perm filename BROWN.NS[W85,JMC] blob
sn#787256 filedate 1985-02-14 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
n016 0746 14 Feb 85
BC-BROWN
By CORY DEAN
c.1985 N.Y. Times News Service
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It has been a matter of pride to administrators
who were at Brown University in the 1960s that the campus survived
the turmoil of that time without major disruption.
''Brown was the only school in the Ivy League that did not call the
cops in the Vietnam era,'' says Robert A. Reichley, vice president
for university relations, who came to Brown in 1968.
But today, when much of the country is floating in what Reichley
calls a ''a sea of conservatism,'' students at Brown have attracted
wide attention with campus protests.
In October students voted to ask the university to stock suicide
pills for use in the event of nuclear war. Although the university
said from the outset that it would not consider stocking cyanide for
students, the referendum was praised by administrators, faculty
members and students who endorsed its message - that the arms race is
suicidal - and applauded its success in making the point to the
public.
In November, in an action that has divided opinion on campus,
several dozen students disrupted an appearance by recruiters from the
Central Intelligence Agency by attempting to put them under citizens'
arrest. The students said that the agency engaged in illegal
activity, citing such things as the mining of harbors in Nicaragua by
CIA-supported forces. They said recruiting people to commit crimes
was a crime itself.
But the university administration took the position that the protest
deprived the recruiters of their right to speak. The university
issued formal warnings to all the undergraduate students who took
part and made the warnings part of their permanent records.
To some the university appears to be caught in a time warp. But
although many of the students involved in the demonstrations wear the
long hair and armbands of the 1960s, they reject the analogy and
repudiate the methods and rhetoric of the Vietnam era.
''People use that nostalgia line to discredit anything that goes
against the status quo,'' said Juliet M. Brodie, a senior who was
among the leaders of the CIA protest.
Although the university administration disagrees, she and others in
the group described the attempted arrest as a carefully thought-out
effort to combat what they believe to be criminal activity.
''This has been consistently seen as some form of street theater,''
Miss Brodie said, angry that the protest has been compared to
confrontations of 20 years ago. ''This was not just a protest, it was
a citizens' arrest!''
Jason Salzman, an organizer of the suicide referendum, said the
tactics of the 60s carry a ''stigma'' of ineffectiveness. ''People
have chanted, 'Up against the wall!' and nothing happens,'' he said.
''Even people who sympathize realize that approach was used and may
not be effective.''
He said he believed asking students to vote on the suicide pill
referendum would compel them to ''confront the issue in a more
personal way'' than did rallies and protest marches in the 60s.
William G. McLoughlin, a professor of history who was active in the
antiwar movement of the 60s, said the students involved in protests
at Brown today were ''far from the 'stop the world, I want to get
off' people of the 60s, the people who wanted to get out and march
for Martin Luther King or picket for grapes.'' He said most today
planned professional careers.
At their disciplinary hearing, a nine-hour proceeding, the students
charged with disrupting the CIA recruiters presented the results of
their research on citizens' arrests. They brought two lawyers to
testify on the subject.
Sandor Katz, a senior who was one of the CIA protesters, said the
group learned from the example of the 60s: ''They didn't do the kinds
of things we did in terms of research.''
Administrators, professors and students alike have no ready
explanation for what appears to be an unusual level of activism at
Brown.
Howard R. Swearer, Brown's president, attributed much of this
impression to the fact that Brown gets ''more media attention.''
Reichley agreed. ''We have extremely high visibility,'' he said.
The students say their reasons are individual, based on their
experiences before getting to college. Katz said he first went to
demonstrations as an infant, carried by his parents.
Miss Brodie attributed some of her activism to her mother's
involvement in the peace movement. ''There are 67 different
stories,'' said Lisa Krakow, a CIA protester, alluding to the number
of students cited at the hearing.
Salzman cited a factor many on campus offered as a possible
explanation, the university's curriculum, which was adopted after
months of student agitation in the 60's. It allows students unusual
freedom to design their own programs.
''I came to this school because of the curriculum,'' he said. ''The
curriculum attracts people who might be interested in taking
responsibility for their own education so they are taking
responsibility for much larger things.''
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