CFIA Punishments Harm Students' Faith in the CRR

Most of the University community feels that physical assault, such as spilling water over a Visiting Committee member is an intolerable action deserving disciplinary retribution from the CRR.

NEWS ANALYSIS

But when students who refrain from physical assault are punished, students and faculty members begin considering the CRR a politically repressive body. Thirteen such students got sentences yesterday from admonishment to suspended requirements to withdraw.

Difficult Judgment

In political protests, it is sometimes impossible to tell in advance whether a spirited demonstration will turn into a confrontation involving physical assault.

Why should these 13 students have originally conceived of the April 9 disruption as anything more than a mill-in, for which they would not be charged? (CFIA Robert R. Bowie did not press charges after NAC's militant CFIA tour last Fall.)

The CRR's decision in these 13 cases means that all students cannot realistically exercise their right to peaceful political dissent without risking severance from the University. If the University Gazette or others photograph these 13 students in a future peaceful demonstration which becomes obstructive, they will be liable to particularly harsh punishment.

'Stay Away'

Referring to potentially explosive situations, James Q. Wilson. chairman of the CRR, said. "If you're in doubt about it, stay away from the crowds." He added. "We have to persuade them, individual by individual to stop these actions to allow an intellectual atmosphere to remain more or less intact." Such a philosophy could stifle legitimate political dissent.

If the CRR continues to try cases in which no one is physically harmed or harassed, it will be crushed by a heavy volume of work and will continue to lose its consensus, as more and more students, and their close friends, are affected.

Many members of this University community have come to regard obstructive picketing for a limited time, without physical assault, as a legitimate means of political protest.

At least 67 students out of the 200 picketing University Hall on May 11 are scheduled for CRR hearings beginning today. It should be evident that trying to weed out such a large number of students, or at least frighten them into fewer or no future political demonstrations, is an attempt doomed to failure.

More polarization will be the net result, with CRR hearings themselves

? to more demonstrations which ?d to even more CRR hearings, ?dless spiral that will completely ? the University.

?nt opinion, not administrators ? CRR charges, should be relied ? control demonstrations not re? in physical injury. Surely the ? stration could find better uses ? money than eight-by-ten glossies CRR tape recordings.