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New York Times
229 West 43d St.
New York, N.Y. 10036

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To the Editor:

	Your April 21 editorial insufficiently praises Stanford's faculty
for upholding the ``highest tradition of enlightened academic debate''.
It should have explained how the Academic Senate's vote was entirely
uncoerced even though there was a 200 person mob outside the Senate
chamber that would, according to what the mob leaders told the Stanford
Daily, have broken in had the Senate amended the motion or even
delayed its passage.

	The trouble is that Secretary Bennett is not the only
person under the mistaken impression that the decision was made
under duress; the mob leaders themselves are under that impression
and propose to come back for more.

	Don't be surprised if next year, it is found that too much
time is being spent on Dante, given his removal from the list of
required reading, and we hear last year's chant adapted to say
``Hey hey, ho ho, Divine Comedy's gotta go''.  Then the Academic
Senate can make another uncoerced decision.

	When I was a member of that Senate for two years, I learned how when
something is demanded for clearly bad reasons, a process of ``enlightened
academic debate'' and committee work can eventually come up with good
reasons for acceding to the demand.  The Senate members can then
internalize the reasons.

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Sincerely,



John McCarthy

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	Your editorial of April 20 taking Secretary Bennett to task
might have read ``In spite of the fact reported in the Stanford
Daily that outside the Academic Senate meeting that decided to
replace the Western Culture requirement were 200 supporters of
the change who said they intended to invade the meeting if the vote didn't
go their way, we still believe the decision was just the result
of normal academic discussion, and Secretary Bennett was entirely
mistaken.''  I was a member of that Senate for two years, and let
me assure you that it consists of very intelligent people.
Whatever illegitimate consideration motivates
a decision, they can find excellent other reasons justifying it.

	Unfortunately, it's not only Secretary Bennett who
believes the decision was coerced; it's also the people who
demanded the change in the first place and did the coercion ---
including the Black Students Union.  They, perhaps mistakenly,
believe that a strategy of coercion succeeded and will be back
for more.  Maybe they'll decide that too much time is being
spent on Dante given that it has been removed from the required reading
list and next year they'll be chanting ``Hey, hey, ho ho,
Divine Comedy got to go''.  Then the Academic Senate will
make another uncoerced decision.