"We Accept . . ."

One morning last week, at Prague's Charles University, the statue of the great 15th Century Rector Jan Hus was found throttled by a cloth gag. The gag was a serious gesture. Charles University was 600 years old, and to those who knew its history and traditions, the birthday celebrations staged by Czechoslovakia's new Communist rulers seemed a desecration.

Only about 600 guests showed up for the ceremonies at Vladislavsky Hall. One of the 400 empty seats had been assigned to U.S. Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardt. Also absent were delegates from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Chicago, from Oxford and Cambridge, from universities in 13 other countries. Present from the U.S.: delegates from Boston University, Washington State College and Colorado University.

Rector Karel Englis, internationally famed economist and ex-Minister of Finance, was not on hand to greet visitors; Communist Minister of Education Zdenek Nejedly had kicked him out. Presiding instead was Nejedly's choice as rector, leftist Mathematician Bohumil Bydzovsky, 68, who looked like a kindly Santa Claus with his snow-white beard and ceremonial red robe and cap.

Rector Bydzovsky gave Boss Nejedly an honorary doctorate of education--the first ever awarded in Czechoslovakia. Nine Russians got degrees too, but Columbia's John Dewey and Oxford's Sir David Ross, who had been offered degrees, stayed home.

The tone of the day was set by Philosopher J. B. Kozak, who taught at Ohio's Oberlin College in World War II. Said Kozak, obviously not speaking for his 17 purged colleagues: "We accept the direction taken by this great development [i.e., the Communist coup]." Then President Eduard Benes gave the university a new charter to replace the one that the Germans had destroyed, and made a pathetic little speech about freedom. Outside, in the public square, amplifiers relayed the catch in Benes' voice. There were more cops than citizens in the square.

Refreshment Table. Founding the university in 1348, Charles IV of Bohemia announced that he wanted the people of Bohemia, "incessantly hungering after the fruits of learning ... to find set out in our realm a table of refreshment." Charles was central Europe's first university, and one of the medieval world's best.

On Nov. 17, 1939, SS and Gestapo troops raided student hostels, dragged off 1,500 to tortures, beatings and concentration camps. The Nazis imprisoned 51 professors; 21 were executed or died in camps. Caravans of Nazi trucks carted off millions of books.

Remembered Texts. Two weeks after the uprising that freed Prague in May 1945, Charles University reopened. Though there was room for scarcely 10,000 students, 19,189 stormed the gates. Every last one was admitted. Classes ran in shifts in unheated lecture rooms, movie houses, dance halls and even in a circus tent. While students scribbled, professors dictated "textbooks" from memory.

Since the Communist coup, "action committees" have taken over control of the university. More than 200 Czech students have been expelled, though 25 U.S. students still study there (the 22 who are veterans have been cut off G.I. Bill of Rights benefits). Before they take their final exams, all students at Charles University will have to qualify for "certificates of national and political reliability."

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