Riot Policy: I

Although most newspapers have devoted a good deal of front page space to the spreading epidemic of student disturbances in New England and vicinity, they have failed to note an attending disease which seems to grip university presidents every time the riot squad is called in. Yale's Griswold, for instance, ostentatiously ate crow after the ice cream riot at New Haven and MIT's Killian apologized profusely for the recent melee around Radcliffe.

Fortunately, these attacks of apologetica are not pronounced at Harvard, and apologies seldom issue forth from the Faculty, the Deans, or the President's Office. There is a tendency, however, to assume that any disturbance such as last Thursday's is just another riot--just another Saturday night sports crowd endeavoring to perpetuate the contest in the Square.

In most cases this attitude is justified, but last Thursday's disturbance was different; not only was the vigor and unreasonableness of the local riot squad unique in the recent history of Harvard riots, but the disturbance itself was largely caused by the police. Since most of the Faculty were in the quieter reaches of New England, and the Associated Harvard Clubs meeting in St. Louis had claimed most of University Hall's occupants, few of those at tomorrow's Faculty meeting can be expected to realize how unique last Thursday's rumpus was.

Moreover, the Faculty at its meeting today has more than just this particular incident to worry about. The police brutality, whatever its causes, illustrates a developing hostility between the University and Cambridge, one which probably few Faculty members recognize. What is needed is a Faculty committee which would keep track of town-gown affairs. Were such a committee operating last Thursday, it could explain to the Faculty today what kind of disturbance the Pogo rally really was, who caused it, and what to do about it.

But although there is no such committee now, the Faculty should still take action on last Thursday's outburst. The Cambridge police have found a new way to treat students, and unless there is some protest, they will probably continue to apply their latest technique. Even if the Faculty is not disturbed enough to set up a committee on University-Cambridge relations, at least it should make this protest.