Kent State Students Seek a Moratorium To Demand Civil Liberties Protection

The student government at Kent State University yesterday began to organize a nationwide moratorium for Civil Liberties Day this Friday to protest grand jury indictment of 25 students, non-students and professors in connection with violence on the campus last May.

Student leaders have called for "a day of reflection on the issue of civil liberties emphasized by ongoing workshops," while insisting that classes be held "in order that those wishing to attend them may do so."

The 25 persons named by the grand jury are being charged on sealed secret indictments and their names are not known until they have been arrested.

The Student Senate, the Graduate Student Council and the Faculty Senate at Kent State issued a joint statement Tuesday condemning the action of the Ohio grand jury and calling for a Federal grand jury investigation.

The resolution criticized the Ohio jury for its "lack of understanding of the role of a university in a free society."

According to James Butz, coordinator for Friday's moratorium, nearly 50 schools, including the University of Pennsylvania, William and Mary, the University of Massachusetts and UCLA, have agreed to the proposal for a Civil Liberties Day.

Call for Moratorium

The call for the moratorium was made Tuesday by student body president Craig Morgan-an Air Force Training Corps Cadet who has been a Jeading exponent of non-violence at Kent State-at an overflow meeting of faculty and students in the university auditorium.

Morgan was among those arrested Monday. Charges of second degree rioting against him stem from the events of last May 4 when four Kent State students were killed by gunfire fromthe M-1 rifles of Ohio National Guardsmen.

The Ohio State grand jury exonerated the National Guard for its action on May 4, but drew up secret indictments against Morgan and 24 others. Six persons turned themselves in Tuesday to the Portage County sheriff's department, bringing to ten the number arraigned thus far.

Only three of those charged remained in jail Wednesday, and Morgan was back at the Kent State campus planning Friday's moratorium. Two of the three students still in custody are charged with first-degree rioting as well as illegal drug use.

Ken Gordon, a senior at Kent State and one of 25 student senators, said yesterday that a noontime rally scheduled for Friday is partly a reaction to a statement issued Monday by Kent State president Robert I. White condemning a Yippie rally at the university last Friday.

White termed the Yippie rally a "post facto disruption" and called their six demands "ridiculous and unnegotiable." They included the three strike demands from last spring as well as these:

that the university condemn House Bill 1219, a bill passed by the Ohio state legislature which provides for the immediate suspension of students arrested for disruptions, and the automatic one-year suspension of students found guilty of disruption:

that the university condemn the indictment of the 25 students, non-students and faculty members by the Ohio grand jury:

that the university provide money for the defense of these persons.

A Kent State Student Defense Fund has been established. and the National Association of Student Governments has donated $1500. No one is purposely remaining in jail, and all those arrested for second-degree rioting have been released on bail.