Council Opposed to Discrimination, Votes to Act Against NROTC Oath

Amidst charges of undignified conduct and personal effrontery, the Student Council last night ruled by a one vote margin to make illegal the constitution of any undergraduate organization if the the document includes a discriminatory membership clause.

It also decided to start action against the Navy ROTC loyalty oath.

The anti-bias resolution includes a recommendation that the Faculty Committee on Student Activities put the law into effect by including it in the official "Rules for Undergraduate Organizations." It prohibits discrimination on grounds of "race, color, nationality, or religion."

Loyalty Recommendation

Action on the loyalty oath, which the Council has been investigating for four weeks, will be in the form of a recommendation to be sent to President Conant, Provost Buck, and Dean Bender. The recommendation will "urge" that the University administrators "employ every means at their disposal" to secure the elimination of certain Navy oath requirements for reserve students which the Council feels to be "in conflict with the free and unhampered exchange of ideas in a free academic society."

The motion on the bias measure was defeated once in the evening, but President Edward F. Burke '50 re-introduced it when he found out that one member who had abstained on the first ballot would vote in favor of the ruling.

Then two Council members tried to destroy the quorum and hence invalidate any more Council action by walking out of the room. A quorum remained, however, and a roll call vote favored the adoption of the rule by a vote of 7 to 6.

Burke had ceded the chairmanship of the meeting to Treasurer Roy M. Goodman '51 early in the evening so that he would be able to discuss and vote on the discrimination question. After the resolution had passed, several members objected to Burke's tactics, however, for Goodman, who had come out against the resolution, was then unable to vote.

The main point mentioned of those opposed to the ruling, was that merely prohibiting open discrimination provisions in a group's charter will do nothing on a practical level to eliminate discrimination.

The stand of the individual Council members on the final votes is as follows: Pro: Council members Bornstein, Burke, button, McCormick, Peterson, Tyson, and Unverferth. Contra: Brynteson, Carter, Craig, Mulholland, Poskanzer, and Sandler