Word: students
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Political wrangling reached its peak at Harvard in 1969. The noisiest and best-publicized conflicts took place among Harvard students, in the form of infighting between the different factions of SDS, or among moderate and radical students. But the events of that spring proved the Faculty to be every bit as capable of sustained politicking as the students who marched into University Hall. Most Faculty members stepped into politics gingerly, resisting the intrusion of political issues into their ordered world of research and teaching. But the explosion of student activism in April forced most Faculty to take sides...
Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government, says that when he first encountered Harvard as a graduate student in the '50s it was a serene place: he saw no widespread student dissatisfaction, but rather a "world of younger faculty and graduate students, politically and intellectually very exciting." With the advent of the mid-'60s, however, that serenity disappeared. "That world hadn't changed." Walzer recalls. "What had changed was the war and general politicization of life that flooded into the University and ran up against a fairly rigid and not terribly sensitive administrative structure...
...Young Radios opted to try the first method, which makes sense for most bands without financial backing from the huge record corporate conglomerates. The Radios began as a band only three weeks ago, and they got their first real exposure at Monday's student boycott/rally in the Yard. As an alternative to classes, the Coalition for Awareness and Action had organized a two-hour program of events to take place on the steps of Memorial Church, and after all the conga drums and mime had finished came the rock music of the Radios...
...such an action. Few faculty supported the occupation, which most dismissed as silly or an unforgiveable resort to violence--but the liberals found the bust ultimately more disturbing. Stanley Hoffmann, professor of Government, notes, "The dividing line was on attitudes toward the bust, even if one disagreed with the students--as did Michael Walzer and I, who thought the takeover stupid and silly. But calling the police was silly--it radicalized the rest of the student body--and just plain wrong...
...number of other Faculty members to attend a meeting at Sever Hall to discuss the bust. About 100 faculty attended the meeting, from which emerged the liberal caucus, led by Hoffmann, Walzer and Wassily Leontief, then professor of Economics. They drew up a four-point resolution condemning both the student takeover and Pusey's action; the motion specifically indicated Pusey, saying he had "misinterpreted the Faculty vote on ROTC" and stating that his public statements "were a major source of the current disturbance." The resolution also "deplored the lack of consultation" in the decision to call in the police...