Ohio State Trustees Uphold New Gag Rule

Ohio State University trustees stood firm Monday on a ruling against "disloyal" public speakers on the campus. The ruling, passed September 4, stated that Howard Bevis, the University's president, could bar any speaker he wished from addressing students on campus. The trustees, however, with the notable absence of U.S. Senator John K. Bricker, made two concessions to opponents of the measure.

1. A committee of the school's 11 deans should discuss the problems involved in carrying out the rule with Dr. Bevis.

2. The Board of Trustees would meet with a committee of the Faculty Council to discuss its protest against the rule. The Board, however, promised "only to listen."

The regulation also had been protested as an infringement of academic freedom by the Ohio State Lantern, the University's student newspaper.

"As trustees of Ohio State University" the Board announced, "we encourage the fullest academic freedom consistent with national security.

"The facilities of the university will not be made available to known Communists or members of other groups who seek to undermine the basic liberties of America.

"We recognize no inalienable right to any freedom which has for its purpose the destruction of our government."

So far, the only person known to have been barred from speaking on the campus under the new ruling is Dr. Cecil E. Hinshaw, a Quaker pacifist, who finally addressed a student group off campus.