Yalie Daily Says Loyalty Checks Dampen Liberal Student Activity

Young liberals must defy "the spectre of the loyalty check" by participating in undergraduate political organizations, an editorial in the Yale Daily News declared Saturday. Students are now afraid to join controversial groups for fear of blighting their future job opportunities, the editorial claimed.

Loyalty investigations came under fire at New Haven last week when Yale's dean of undergraduate activities, Loomis Havermeyre, advised sophomore John S. Williamson not to organize an antidiscrimination group at Yale.

Havermeyer warned Williamson that an F.B.I. investigation of his proposed group might jeopardize his career. Havermeyer said that an F.B.I. agent frequently telephoned him for information on new undergraduate activities at the college.

New Haven's F.B.I. agent, when contacted by the Yale Daily News, said, "Havermeyer's statement has no basis in fact. You can start any organization you want at Yale, and it will be no concern of ours." He admitted, however, that student groups are often investigated when graduates who belonged to them are given loyalty checks.

Havermeyer later disclosed that he had been mistaken about the telephone calls for information.