, for example, he got a standing ovation.

Remaining activism generally takes the form of community work or attempts to build various kinds of communes. The change is illustrated by the popularity of Charles Reich's The Greening of America (TIME, Nov. 2), which envisions a peaceful takeover by the hippie ethic, a kind of revolution by spiritual osmosis. Says Frank Rich, 21, chairman of the Harvard Crimson: "Students are still concerned about the war, racism and poverty; some are very active with ecology groups. But most are just waiting, with their pot and their Dylan records, for the grass to grow through the concrete. Last year they would have laughed Reich right off the campus."

Behind the trend are various factors. Among them:

TEDIUM. The era of massive student dissent is now in its sixth year. Few movements can long sustain such an emotional pitch and tension. This fall, students are tired or frustrated or both; they are aware that some problems cannot be solved overnight. CAMBODIA/KENT STATE. The protests last May unified moderate students, who until then had been a kind of silent majority. This had the effect of isolating the radicals, who, in the absence of a restraining force, had previously operated as the vanguard of the student movement. Cambodia/Kent State also opened new lines of communication within universities. For the first time in years, students, faculty and administrators agreed on a major issue. Formalized by new devices like campus ombudsmen and rumor-control centers, the new intimacy strengthened many an institution. LAW-AND-ORDER. The bombers and arsonists have sown genuine fear among students, who generally despise violence as much as anyone else. At the same time, most campuses have promulgated tough rules against unpeaceful dissenters. They have beefed up their security forces and equipped them with sophisticated electronic equipment to frustrate intruders and identify the hitherto anonymous rock thrower in the crowd. While such measures have engendered a great deal of student resentment, they have helped to keep the peace. WANING ISSUES. There are fewer and fewer national issues for students to grab hold of. Until last week's bombing, the Viet Nam War seemed to be winding down; the draft law has been reformed, and General Hershey sacked. Only ecology attracts serious involvement. Meantime, most of the great campus issues have been blunted by widespread reforms affecting grades, curriculums and how universities are governed. No university administrator would make a major decision nowadays without considering student sentiment. THE ECONOMY. The recession has undoubtedly left its mark on the students, particularly at big state universities. A father or brother out of work is something a student cannot ignore. The effect is even more pronounced on the faculty. In a buyers' market, fewer are willing to jeopardize a job or promotion in defense of principle. As a result, faculties are less willing to make waves. HIGH SCHOOL RADICALISM. It has hastened the extinction of activism at the universities because the new freshman now knows far more about the disadvantages of violent dissent. There is also evidence that the hard-core radical tends not to go to college. Many universities report that this year's freshman class is the most apolitical in five years. FACULTY RESPONSIBILITY. Professors now realize that unless they govern themselves properly, the public is going to step in. This would effectively put an end to the university's cherished autonomy. Says Herbert York, acting chancellor of the University of California at San Diego: "Because our excesses have caused the public to disbelieve us, we cannot be as permissive in the future. We must have stern self-governance. We cannot let other people do it for us."

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If activism is on the wane, what is its legacy? The turmoil has brought some great universities, notably Wisconsin, to the verge of collapse. It has taken a frightful toll of good men, particularly among presidents; it has led to wild excesses in dress, manners, teaching and personal relations. But a true balance sheet of activism is far from lopsidedly negative. By quickening the pace of political activity on campus, it has brought new vibrancy to university life.

The public may be so disillusioned that higher education will lose financial support. Still, that support had become so lavish that perhaps it was bound to dwindle. Meantime, activism can claim credit for getting the educational system to tighten its belt and re-examine its practices and purposes, something the public might applaud.

The impetus came largely from student demands for "relevance," especially for the overdue admission of more minority-group students. Activism has also done much to curb the old absurdities of trivial research and needless Ph.D.s. Sweeping changes are now under way in every major discipline. Rigid curriculums are being loosened. The emphasis is on seminars, independent projects and words like interdisciplinary. Though research continues to be important, the pendulum is swinging toward real innovations in teaching. The day may soon come when U.S. campuses stop using teaching methods that were popular at the University of Bologna during the Renaissance.

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Most educators agree that 1970 is a crucial year for American higher education. They need a surcease from public and student pressures to promulgate new reforms, strengthen what has already been done, institutionalize experiments, slough off nonproductive parts. Thus far, all indications are that students will oblige in providing a long period of calm. Whether the public will do the same is another matter.

The activities of bombers and urban guerrillas--who are invariably non-students--have caused in the public mind a certain paranoia that turns every longhair into a potential Weatherman. The election of liberal Governors in Wisconsin and Ohio, scenes of major disruptions last year, indicates that a majority of people know better. But as the generally favorable reaction to the Kent State indictments suggests, a sizable group of ill-informed hard-liners remains. Education is at a takeoff stage, poised on the verge of major change. There will be a few campus fracases this year, most likely at universities where town v. gown tensions run high. If the hard-liners have their way, they could use such incidents to turn progress into regression.

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