Disciplinary actions viewed
After the University Daily Kansan ceased publication May 15, hearings were held by the University Disciplinary Board concerning the disruption of the ROTC Chancellor's Review May 9, and disciplinary action was taken against a number of KU students. Since the Kansan was unable to cover the hearings when they occurred, we will attempt, due to considerable student interest, to summarize and comment upon them now.
Seventy-one KU students were asked to answer charges May 26 that they refused to act in accordance with guidelines established by the University Senate Executive Committee and approved by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe as University regulations for the Chancellor's review of ROTC.
The University Disciplinary Board, sitting in open session, heard evidence about the origin of the guidelines, their adoption by the Cancellor as University regulations, and their publication in newspapers and over the public address system in Memorial Stadium the afternoon of the planned review.
Photographs taken at the stadium by five persons that afternoon were identified by the persons who took them. Only one attempt was made during the hearing to connect the photographs with a student charged.
The Board then began calling students to appear individually, and called witnesses as to the presence of the students on the field and to the extent of their participation. It heard about ten charged students and gave them a chance to cross-examine witnesses and present statements before recessing the hearings.
The remainder of the 71 students were heard in open hearing May 27, plus nine additional students who had waived their one week notice of the charges against them and were also heard.
A restraining order issued that afternoon by Frank R. Gray, judge of the District Court of Douglas County, was read to the group of students charged. The order listed several students and non-students by name and others as a group.
The order restrained each person from:
"Remaining in or entering any building on the University campus in defiance of directions given by any University employe:
"Interfering with the faculty or administrative officers or staff of the University in the performance of their duties or the occupancy of their respective offices;
"Interfering with the operation of the University Disciplinary Board or any other duly constituted University body or with
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any regularly scheduled University function;
"Ijuring or destroying University records or any other property."
Violation of the restraining order, still in effect, is criminal contempt of court and punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.
The restraining order was obtained by Kansas Attorney General Kent Frizzel at the request of the University.
Closed hearings were held May 28 for students who requested them.
The University Disciplinary Board then issued its findings June 1 through its chairman, Dr. Russell N. Bradt, associate professor of mathematics.
The statement read:
"The University Disciplinary Board has considered the cases of seventy-one students charged by the University Senate Executive Committee with violation of the guide lines established by the Committee with regard to the Chancellor's Review of the Reserve Officers Training Corps on Friday, May 9, 1969.
"The stated purpose of the guidelines was to safeguard the right of peaceable assembly on the campus. Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are the fundamental principles upon which any free society, particularly and academic community, must be based. The Board believes that many of the charged students acted out of deep moral commitment. However, moral commitment, no matter how strongly held, cannot excuse violation of the fundamental liberties.
"To protect the freedom of speech and assembly, the University must establish reasonable regulations, and these regulations must be enforced.
"The Board has suspended from the University for the Fall semester, 1969-70, thirty-three charged students whose conduct and activities were proved to have both (1) violated the guidelines relating to the Chancellor's Review, and (2) infringed upon the right of peaceable assembly by preventing the review.
"Thirteen additional students, who would graduate this spring or summer, were found guilty of the same offenses. For these students, the suspension will include withholding of credit for the spring and summer 1969 terms until January, 1970.
"The Board has assigned lesser penalties (reprimand or disciplinary probation) to eight students who violated the guidelines but either (1) left the field so as not to prevent the Review, or (2) were not proved to have participated in preventing the Review.
"In the cases of two students who have committed previous offenses, the Board has assigned penalties of longer duration.
"The Board has found fifteen of
those charged not guilty of violating the guidelines. In addition, the University Senate Executive Committee dismissed its charges against a number of other students.
"These decisions may be appealed to the Board of Disciplinary Appeals."
The University Disciplinary Board has 11 members, six students and five faculty or staff. For these hearings, two faculty-staff members disqualified themselves.
Then on June 5, William M. Balfour, dean of student affairs, made the following announcement in regard to the disciplinary board findings:
"The University of Kansas will not release the names and punishments of students involved in recent Disciplinary Board hearings concerned with the May 9 Chancellor's Review of the Reserve Officer Training Corps units.
"The University has received a number of requests for such information, but discussions among officers of the University and members of the Senate Executive Committee have produced the consensus that the Disciplinary Board actions were sufficient without adding to them the punishments that may be inflicted by society upon publication."
Kansan Comment
The Disciplinary Board punishments in the case of many of these students, granted, were severe. But we feel the decision to withhold names and punishments was not justified.
By violating the University guidelines set forth in advance of the Chancellor's Review, of which the students involved supposedly were aware, the demonstrators willingly left themselves open to not only disciplinary action by the University but to public criticism as well.
These people acted out of "deep moral conviction," and, we must assume, as responsible adults. They went ahead with the demonstration, knowing they were in violation of University guidelines, and were apparently willing to accept the consequences of their actions. They, in essence, made themselves public figures, open to public comment and criticism.
We feel, therefore, that their names and punishments should have been released.
A person, as a private individual, has the right to be left alone unless, by his own actions or the actions of others with whom he is connected, he comes into the public eye. These persons brought before the Disciplinary Board, by their own actions, waived that right. They therefore should pay the price of criticism by their fellow man for those actions and should not be entitled to protection from that criticism.
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