OBSERVER Vol. 21 No. 5 February 11, 1981 Front Page No Rights Board Disregards Joint Statement Jon Soroko Page 2 Prospects With Reagan Robert Koblitz Solidarity! Page 3 Letter [“Concerning the ongoing controversy over students’ rights, . .”] Patricia J. Snyder Desegregation Jose Ponce: Cancelled By The F.B.I. Page 4 Revelation For Academics No Hope For L.A. Today Mark Hambleton Page 5 Teller Told Off P. J. Snyder Page 6 Bureaucracy Before Betterment Parents Kept In The Dark By Bard President Proposes New Freshman Program Hal Hisey Ludlow Vetoes Security For Dances: Robert Meyerowitz Page 7 No More Feelings Of Helplessness Board Of Trustees Of Bard College Page 8 No Justice Paul Moore, Jr. Chairman of the “Committee of 100” Page 9 Depts. Circus Marximus Michael Stiller Performance John Large Page 10 Continuation Of Previous Articles Page 11 Some Notes On The New President Of The Rich Steven Colatrella Tom Carroll And His Merry Band Of Journalists Page 12 Sandinista! By The Clash! Charles Lenk Page 13 Ayatollah Rock-N-Rollah Rocks In The Year Of The Gun Gary Myrick And The Figures: Rockpile-Seconds Of Pleasure: Joe Jackson Band-Beat Crazy: The Silencers-Rock ’N Roll Enforcers: Gossip: The Mark Charles Ebner Column Page 14 Calendar Local Events New York City Notices Tackle the Cadets Greenpeace New England Planned Parenthood Study Abroad Poetry Contest (Real) Friends of John Lennon Apply: Draft Info. And Advice [“ . 1980 Black Hills Survival Gathering in South Dakota.”] Page 15 Recycling Page 16 Photograph Ivan Stoler . .. - --~ :. ... -... ·-- -·- :: '. n Organization Non-Prous. ~STAGE PAID Annandale-on-Hudson . N.Y 1250. ,. Permit No. 1. _-... - -; .i . · . - -=-r-- - ·, --~ -- . \ . -{ . :J: (Tl . ·~·· ~· '.fti0,: ... ·-.;.. VI . ..m~ .... -- ' •-!: . ~ .· ~ .. •. ,._, ___ _ 'm ""· < 0 "0 ...., . "'cr c: . ......, .... -< 0 c: ~ ... \C 0 . 00 ...., ·..;,. -.·. ....& cr., :.Q. \ . ' · - - . the benevolent Edward Teller .../BOARD DISREGARDS JOINT STATEMENT ' JON SOROKO -(To readers who are unfamiliar with the Smith/ relati.Qn to the resolution that was paSS.ed. J:!ennish/Greenwald matters, here is an encapsulation· Messrs. Bennish and Smith came out of the deal of the facts. In late December, George Smith and largely intact, but the student body at large fared Steven Bei:mish were· accused~ by Art Professor Bernard rather poorly. Prior to the Board meeting, both Greenw~ld o£ a~saulting him and spraying him with Steve and George's atto~neys were in ~ontact with · Mace~ Within hours, they had been expelied, they had the college, and worked out the following settlement: protested the expulsion, and a Grievance committee Steve will return to the campus as a student on convened. The Grievance Committee found that, social probation, and George will be suspended for indeed, some untoward event had occured, but that one semester, and return in the fall to complete his the facts were not entirely clear, and that expulsion Senior Project and graduate. Each will be required was exceedingly harsh .. - TJIJ.e next business day, to perform seventy-five hours.of community service, President Botstein, before officially receiving . and acknowledge the right of the President to expel · the Grievance Committee decision, summarily expelled summarily, regardless of any judgment of the Grievance Benni~h and Br:nith. 'There was widespread community Committee. Implicit in this, of course, is agreement protest over thi~, with koth students and .faculty . to cease any legal action against the college. It pointing out that there was no provision in the should be noted at this juncture' that Professor College's rul-es for executive fiat in these matters. ·Tieger, the only faculty·representative at the meet­ Messrs. Smith and Bennish then took' the matter to ing (Professor Grossberg_, the other representative, their attorneys. ·-- Ed.) did not show), was vociferous in his objection to the college's unwillingness to stick by its' guns . on the thirtieth of January, the Board of and fight the matter in Court' on the basis of its Trustees of Bard College met. to decide, among other merit. It was pointed out (I believe erroneously) things (see Hal Hisey's article in this issue), the that the legal case had more to do with impropriety t:ate of Geo'rge Smith, Steven Bennish, and the rights of the Grievance Committee than of the President. o~ Bard College students to· be protected against · The course taken by the president and ratified capricious and'arbitrary expulsion. by the Board bears a double meaning. It signifies The resolution regardi~g the issue of rights the .Board's tendency to see things through the same in_general and the Greenwald incident in particular lens.that President Botstein does, and thus place was near ·the top of the agenda~ and the student administrative stability ("ORDER") above the risks' ·agenda was.near the bottom. When the resolution inherent in community self-gove'rnance, i.e. dissent, was brought up, I asked to speak to it, since it discussion, exper~mentation. At the same time, the was this issue that seemed foremost on the student settlement is also an indication of how much pre$5ure agenda-. I was ·told that I could speak. only to the. was felt by the president, and by extension, the resolution itself, and comments on the general Executive committee of the Board, with whom the questions raised would wait until student issues president consulted prior to the Board meeting, so were scheduled to be brought up. (Almost ~t the that the settlement could be presented to both the pottom of the agenda, when several Board members majority of the Board and· the student and faculty, had already left, and those remaining seemed to representatives as a fait accompli. be chomping at the b:i,.t to leave.) More detail ?n this meeting is not possible, due The only comment that could be made in that to the unavailability of the minutes of the meeting format was that the resolution seemed to clearly until just prior to the next meeting (March 27th) . undermind if not directly contradict the Joint One interesting highlight was the president's St~tement on.Rights and Freedoms of Students, which comment that the violence alleged to have been ex­ I reminded the.· Board that they had previously hibited in the Greenwald incident was indicative of ad9pted. They impatiently heard these comments the shift from a drug to an alcohol culture." Ex­ out, and after some haggling over which wording ception was taken to this remark, and it was pointed would be best to affirm the powe·r of Presiderit out that for all intents and purposes it seemed that Botstein, they passed the resolution. - Bard's community was maintaining both cultures We were told that copies of the resolution simultaneously. (Those of you who started at Bard would be in st~dents• mailboxes as soon as we re-·. in the fall of 1976 will remember that we were turned, since the draft text we were handed was. assigned to read a book entitled, The Two Cultures. altered so rapidly and radically that it bore no Perhaps this is what they had in mind.) The Observer February 11 1981 D PAGE 2 _, - I WITH -. Robert Koblitz , Mr. Carter has left Washington with his Cabinet nam. Fifty "thousand American dead and two billion - and staff and Mr. Reagan has settled i~. Th~re was_a dollars later, the domestic _crisis·remains. Nixon good'deal of ritual in the passage, visits back and, sought detente and great power balance, China forth, news stories al:?'out appointments, speculation against Russia, and the status quo management strat­ about budget.cuts; and g_uite a few unfriendly comments egies of Metternich. The domestic economic and about the USSR. There has bee~ a freeze_in federal social.crisis did not go away, however, and he blun­ jobs, intimation of budget cuts (for food stamps and dered into some of the clumsy tricks of the Imperial ·education, but not for the military}, and removal of Presidency -- essentially employing at home the tac­ regulations affecting pollution, safety, and mario- tics that the CIA had been developing for use abroad poly pri~e-fixing. · - on second class powers. Carter tried everything, So,· what ·else is new? final~y discovering a spiritual weakness in the Somehow, the "tran~ition" was overshadowed by American character~ At the end, he was picking up the Hostage return. · The news media (and appqrently . the Johnson strategies, gamely advancing into a new a great mahy citizens) were relieved to turn atten­ quagmire in the Near East. And when all else fails, tion from the gaudy inauguration to a heady cele- there is the fitfully slumbering.bomb, perched on a . _bration of patJ;"iotic renewal, parading fifty-two thousand warheads, sunk in a thousand bunkers, circ­ lfve fetishes to renew American nationality. ling overhead in a thousand planes and lurki:ag in a . - I , _. • Indeed, the hostages do present a perverse -~n- h~ndred submarines in the depths of the ocean . sight- i.nto ttie meaning, of the Carter depacle and the. The new Reagan administration has attempted some prospec~s ~or the new administration. Certainly ~he cosmetic novelties. It has put a militarist into the event needs translation. The press has been outrage­ State Department and a budget conscious banker in the ously derelict in ex~osing the happeni~g, ~nd, of course, Department.of Defense. It has invited the polluters .the campaigns and pronouncements of the candidates do into the Interior Department,.business management not remedy the political .confusion·~ . into the Labor Department and supporters of private Reducing the issue to Jimmy from Plains and schools to administer public education programs. The Ronnie from Hollywood does not help._ The men, indeed, oil conglomerates will run Energy and no-nonsense are ~uch ali~e ~~skilled-hired g~ns for the political law and order the Department of Justice.