Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Children's Crusade–What Now?

1969; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 1; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00091383.1969.10567775

1939-9146

Steven V. Roberts,

Academic Freedom and Politics

T Ihe student political mood on campus this year is one of fatigue mixed with depression. The great McCarthy crusade is over, the presidential election produced more apathy than anger, and many students are simply tired. The draft dominates private thoughts and public discussions, but few young have the energy to renew massive demonstrations against the war. Radical protests during the election were a washout, indicating that no matter how many young were outraged at Chicago, few were radicalized to the point of joining in guerrilla politics. Moderate students talk about preserving the McCarthy movement and building new local political organizations to take over the Democratic Party, but such energetic dreams will be hard to sustain as the war and Lyndon Johnson recede into history. Even the Students for a Restructured University, the moderate group drafting campus reforms at Columbia, has failed to rouse student interest in its proposals this fall. At Harvard, a student-faculty committee established to facilitate communication on campus affairs has found little to complain about. is a great malaise, said one student at Oberlin, people are just streaming into the psych services. And at Boston University, a student said: People just want to be left alone. There is a general air of depression, grouchiness and resignation. Many college administrators may be relieved to find they can enter their offices without fear of being barricaded in by irate students. But they had better get their rest while they can. Student political activity tends to ebb and flow, and this is clearly a low point. Some new cause will undoubtedly crop up before long, the demonstrations will start again, and universities will once more be buffeted by fervent protests. This will happen, simply because it must. The student protests of recent years are no accidents; there is often an air of carnival revelry about them, but they cannot be dismissed as fads. The protests grow out of a particular turn of mind, a particular way of looking at the world. The generation gap is a yawning reality, and there is not much the older folks can do about it.