Counterattacks

All over the country, state legislators have tried to curb campus disruptions--and win favor with voters--by forcing colleges to mete out ever harsher penalties to demonstrators. Supporters of such measures argue that universities must protect themselves or be destroyed; critics believe that unduly harsh countermeasures have often transformed moderate students into radicals. The latest instances: legislation in Pennsylvania and a pending law in New York.

The Pennsylvania law is unusual: it requests colleges in all 50 states to compile reports on the behavior of all Pennsylvania students involved in disruptions. If a college refuses to cooperate, says the law, all of its Pennsylvanians lose financial aid from their home state.

Banishment. So far, 857 colleges in other states have agreed to keep tabs on Pennsylvanians. But resistance is growing. Numerous schools have returned the agreement forms unsigned, leaving their Pennsylvania students without further state aid. Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth and Princeton, among others, remain undecided. Last week Stanford and Haverford refused to sign. The Stanford trustees echoed others in their unwillingness to let outsiders "determine whether a student is fit to continue study."

The New York law, passed by the assembly, comes close to reviving the ancient penalty of banishment. If his school received state funds, a student arrested in a campus disorder and jailed for ten days or more would be barred from the college for up to five years. If he were sentenced to more than three months, he would be barred permanently from any state-aided campus, which would mean virtually every college in New York.

Some assemblymen who opposed the bill wondered whether protesters would be placed in double jeopardy by being punished twice for the same offense. In any case, the bill may not get out of committee in time for a vote this year.

At Washington University in St. Louis last month, an early-morning clash between police and anti-ROTC demonstrators helped to prompt what may be the nation's first federal-grand-jury investigation of a campus protest. The jury, which last week heard testimony from faculty, students and newsmen, is trying to determine whether the protesters violated the civil rights of ROTC students. The jurors will also consider whether a fire that leveled the university's small Army ROTC building in February violated a federal law that protects national defense installations.

If the grand-jury hearings produce civil rights indictments, many means of protest now widely used on campus--especially those that keep other students from their classes--might face stiff new federal penalties. Control of campus discipline would continue to shift from college officials to civil authorities.

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