THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1986 TILE MICHIGAN DAILY "PA( 1M qVVVIV THURSDAY, JANUARY 6,1966 TUE MIChIGAN DAILY 1"trl#W 1) G V J 4 FIRST OF A KIND: Teachers Strike Rages at St. John S Grant For ns Base i By CLARENCE FANTO More than 200 faculty members of St. John's University in New York City, the nation's largest Catholic university, are on strike in the first teachers' walkout ever faced by an American college or university. The strike was called by. the United Federation of College Teachers to protest the dismissal of 31 faculty members by the St. John's administration. The union, supported by the American As- sociation of University Professors, is also protesting "refusal of the. university administration to give teachers an adequate role in the formulation of academio and ad- ministrative policies." The faculty members, including three priests, were dismissed for what the administration termed "inappropriate conduct." The teachers were disenchanted with what they called an abridgment of academic freedom at the school, which has more than 13,000 stu- dents. Most of the dismissed fac-: ulty members were active in ef- forts to modernize St. John's and revitalize free inquiry and an in- tellectual "spirit." Series of Issues The strike is surrounded by a complex of issues with trade un- ion, educational and religious overtones. The striking teachers, representing about one third of the total St. John's faculty, claim to be advocating an ecumenical spirit and an improvement of academic quality in Catholic high- er education. The present crisis had its be- ginnings last March when 200 teachers angrily stalked out of a faculty meeting in protest against low salaries and absence of aca- demic freedom. Personalities deemed too "controversial" by the administration to speak at the university included the three can- didates in New York's mayoral race, Sen. Robert Kennedy (D- NY) and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. A student demonstration fol- lowed the faculty walkout. 'The students complained of censor- ship of school publications and the absence of political clubs on campus. There were some efforts undertaken to achieve internal reform. Political clubs are now permitted and liberalized tenure rules have been announced. The administration has also promised to create a faculty senate. No Reasons But, several weeks ago, dismissal notices went out to 31 faculty members. Their contracts were not to be renewed, the notices stated. No explicit reason was given to the teachers for their dismissal. The faculty rebellion which led to the ouster of the teachers is, in a sense, an outgrowth of the Ecumenical Council sessions in the Vatican, at which greater par- ticipation by laymen in the af- fairs of the church was encour- aged. The strike brings to a head issues affecting the future course of Catholic higher education and which also touch on problems at many public universities-academ- ic tenure, political freedom, authoritarianism at the upper ad- ministrative levels of the modern university, and the rights of fac- ulty and students. According to the dismissed teachers, there were other con- ditions at the school which "killed initiative and creativity, thwarted freedom of legitimate inquiry and created a 'garrison state'." * No handbills may be dis- tributed without specific permis- sion, and then only at certain locations after the contents are approved by the administration. In practice, all political activity at the school has been thwarted by the administration's refusal to authorize handbills or activities on any controversial issue, which, as defined by the Vincentian priests who run the university, apparently includes all current issues in the forefront of public consciousness. " The library, according to teachers, is lacking even basic references. The university has di- verted funds for the library sys- tem to construction of a new athletic building. 0 Rigid dress regulations re- quire students to be attired in jacket and tie in all university buildings, at all times. * A regulation states that men and women must not be together in parked cars in the campus area. This rule was duly enforced in a recent incident which sheds light on the overall atmosphere at the school. A professor was wait- ing with his wife in a car for an acquaintance to come out of a meeting. When a security guard ordered him out of the car, the professor explained that he was a faculty member and that the woman sitting next to him was his wife. It made no difference, said the security guard. The pro- fessor was forced to leave his car. Faculty Leader The leader of the faculty rebel- lion is Rev. Peter O'Reilly, an acknowledged expert on medieval philosophy. He and his colleagues are opposed by the university president, the Very Rev. Joseph Cahill. O'Reilly claims that St. John's is a "dictatorial, authoritarian autocracy. "All we want is the kind of freedom in practice at other uni- versities," he says. "But the ad- ministration sees the union as a threat to its own absolute control. "There is a need in Catholic schools, especially in this institu- tion, for the faculty to assume its proper and rightful role, to have a greater voice in determining academic policy and administra- tive decisions," O'Reilly contends. The student council at St. John's has gone on the record supporting the faculty members against the administration. Some students have picketed against the administration. But a campus leader, Tom Riley, who heads Students United for Academic Freedom, complains of widespread apathy. "The students have been taught that the most important thing is to practice the externals of their faith," he says. "Many of them are the first of their generation to go to college and they're afraid of doing anything which might hurt their status." Catholic educators across the nation, while reluctant to publicly criticize another institution, have nevertheless made clear their pri- vate feeling that St. John's is archaic and even foolish in its stand. A spokesman at Fordham Uni- versity claims that, apart from the rapid expansion since World War II which has created prob- lems at St. John's and other Catholic universities, these schools have another problem-the change from' operations dominated by the clergy to more modern institu- tions in which laymen constituted' the majority of the faculty. "In such situations, the intro- duction of democratic procedures into academic decision making has frequently lagged far behind the pace in secular institutions, and in some cases, particularly at St. John's, the administration has been slow to adapt to the new situation." Some Catholic educators feel the long-range effects of the crisis at St. John's may be more beneficial than embarrassing for other Catholic institutions since it would serve to point out ad- vances toward academic freedom made by other Catholic schools recently. At Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, a group of faculty members recently issued a state- ment pointing out that Duquesne NEW YORK (IP)-St. John's University lasthnight warned 25 instructors who missed class- es they will be dealt with "promptly and appropriately" if such actions continue. The strike was apparently in the process of collapsing as the number of faculty members staying away from classes rap- idly dwindled. However ,the administration and a spokesman for the AFL- CIO Federation of College Teachers differed on the ef- fectiveness of the strike. A uni- versity spokesman said that 90 per cent of the university's stu- dents showed up for class and that only 43 of the school's 651 teachers stayed out. A union spokesman said about 200 teachers were absent and that .the strike was a "complete suc- cess." "not only permits but encourages the discussion of those principles for which the faculty at St. John's is struggling." A chief administrative spokes- man, Rev. Joseph Tinnelly, rejects O'Reilly's contentions. "Father O'Reilly takes the posi- tion that he, as a priest, should be able to go into a Catholic uni- versity classroom and say he did not believe in a fundamental teaching of the Church. "We part company there, be- cause this may be all right in a school of theology so that stu- dents can sharpen their language, but when a Catholic priest could just out of high school and ex- go to a freshman class with kids press such views, it's a completely different matter. We feel that this exceeds any academic free- dom consonant with the univer- sity's aims," Tinnelly says. Although some students have expressed their support for the dismissed students, most of them have remained unconcerned, thus underscoring the effectiveness of the paternalism which affects the university from its top adminis- trators to most of the student body. A former St. John's student, now studying at New York Uni- versity, explains: "The teachers were very good, but their work was hindered be- cause they were always bogged down in battles with the admin- istration for what they considered their rights. I had no personal complaints, but some of my friends who are there now com- plain of a repressive atmosphere. Guards are often known to push students around for no good rea- son." Another student, now enrolled as a senior in St. John's, says: "I just don't see what the university has against the dismissed teachers. This sort of thing disregards the students' best interests." For New Institute (Continued from Page 1) other research centers. The institute will also support both an instructional program and a student training program. Advisory Group Norman said the institute will operate under the general super- vision of an advisory group com- posed of its staff, private indus- try representatives and the gov- ernment. The arrangement is sim- ilar to that used to guide the Phoenix reactor project. Norman stressed that this ar- rangement would ensure both the institute's relevance to current problems and its independence from any one group's interests. "When established," he said, 'this institute will be no different in attitude than other large research projects on our campus." Sources report no plans to de- cide on a director for the institute in the near future. Norman felt that men capable of handling the position would not be difficult to find, though he admitted there are not many available because of the complexities of managing a sys- tems-oriented institute. 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