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Show NeWS CinCllysis The Daily Utah Chronicle. March 27 Campus crackdown gels dissident's view , 1969- 9 flow from the conspiracy theory of student protests: unrest is caused by a few inside and outside agitators. There are no real grievances. Remove the agitators and the problem will be solved. It is no coincidence that California has the two main advocates of this theory-Ronald Reagan and S.I. Hayakawa. " How well the crackdown strategy works is as questionable as the theory on which it is based. The San Francisco State and Berkeley strikes are the longest in American history. In other states, which go a little easier on police force, such strikes have been settled before they went on long enough for positions to harden and solutions to become impossible. By Phil Semas College Press Service SAN FRANCISCO - For years Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and other groups in the Left have been worrying and talking about "repression" on the campuses. Most students thought they were being romantic or paranoid or both. But now the worry is a reality: the crackdown has begun. Governors and state legislators are moving quickly to crack down on the unrest that is sweeping American campuses. Legislatures and governors in Wisconsin, California, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, New York and other states are all working on legislation which increases campuses," referring to his use of police early rather than waiting as long as possible "the way some other administrators have done." At the University of California's Berkeley campus, the administration also took a hard line on the student strike which began Jan. 22. Police have been on the campus almost from the beginning of the strike, although Chancellor Roger Heyns has tried to keep a tighter reign on them than have administrators at San which might be used to organize disruptions. The crackdown means more than police action. Both Berkeley and San Francisco State seem a little like dictatorships today. The right to assemble on San Francisco State's central campus has been denied since Jan. 6, and Hayakawa recently tried to stop the critical student press by cutting off funds for the college's student newspapers. At Berkeley there has been no general ban on gatherings, but the administration has been rejecting applications for outdoor and indoor rallies alike. Tear gas, long lines of police, and helicopters whirling overhead are part of everyday life on both campuses, making them resemble battlefields. One state legislator has proposed what may be the ultimate solution: walling in the campuses and forcing students to check in before going to class. All these repressive measures penalties for disrupters, cuts off their financial aid, and keeps them off the campuses. More than 50 such bills have been introduced in the California legislature, and 17 in Wisconsin. Even President Nixon has encouraged talk about campus conspiracies, saying in letters from Europe that he is "very concerned" about the rash of uprisings on campuses across the country in past weeks. Two Republican governors, Warren Knowles of Wisconsin and Ronald Reagan of California, have also been using their executive authority extensively. Both called out the Nationial Guard in recent weeks, and Reagan has announced that from now on extensive police force will be used at the start of disruptions, rather than waiting until the violence reaches a high level. Administrators Less Strict Campus administrators , who must live with strict new regulations and who are usually a little more liberal than state legislators, have been moving a little slower. But they are moving: recently the president of Notre Dame-hardly a hotbed of unrest-announced that demonstrators would be dealt with harshly. The crackdown is probably heaviest in California, which has had more campus unrest than any other state. S.I. Hayakawa, acting president of San Francisco State College, recently told a Congressional subcommittee, "I believe I have introduced something new to this business of preserving order on Administrators who don't move fast enough or crack down hard enough may find themselves in for some heavy criticism from the politicians. San Francisco State President Robert Smith, who actually tried to talk about the issues in his campus' strike also tried to cut down on the escalating cycle of student-police confrontations, was one casualty of such criticism. Although Roger Heyns is by no means soft on campus protesters, he has come under heavy fire for trying to control the police and insisting on due process in disciplinary cases for those cited in the disruptions. Sheriff Frank Madigan of Alameda County, where the Berkeley campus is located, criticized Heyns for not , summarily dismissing student strikers. Heyns Attacked When the Regents met in Berkeley recently, Reagan and several other Regents attacked Heyns. Reagan demanded a ban - on all rallies and removal of all strikers from the campus. He implied that Heyns was being soft "because of the cause these dissidents are advocating" and that there "would be no question if it were the Ku Klux Klan trying to bring the Grand Dragon on campus." Thus, a good deal of control over the situation has been taken away from Heyns. The police, under Sheriff Madigan, have been breaking up picket lines and attacking crowds, beating students indiscriminately. Heyns is under orders from the Regents to immediately suspend any student involved in disruptions and not to approve any rallies or meetings |
