PAINE ISSUES

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Since Harvard is once again about to enjoy the annual spectacle of What To Do About Those Students, perhaps the true and real issues should, belatedly, be raised and discussed before we find out whether we are to be punished.

The issue was not one of "student power," or whatever the Administration wishes to call it. Rather, it was an important issue which the faculty managed to sidetrack in a morass of bureaucratic red tape: namely, in what direction is Harvard University to move? Perhaps unconsciously, the Administration seems to be making a clear choice for its future development; the customary military, C.I.A., and government relations with the University are to remain intact, while students and their education can apparently be ignored with scarcely a twinge of guilt. In short, R.O.T.C. is felt to be somehow necessary, and the students can be dispensed with.

It is probably unfortunate that students thought the only way to bring the issue to the surface was to try to listen in on the Faculty discussion, but this simply shows how little the Faculty and the Administration felt pressed to consult students on an issue of fundamental importance to them. Incidentally, it is doubtful whether a moral issue, such as the "right" to train militarily on a campus for the purpose of post-graduate killing, can be decided by a referendum or any other democratic procedure. How valid would a favorable German vote to exterminate the Jews have been?

I, for one, can hardly feel repentant and shall not apologize for wanting to observe a debate on an issue of crucial interest to me. For some students, facing exile to Canada or prison sentences for draft resistance, it is difficult to view expulsion from Harvard as much of a tragedy. Indeed, one might even look forward to a period of exile from a University where Faculty and Administration members are determined to decide important matters primarily on the basis of petulant solemnity and irrational self-indulgence. Jon Livingston, 2-G