VIVAT ACADEMIA

Twice in the past month public attention has been called to the City College of New York by student demonstrations against the dismissal of an English instructor, Oakley Johnson. Though the college authorities may have had reasons not apparent to the outside observer, their actions do not emerge in a favorable light.

Dr. Johnson claims that he was given his checks merely because of his sponsorship of the college Liberal Club and his support of radical causes in general. City College is a free public institution financed by the government of New York. The result is that its student opinion tends to the radical side, while its administration is, more than in most colleges, wary of articulate revolutionary sentiment. The truth of the case seems to be that the authorities, tried beyond their patience by student agitations, or perhaps acting on orders from the city government, determined to strike at the most prominent cause of their trouble, without regard for the right and wrong of the matter.

A similar disregard for civil liberties was apparent in their actions when students met to protest the dismissal. Since the Liberal Club is now minus the required faculty supervision, and since discussion of social problems is forbidden elsewhere within the college grounds, expression of their opinion has been effectively denied students. As a result, they resorted to public demonstrations to impress on the college officials their demand for Johnson's reinstatement. Rather aimlessly molested by policemen on one occasion and finally allowed to continue their meeting, they later attempted a discussion in the college building itself, and were ejected when the director of the Evening School called in the police. Both these meetings were held on or near the campus, and the police were evidently forewarned of them by college officials.

The Johnson affair and the gag rulings that came as a result of it, have not received enough publicity. Violence has been done to the principle of academic freedom, for students and teachers both. The heads of City College will produce nothing by their foolish and repressive tactics, save more violence.