SALLY FROM THE IVORY TOWER

It is not surprising that Phi Beta Kappa is a champion of academic freedom, because almost everyone of any intelligence at all approves of it, just in the same way he would approve of Christian morality or young love. There may be some yapping minorities that attack it, and some paper advocates who in practice sabotage it, but still the great majority of Harvard students would condone academic freedom in extravagant terms. But granted that academic freedom is a good thing, the constitution of an undergraduate committee to protect it is something else. And the summons to this constitution of an undergraduate committee to protect it is something else. And the summons to this constitution by Phi Beta Kappa is something still different.

The first question is whether or not there is a need for such a committee. Now it is true that in the recent past several instances have been flashed on the public screen where student activities were suppressed by academic authorities without very convincing reason. But on the other hand this does not prove that a prairie fire of academic reaction is roaring down upon American colleges. Least of all down upon Harvard, where authorities made a silly mistake in the Browder case and otherwise have given every indication of wishing to toe the straight liberal line in affairs academic.

Consequently, once the proposed committee had been formed it would either have to retire to inactivity immediately or unearth some issues on which to go to work. Quite conceivably, a situation may explode at Harvard where fundamental principles of academic freedom are actually flouted. But there is time enough when that moment comes to form the necessary committee to deal with the matter.

The second question is whether Phi Beta Kappa should god-father the proposition. No one can possibly object that this organization is coming to life, for the intellectual aristocracy sits in a coign of great vantage. But come what may, Phi Beta Kappa should exist as a completely nonpartisan intellectual organization. Whatever the proposed committee may be in theory, by fact and by reputation it will inevitably assume a color and a partisan nature. The issues dealt with will inevitably revolve in political and ethical spheres which should be strange to PBK.

The double sentiment which has moved Phi Beta Kappa to take this action is greatly to be praised. But the concrete turn which this sentiment has taken is rather questionable. Until a case of real suppression arises at Harvard, the Committee for Academic Freedom would serve no function but to cast aspersion upon Harvard's present-day tolerance in the eyes of the nation's liberal press. This is not a very worthwhile stake on which to gamble the position of aloof grandeur which PBK now occupies in the eyes of Harvard students.