Word: dows
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...parietals pressure group was sluggish getting going and there was plenty of doubt whether more than a handful of students would agree to civil disobedience on so parochial an issue. Then came Dow...
Harvard's nearest brush with disintegration occurred last fall when over 200 students sat-in and imprisoned a Dow Chemical Company recruiter. The immediate situation and the later disciplinary response were both potentially volatile, but in the end both reached settlements satisfactory to the great majority of everyone involved. If a few radicals had hoped the Dow episode might ignite student demands for structural change in the University, they were disappointed. If they expected that participation at the sit-in would radicalize the students' outlook on society, they failed. For Harvard authorities did not permit the confrontation to become angry...
...recommending probation for 74 Dow demonstrators but severance for no one, the Administrative Board meted out a sharp warning rather than real punishment. As Dean Ford said at the time, "The imprisonment itself was reprehensible; but there are a number of mitigating circumstances for the demonstrators, and so I would like to see the most lenient possible action that will serve as an effective deterrent against this sort of thing in the future." The Board's decision passed the Faculty by a 5-1 margin and proved to be a practical and politic decision. It balanced leniency with a reaffirmation...
This firm belief in the traditional university of tolerance and individual expression does not keep Ford aloof from any students. After the Dow protest, for instance, he devoted four days to hearing the opinions of students, junior faculty, and faculty on the pros and cons of punishing the demonstrators before he formulated his own position. In a typical fashion, he maintained an orderly list of the arguments on each side. In the end, he favored the most lenient possible punishment that would also deter a recurrence...
...problem which plagued Ford after Dow was the widespread attitude that Harvard's Administration was monolithic and, presumable, a supporter of the Establishment. His debate on Vietnam with Professor Oscar Handlin this spring was designed, in part, to demonstrate that no such uniformity exists among University officers on any political question...