A Report on the Pressure on Non-Conformists at OU by Eric J

tied in history and in the present situ- Thus the issues at OSU and OU place rather continually since those ation : run deeper than even the possible Boomers raced for new home sites in 1 . General fear of anything or any- fate of Oklahoma's two major seats 1889-and for the first time in their one "different ." of learning and the quality of educa- lives had something to lose from 2 . Assumption that anything con- tion the children of Oklahomans may change . sidered sinister is (or may be) com- receive. The issue is freedom to ques- Some elements on college campuses munist. tion authority and to dare to be dif- today, no doubt, would go too far and 4. Willingness to do anything, in- ferent . substitute anarchy for freedom. But cluding violation of personal rights, Oklahoma's record, in short, is as many of the forces in opposition to property rights, and the entire Con- black as any state's in terms of the there would go equally far in the stitution, in order to eradicate "com- continuing struggle of Americans to other direction, and substitute re- munism ." remain free. And the present furor pression for democracy. Historically, 5 . Outspoken anti-intellectualism . on university campuses, and in uni- Oklahoma, has been damaged far 6. A trade-school mentality toward versity towns, is just one front in more often by the latter mentality . higher education . the general warfare that has taken F N 1) A Report on the Pressure on Non-Conformists at OU By Eric J. Groves

The difficulties of those with differences

ark Twain once suggested that the difference of opin- out significance to the Norman academic community . ion is what makes a good horse race. He might have people who march to a different drummer sometimes added that an opinion about a horse is usually based on develop a paranoid strain . The pressure is great. The fact : how many races won. how many lost, and whether radical element at the University is convinced that the the track was muddy . A great difference of opinion is FBI is sponsoring four to six students as informants . abroad in Oklahoma today . and the facts are very much There has been no evidence presented to support this in question . charge. The war in Vietnam is the nation's most bitter affliction, Credibility for that sort of charge was increased, how- ghettos, taxes, and the value of the dollar notwithstanding. ever, with a public display of hostility toward OU's radi- In Oklahoma, as elsewhere, turbulent issues are discussed cals by Oklahoma's FBI chief, Mr. Teague. His proposal where they may richochet about without wrecking the to college deans that a university security agent investi- premises. The University is the forum. gate visiting lecturers may be written off as a friendly A certain crescendo was reached in Norman in October. attempt to find employment for elderly agents. The dis- Oklahoma's FBI chief, Lee O. Teague, publicly advised quieting aspects of Teague's speech was the association college deans to employ "official college persons" whose of the SDS with the Communist Party. raison d'etre would be to investigate the background of Teague was reported to have asserted that communists visiting speakers. are making "inroads with youth they think they can con- Four Oklahoma legislators descended on Dr. George L. vince. There is no question that they are being successful . Cross, the University president. They insisted, according Look at all the discord . The Communist party has no to 1)r. Cross, that the Students for a Democratic Society enforceable right to speak on the campuses of state-sup- (SDS) at OU be disbanded . ported schools. Jack -Middleton, Southwest ('enter for Human Rela- "Freedom of speech," Teague explained to the cleans, tions Studies, was admonished and given a lesser assign- "is not the same as freedom to speak anywhere, any time ment for alleged liaison with Paul Boutelle, a recent someone wants to speak . That is confusing freedom with visitor persuaded of black power and socialism . license." Further, Teague concluded that communists are Students with uncommon habits of dress and hair style "using" peace groups. The SDS, he stated, was not listed complain of constant harassment by Norman policemen . by the U .S . Attorney General as subversive probably be- Further, they say, they are refused service in public tav- cause there had not been "sufficient time to have a meet- erns and assaulted without mercy on the streets. ing and add it to the list." Discussing the New Left recently, Christopher Jencks No such thing will happen. The American Civil Liber- wrote, "America may be headed for an era of repression Eric J. Groves is an Oklahoman by choice . .4 native of Philadel- which will make McCarthyism seem relatively innocuous ." phia, Pa., he tame to Oklahoma- City in 196 5 while on active duty The premise of this article is not that the pendulum has with the army Intelligence Corps. He decided to .stay, and served for nine months as personnel officer to the Oklahoma County swung far in that direction at the University of Oklahoma, Libraries. Eric presently attends the College of Law. He holds a but. that it is in motion. The foregoing events are not with- 13 :1 in political science.

20 ties Union is busy today defending the W.E.B . DuBois Less militant than the SDS but equally as active is the Clubs, and they are a dickens further to the left than the OU Committee to End the War in Vietnam. The commit- SDS. Lists of subversive organizations have traditionally tee grew out of a liberal-pacifist coalition last January. been recognized as more often a liability than an asset. Prof. David Whitney, of the sociology department, agreed Justice William O . Douglas, in a 1951 case before the to sponsor the group, and after a brief struggle with a U.S. Supreme Court, spoke to that point. "The problems reluctant Student Senate, the group gained recognition. of security are real," he opined . "So are the problems of The catalyst and prime mover was Sudie Trippet. freedom. The paramount issue of the age is to reconcile Sudie Trippet, a senior from Tulsa, brought to the the two. An organization branded as `subversive' by the ()I' campus a background of travel and experience that Attorney General is maimed and crippled . The injury is unique. She studied at the University of Wisconsin, is real, immediate, and incalculable . A party is entitled Tulsa University, Julliard, and the New School in New to know the charge against him ; he is also entitled to York City before returning to Oklahoma . Her travel has notice and the opportunity to be heard." taken her to Latin America and Europe, and she has vis- "Communists? Communists?" Mike Wright laughed ited every eastern European country but one. out loud . The SDS elected Mike chairman in October. The Fourth Estate has often pictured Sudie as sort of "No, we're not communists," he said. "The Communist a female hypnotist. There is an implicit suggestion in her Party in America is a bunch of old men who haven't come publicity that somehow, like the siren on the rock, Sudie's up with a new idea or a new program in 50 years. Teague song draws red-blooded American men to a leftist doom. charges that the SDS is supported by funds from the Com- The allegations are imaginative, but unfounded. "We munist Party. This is hogwash. Our chapter is broke. protestors are not curios," Sudie says. "On the contrary, Whatever funds we have are the direct result of passing we feel we embody the principles that this country has the hat at our meetings. I only wish that we did have worked hard to build . In voicing our opposing views, in some outside support." welcoming dissent, in working side by side with different The SDS is a recognized student organization at the political tendencies on an issue on which we all agree, we University of Oklahoma . The SDS constitution speaks of feel we are preserving those very ideals of democracy education and political concern. The purpose is to main- which the government insists it preserves by fighting this tain a vision of a truly democratic society, to seek rele- war. vance through a continual focus on the political realities of "The U.S. government is belittling its own heritage by the time. The chapter at OU is affiliated with the national its intervention in a national struggle . It is falsifying its organization of the same name. The members are young own slogans of freedom and democracy by not turning to people on the Left. The work, they say, is no less than the people for the answer to this war. We readily give our urgent. answer . We believe in self-determination for all people. History is cluttered with charters and constitutions that We believe that our feet should carry us where our con- espoused Olympian visions in theory and succumbed to a victions lie. We will continue to march and to speak. If minimum of them in practice . "We are putting our theo- this is extremism, then so is democracy. " ries into practice," Wright said. "We constantly test the Sudie's leadership gave way to that of Robert Owen in limits of freedom-freedom of expression, of thought, of October. Owen is less militant than his predecessor but speech." seemingly as effective. His father, Dr. Lyle Owen, chairs the department of economics at the University of Tulsa. Robert is a University Scholar--an honor conferred on 50 outstanding freshmen-majoring in letters. In order to continue his program of history, literature, and philosophy, he must maintain a 3.0 average on OU's 4.0 scale . "Our purpose is to educate and to mobilize political opinion," he says. "We believe that when the facts are known about the war in Vietnam, more people will be persuaded that our position is correct. "One of our activities is to distribute literature in the Student Union ; books by philosophers, veterans, political scientists, scholars . We want to build a new consensus in this area regarding the war in Vietnam. Groups like the committee are doing it all over the country. We want to make our contribution . I'll tell you this, our movement in Oklahoma is encouraging movements all over the nation. People we've met in New York City and in Wash- ington could hardly believe that Oklahoma had an anti- war movement . We drew applause all the way down Fifth Avenue last spring." Of the measure of progress, Owen said, "In this sort of thing it is not measurable. But we have a far broader base of appeal at OU this semester than I ever thought we would . People-students and faculty--- now seek out the Sudie Trippet to recruit . The Ameri- "We protestors are not curious committee. Before, we had Young 21 and cans for Freedom drew only 200 people to their pro-war in Vietnam other pertinent issues of the times." No rally. When Dave Dellinger spoke after visiting Hanoi, one asked any questions on that clay either . over 500 people crowded into the Microbiology auditor- Boutelle arrived. With other members of the New Left, ium . considerably in his shadow, he lectured at a teach-in Extremism? "We're no more extremist than any other "Tuesday afternoon . He spoke of the intrinsic connection sort of extremist group," laughs Owen . "Why there are between American imperialism in Vietnam and the sup- poetry extremists and right-wing extremists and butter- port of that imperialism by oppressed Negroes. He warned fly extremists." of impending violence in urban areas drained of funds The least militant of the three anti-war groups on the now committed to the military establishment. Boutelle scene is the Negotiation Now! Originally directed invoked the image of a very angry man. toward gathering signatures on a petition, the group is a Then the lid blew off. When Boutelle appeared formally branch of the Oklahoma City headquarters. Currently the following evening, Meacham Auditorium was jammed three faculty members are on the steering committee. The Representatives of television and the press crowded each 2,300 signatures in Oklahoma were recently presented other, fussing about for interviews and pictures . Every to the administration in Washington by delegate Dr. segment of the divergent academic community was rep- David Kitts, of the geology school . Negotiation Now! has resented . The black advocate's staunch Marxist theories an aura of respectability with which the media will not raised the crowd to heights of fervent support and snarling endow its radical counterparts . Since the drive is over, opposition. the group will likely change its name and begin again anew. ours later when the morning newspapers hit the streets, "Unprincipled," an SDS member termed the Negotia- H Oklahomans awoke to the proclamation that a black tion Now! coalition of students and faculty . "An unprin- power socialist had addressed the students, faculty, anti cipled position . They presume we have the right to negoti- public on the campus of their state supported school . ate for the Vietnamese. Besides. President Johnson will Within the week, Middleton was disciplined, state legisla- only tell them to send their petitions to Hanoi." tors were on the president's doorstep, the FBI had recom- The great mass of students at OU direct their energy mended sanctions against visiting speakers, and the pulse toward projects as close to the heart as the election of of the public was stirred. homecoming queen or victory over the University of "Texas The Daily Oklahoman announced two davs later that in football. Nonetheless the hawkish point of view is Jack -Middleton had been "sold a bill of goods" in con- represented in the Young Americans for Freedom. Barry curring with the SDS. The University position was that he Fitzgerald, the YAF chieftain, complained recently that had "raised eyebrows ." Further, Middleton was accused publicity in Oklahoma was too concerned with the Left. of pushing Boutelle in the general direction of Langston YAF conducts activities both locally and nationally in Vniversity, a primarily Negro institution . The newspaper support of the U .S. policy in Vietnam . But media cover- stated that Middleton would be transferred to a position age for their rallies and forums is poor. "The SDS seem wherein his relations with the public would be limited. to get on the front page anytime they desire," Fitzgerald The allegations simply did not square with the facts. complained . "A rally of the YAF recently was all but Middleton's Oct. 10 memorandum stated his organiza- ignored ." tion's intentions clearly, and those in opposition had more Fitzgerald's group lacks the dramatic touch . A full than a week to object . No one cliff. battalion of YAFers strike the public eye no differently If Jack Middleton were "ineffective," such conduct than a large group of certified public accountants, or fu- would have been contradistinctive to an outstanding set ture farmers, or Young Democrats. The SDS arouses of credentials. At present, the Oklahoma City Community emotion . The SDS offers an emotional laxative : the drama Relations Commission retains him as their professional of dissent. consultant. So does the Tulsa Community Relations Com- That drama moved to the stage in Meacham Auditor- mission . He also serves as a consultant to the Federal ium on Oct . 18 with the appearance of Paul Boutelle vice Aviation Agency for Developing Human Resources. He is presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party. His the youngest man, at 27, to serve as the Southwest Region- visit began earlier that month when Sudie Trippet ar- al Director for the National Association of Intergroup ranged a stopover for Boutelle, who was touring the Relations Officials. On Nov. 27 Middleton met with New Southwest. Press releases were directed to all potentially York Mayor John Lindsay, representing Oklahoma in a curious agencies. No opposition was evident . Jack Middle- major conference with civil disorders . ton agreed with Sudie to sponsor Boutelle . On Oct. 10, as Middleton, born in Tulsa, is married and has two chil- coordinator for Intergroup Relations at the Southwest dren. He earned his BS in social science from Oklahoma Center for Human Relations Studies, Middleton issued State University in 1963 and pursued graduate study at an interoffice communication. It was distributed all over St . Louis University's Human Relations ('enter. Middle- the campus, one to each faculty member. ton served on active duty with the Army, was honorably "The Human Relations Center, in cooperation with discharged, and completed his military obligation with the the SDS, will present Mr. Boutelle at a public forum 45th Infantry Division . In the last year he organized 28 Wednesday ." it read. "The Center's activity in presenting major conferences at the OU center. The subjects ranged this forum should not be construed to mean endorsement from ecumenism to extremism to opportunities in indus- of a political candidate or political platform. Mr . Bou- try. A "summit conference" arranged by Middleton be- telle's appearance is to provide only an opportunity for tween Negro militants and the authorities in Oklahoma insight into his particular philosophy regarding.; our role City last summer may well have averted a riot .

2 2 These accomplishments notwithstanding, Middleton's serve anybody. We don't care what people think about reputation stands in question . Although he is not a dis- politics . But we have a responsibility to our customers." senter, he must remain silent . He has been judged guilty He grew angrier. "Look, as ]on,, as there's one American by association when the association was less than circum- boy fighting in Vietnam, we will support him in any way stantial . The suppression of disquieting ideas reaches out possible . We will not duo anything to infringe on his dig- beyond such men as Middleton . A growing tendency to nitv. Those SDS kids are communists . The FBI said so. stereotype the proponents of the anti-war position is evi- But we knew it before that report came out ." dent. Stereotypically, the dissenter is an oddball. He is a He jumped up and retrieved a handbill from behind social outcast who claims to fame by repudiating behavi- the bar. "Read this," he ordered . "Read it. It's word for oral patterns of the cultural mainstream . The activist word from the communist manifesto ." The handbill was minority, according to this view, seeks distinction in out- an excerpt from the preamble to the SDS constitution . landish dress and excessive hair. Students wrote it in Norman, Oklahoma . Stereotyping is by far an easier method of arranging the "Don't you worry," the manager said, "the campus complexities of one's environment than detailed investiga- is behind us on this thing. They'll back us tip . Don't tion. Without doubt, many dissenters are unusually worry ." garbed. A stereotype, then, is a convenient abbreviation . As it turned out, the campus didn't back him ilp . Fur- But abbreviations have limits, and stereotypes have thermore, occasions of violence for threats of violence on liabilities. On Oct. 19, the evening after Boutelle's ap- the campus are rare. The booth in the Student Union, pearance, Tony Bennett and his wife Sandra decided to distributing anti-war literature, opens and closes daily take a break . They had been painting their kitchen. To- with no casualties . There is sometimes, however, an elec- gether with their friends Chris Towles and MarylynScur-lock,theywalkedtotheclusterofshopsadjacenttothe tric tension in the air. Harassment off campus is another matter. campus to have a beer . They wandered into the Round- "The Norman police are fantastic," Mike Wright as- table, a popular bar with Ot' students, in order too hear serted . "We can't walk dtown the street without being a live band. stopped or questioned . If a person appears to be a member The Bennett family and their friends went no further of the SDS, the police stop and intimidate him. If he than the lobby. ""There is a private party going on in looks like anyone else, but is known to be a member, he here, and we're full," the bouncer told them. The foursome is arrested anyway ." questioned the party-goers entering, and no one knew about it . Neither did anyone who was leaving. nose are serious allegations. They bring to mind the "We tried again," Bennett stated . "This time a group of notorious modus operandi of small town peace officers in four bouncers met us and told us that our kind wasn't the South during the civil rights struggle . Such charges wanted in the Roundtable . The place was not crowded, are hard to substantiate . "Their plausibility grew quickly and there was room for all of us. After several comments in my mind as I stood one evening talking to a dozen were exchanged, we left. Outside about a dozen patrons members of the SDS . Norman policemen pulled a cruiser had gathered, and they called us communists, hippies, into the parking loot and approached the group "I want Boutelle followers, and other things . I couldn't believe it." this group dispersed," one officer said belligerently . "Are It's understandable that Bennett was surprised. He had we breaking the law?" one student asked. "I don't have heard the roar of the crowd before, though, as a varsity to tell you that ." answered the policeman. "Just get go- wrestler for OU Tony had what athletes call a "full ing," boat"-an athletic scholarship. He won three varsity "They never arrest us when the press is around," one letters and placed third in Big Eight competition for tall and shaggy fellow said. "But if you don't believe us, three years wrestling at 191 pounds. Once he was third just take a list of our names at random and go check the in the nation. records." The list comprised, at random, 10 names : Joe Bennett plans to teach English Sandra is majoring in Bateman, Dixon Dean, Steve Harris, Al Jennings, Robyn special education and will work with retarded children . Moore, Carol Neher, Roy Neher, John Pratt, Keith Price . Marylyn is a Glenn Couch Scholar with a triple major. and John Ratliff . All were either members of the SDS or All four are excellent students. They are not hippies, or associates of members. The records of the city court re- communists, or anything in particular . But the Bennetts vealed that all but one had been arrested . But of the nine had been painting, and their work clothes gave rise to a arrested, only one had been convicted. Dixon Dean was stereotype in the minds of the Roundtable management. arrested at 3 :50 p.m. on Oct. 9, 1967, for littering. The Besides, like many members of the OU faculty, Bennett police record stated, "As the subject started to cross the has a beard. street from the west side to the east side, he threw down The man who identified himself as the owner of the the wrapper from his Nutty Buddy ice cream cone. The Roundtable refused to give his name. City records, how- wrapper landed in the middle of the street." Dean was ever, showed that a license to sell beer at the Roundtable fined $5 . Officer Richard Oldaker arrested Al Jennings was issued to Wilson Wilhite. His friends call him Willy and Joe B . Bateman on Aug. 1, 1967 for "wandering aim- "Listen," he explained, "this thing with Tony Bennett has lessly within the city without lawful reason,'"- or loitering . been blown out of proportion . When he came in here the They were taken to the county jail and later found not other night, we were hosting a private party." guilty . Was the place full? "No, it wasn't full exactly . But we Roy M. Neher, upon leaving a pool hall at 12 :35 a.m . had a group of Vietnam veterans in here, and they wanted on Sept. S . 1967, was arrested on the same charge . Ver- to be left alone. What you got to understand is that we'll dict? Not guilty. He was arrested again in the saint" place

23 at approximately the same time for the same charge on OU's student newspaper bravely editorialized its pro- Sept. 29, 1967. Verdict? Not guilty. test of "l'eague's advice. Insofar as one can tell, the Univer- In most instances, however, the arrest is simply harass- sity has not hired a moonlighting Efrem Zimbalist to in- ment, and charges are never filed in the municipal court . vestigate its visitors . This is encouraging but no remedy Keith Price, John Ratliff, and Steve Harris have been ar- for the damage done to the reputations of the Leftist rested for vagrancy, detained, and never prosecuted . John groups. They are guilty by accusation. Pratt was arrested on July 7, 1967, for vagrancy and driv- Dr. George L. Cross is in himself a remedy. He im- but ing under the influence of narcotics. No charge was ever presses one as a man of absolute integrity, not unaware filed. On Aug. 24, 1967, and again on Sept. 8, 1967, Carol of the political exigencies of Oklahoma . In a recent inter- Neher was arrested for vagrancy and loitering. No charges view, a writer asked Dr. Cross what he thought of were filed . "l'eague's suggestion that a security agent he employed to In many cases Norman police are correct in assuming investigate visiting lecturers. "It's nonsense," Dr. Cross that a fellow with long hair or a beard or sandals is a said. "I was under pressure from the legislators," he con- member of a dissenting organization . 'Pony Bennett, of tinued. "They wanted the SDS disbanded. I invited theta course, is not. But there are other members who by down here as an educational experience, and they appreci- ap-earancemightwellbemembersoftheYoungAmericans ated it. I told them that Boutelle's existence can't be for Freedom. If they are members of SDS, they are har- swept under a rug. It's a symptom of a deeper malady . assed nonetheless. The publicity was unwarranted, especially the editorial at- tention. "We have never banned an organization from our cam- en . The Arrogance William Fulbright wrote in his book pus that was not on the Attorney General's list of sub- of Power, "In freedom of S the abstract we celebrate versive groups. If the SDS should be added to the list, I opinion liturgy ; it is only when as part of our patriotic would promptly take up the matter with the Student some Americans exercise other Americans are it that Senate, since it originally sponsored them . shocked . No one, of course, ever criticized the right of dis- "Any move to change Middleton's job," Dr. Cross ex- sent ; it is always this particular instance of it or its explained, "began at the Southwest Center, by his superiors, ercise under these particular circumstances or at this par- not from this office. All the publicity hasn't hurt him that ticular time that throws people into a blue funk ." much. He has a brilliant career ahead of him ." Oklahomans share this right to dissent, popular opin- The remedy to public uproar over Paul Boutelle's ap- ions to the contrary aside. For violations de jure, there are pearance is simply an opposite viewpoint, expressed remedies de jure . But for violations de facto, remedies through whatever corridors are open to that opinion. To are more prohibitive. The FBI, after all, is not easily con- wit, justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that a man's tradicted. The Roundtable manager knew that the SDS free speech must be limited in that he cannot yell "Fire!" was subversive before the FBI knew it, but reasonable in a crowded theater. One must concur with the learned doubt in the minds of his contemporaries, if it existed, justice. But what if the theater is on fire? has probably been extinguished . The margin of dissimilarity is thin between the FBI And what of the possible damage done to the career of officially designating the SDS as subversive and merely in- Jack Middleton? Prof. David P. French, president of the of University forming the public of the likelihood . OU chapter of the American Association Professors, has announced that the chapter met to discuss issues ranging from student rights to speaker invitations. They passed unanimously a resolution affirming the right to invite controversial speakers and deploring sanctions for doing so. (See complete text on. inside front cover.) The professors' position implies that the demotion and admonishment of Middleton was, if not an outright error, at least cause for concern. The chapter represents about a third of the faculty . Its association with the national organization weighs heavily with the administration . 1"n- derstandably so, for the weapon of administrative censure by the national AAUP has been used in the past at col- leges where lack of "academic due process" was sub- stantiated . "Two-thirds of the facility doesn't belong," said French after the meeting, "for any number of reasons-- disagree- Freedom & TURN OUT ment, apathy, whatever. But when times are difficult, THIS Traitor membership increases. So far, OU has enjoyed an extra- ordinary freedom of speech . Dr. Cross is respected by the faculty and considered a steady defender of what educa- tors think a university should do." Prof. French is convincing . One wonders whether he could succeed in convincing Middleton that his defense Opposing Viewpoints has been alerted . Middleton, technically . is not a profes- Practicing ell ", commitment it) open inquiry sor. Thus the remedy here is effectual only insofar as it

24 can bring pressure to bear retrospectively, and to all an act whereby businesses that discriminate will be pro- corners of the academic hamlet. hibited from advertising in University publications or in Of violence to dissenters, by individuals or by police- University housing and from delivering their goods on men, the remedy lies in the courts . Of discrimination to campus. strange looking students, the remedy lies with their col- The point is that all available remedies must be util- leagues. OU's student newspaper, the Oklahoma Daily, ized . The alternative to their employment is a cloistered and the Student Senate took up that matter quickly environment, an Oklahoma where winds of opinion are in November . Charlie Miller, Bartlesville junior, urged still .E N D

have anything to do with such a controversial person and unleashed a tre- mendous amount of pressure . The The Boutelle Incident center quickly withdrew sponsorship, ou d have thought that OU had de- a Democratic Society (SDS) and the and Middleton was subsequently Ycided to drop football for all the Southwest Center for Human Rela- punished-his duties changed -which uproar . At one point there weren't tions Studies, Dart of OU's College was the one blemish, and a serious any panic buttons left to push. The of Continuing Education. Most peo- one, in the stand by the University. hue and cry was raised because of the ple are familiar with the SDS, a (See letters on next Page.) appearance on campus of Paul Bou- group of young radicals of the New What really upset most critics, telle, a tall, slender, goateed young Left, who bug most of the older gen- however, was Boutelle . not who had man in his thirties who calls himself eration to distraction. The state press sponsored him. That a man who sub- a Marxist and a black nationalist and seems fascinated by the group and scribed to Marxist economic doctrine who is candidate for vice president of never ignores it. The SDS arouses and who spoke so deprecatingly and the United States on the Socialist reaction from majority people to a harshly of American society and its Workers Party ticket. degree greatly disproportionate to political and social practices could Boutelle arrived in Norman Oct. its small numbers. By its very ex- address an audience at a state univer- 17 for a two-day stay during which istence SDS points up how exercised sity was the basis of their objections. he participated in a Vietnam teach-in some people can become over minor- Charges began to Ilv. A state rep- and spoke on "How to Achieve So- ity groups, how intimidated some peo- resentative from Oklahoma City . cialism in America" in the Union's ple are by unpopular and different Texanna Hackett, hinted darkly at Meacham Auditorium . Oh" was the political beliefs. economic sanctions toward OU by final stop on a college speaking tour The co-sponsor gave critics some- the legislature . Higher education in which had taken him through the thing to hang their anger on . A mem- Okahoma now ranks last-fiftieth- South and Southwest. With only a ber of the staff, Jack Middleton . had in the nation in state appropriations ripple of notice by news media, Bou- agreed that the center would share per student. Perhaps the legislature telle had addressed sparse audiences sponsorship of Boutelle . Opponents could make Oklahoma fifty-first, but on campuses in radical states like didn't believe any part of OU should it seems unlikely . Georgia and Texas . Rice University was the last place he had spoken before his OU visit . His speech there was scarcely noted and poorly at- tended . Oklahoma was something else. Bou- telle drew the largest crowd of his tour, which was quite predictable after the publicity he received . State newspapers, radio stations, and television news programs covered Bou- telle relentlessly . Politicians eagerly leaped into the furor, grabbing their front page column inches and helping to ensure the success of Boutelle's appearance. Everybody was trying to get into the act. it seemed . Boutelle's angry opponents couldn't have coop- erated more beautifully with his ob- jectives if they had been fellow members of the Socialist Workers Party Boutelle filled Meacham Auditorium. Part of the controversy centered on the sponsoring groups. Boutelle's appearance was publicized as being Paul Boutelle (right) and Daily Reporter (left) under the auspices of the Students for I focal point in the right of the student to hear