Presidential Commission Gives Report on Campuses

The President's Commission on Campus Unrest issued its report to President Nixon on Saturday and called the divisions in American society "as deep as any since the Civil War."

The report placed much of the blame for the national polarization and campus unrest squarely on the shoulders of the Administration.

It called on the President to end the war in Indochina, renew the national commitment to full social justice, take the lead in ending divisive rhetoric, and "exercise his reconciling moral leadership as a first step to prevent violence and create understanding."

What Does It Mean?

What this all will mean remains to be seen. Nixon himself has not yet read the report and will not, according to White House aides, until he returns from his European junket sometime next week.

The tenor and title of the report indicated that the commission does not place much faith in Nixon's willingness to listen and respond. "We fear new violence and growing enmity," the report said in a section entitled "A Call to the American People."

Addressing the report to the people and not to the President is a sharp departure from the normal practice of study groups formed by executive order.

Since the nine-member commission was formed in the aftermath of the murders at Jackson State and Kent State it has been the center of controversy. In June Vice President Spiro Agnew called for the resignation of Joseph Rhodes Jr., a Junior Fellow at Harvard, from the commission because Rhodes had said he would like to see the commission investigate the effect of Agnew's rhetoric on campus unrest.

Rhodes has been instrumental in reducing the commission's dependence on the President by opening up commission hearings to the public, and broadening the scope of its investigations.

In addition to its recommendations to the President, the commission advocated courses of action for university administrators and students. "Universities must pull themselves together," the report, said. It called upon them to reaffirm that the proper function of academic institutions are learning, research, and scholarship.

It recommended that all universities formulate codes of proper conduct and announce in advance penalties for violation of the code. In the event of campus violence, it recommended prompt use of law enforcement agencies.

Students, the commission said, must realize that they have the responsibility of presenting their views in "a reasonable and persuasive manner."

The report of the commission is the third major report to the President oncampus unrest since the invasion of Cambodia. The other two-one by Chancellor Alexander Heard of Vanderbilt University and the other by President James Cheek of Howard University-met with chilly receptions at the White House.

Administration aides reportedly grumbled that the reports placed too much of the blame for campus unrest on the President and not enough on college administrators and students.

The campus unrest commission plans to release two additional reports on Kent and Jackson State in the next week.