Legalism in the Dean's Office: II

The other half of the YP case is an even better indictment of University Hall thinking. According to the Rule for Undergraduate Organizations all recognized groups must file a list of active members with the Dean's Office. What is the reason for this? It is mainly that the Dean's Office wishes to prevent men on probation from representing the University or wasting their time on extracurricular activities. This may or may not be an over-paternalistic philosophy as far as the individual is concerned but as far as his organization is concerned it is unexceptionable. By all means let University Hall consult membership lists to keep an eye on probationers.

The Dean's Office likes to keep these membership lists on hand for convenient reference and, one suspects, because it likes to know what is going on in the College. To most groups this is perfectly acceptable, but the Young Progressives do not like the idea of having their names always available in University Hall. Motivated by a perfectly natural if not altogether rational fear of the forces of orthodoxy, they are reluctant to put their lists in the hands of the Dean's Office. Dean Watson has admitted that he could not refuse a subpoena of the lists; so that even if one assumes that the Dean's Office will hold the lists inviolate in every other case, there is this one case in which the lists might be delivered up for outside scrutiny.

These are perhaps remote considerations. The chance of a subpoena being served on Dean Watson for the YP membership lists is very small. There is no reason to question the good faith of University Hall in protecting the secrecy of the list in other cases. But the YP is worried about its lists. Minority opinions are so unpopular these days that men who hold them are to be excused for excessive caution. It is important to afford the holders of these opinions all possible protection.

When you weigh these considerations against the desire of the Dean's Office to have membership lists nice and handy, you cannot but feel that the rules are excessively strict when they insist that lists must be left in the Dean's Office safe. The proper solution, as recommended by the Council, is to let the Deans consult membership lists whenever they wish, for disciplinary purposes, but not to force the groups to leave their lists in the Deans' hands.

The Dean's Office, however, is firm on this point. Only those men who are on the official list, it insists, can work with the organization. The result might have been foreseen. The YP now has an official membership of 15 men: approximately ten men, according to president Lowell P. Beveridge '52, have refused to join the organization officially. Perhaps these men have really been forced to quit the group because of fear that their unpopular opinions might do them damage; more likely they will simply become twilight members, participating secretly in the group's activities. In either case no good has been done.

These ten men--even if they are only a multiplied figment of Mr. Beveridge's mind and are really only one or two men--these ten men may be unreasonably suspicious. But why should we stigmatize the holders of unpopular opinions for being suspicious? And why should University Hall, in the interests of its own convenience, work a hardship on such a group of men whose existence in the unhealthy atmosphere of today should be jealously guarded? The Dean's Office has allowed a small matter of bureaucratic efficiency to outweigh much larger considerations.