Committee Will Probe Instructors at UMass

The Joint Legislative Committee on Education voted 7-5 Tuesday to investigate "overt encouragement of civil disobedience" by instructors at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts.

The vote amended a bill filed by Reps. Joseph M. Kearney (D-Hyde Park) and John F. Melia (D-Brighton) after the antiwar rally in Arlington Street Church last October 16. Melia charged that some instructors excused students from class specifically for the anti-draft demonstration, and Kearney played a tape allegedly including the voices of UMass instructors urging students to resist.