Yale Deans Place All Students On Probation for Parade Riot

NEW HAVEN, March 16--In a dramatic move designed to soothe town-gown bitterness caused by the St. Patrick's parade riot here Saturday, Yale University Deans today imposed "general probation" on the entire undergraduate body.

Early reports of this penalty, leaked by a national news service, provoked some students to protest against what seemed a blanket prohibition of any class cuts or social activities in college rooms. But the Dean's statement made clear that general probation means only "immediate dismissal for further public misconducts of any kind," and the general undergraduate feeling was that it was just a strong warning to stay out of trouble. As one student put it "It really doesn't mean anything."

Local college and religious officials also moved to quell charges of anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and Fascism that had been levelled against the Yale rioters by various elements of the national press.

Archbishop to Visit

It is expected that the Archbishop of Hartford will come to New Haven tomorrow to discuss the accusation that the alleged molesting of marching units from Sacred Heart Academy and Albertus Magnus College constituted an anti-Catholic demonstration.

Harvey M. Applebaum, speaking for the Yale Hillel group, said today in a statement to the Yale Daily News, "I am firmly convinced that there was no connection of any kind between anti-Semitism and the events occuring on Saturday." The main event to which Applebaum referred was the hanging of a Nazi swastika from the walls of one of the colleges during the Saturday parade.

Conduct Investigations

But the most significant aspect of the entire affair, as far as most Yale undergraduates are concerned, is the probation announcement, issued at 5 p.m. today by William C. DeVane, Dean of the College, Dana Young, Dean of the School of Engineering, and Harold B. Whiteman, Dean of Freshmen, which informed the student body that it had been "placed on immediate and indefinite general probation."

"Before we can be in a position to fix individual responsibility," the Deans went on to say, 'it is necessary to accept corporate responsibility. Vigorous investiga- tion is being conducted to determine individual responsibility, and appropriate further disciplinary action will be taken in all such cases."

President Griswold also announced this afternoon that he has "launched two separate studies, one in cooperation with Mayor Lee and with other city officials concerning law enforcement policies and procedures, and the other with Yale Deans concerning University procedures."

Over the weekend, students began fashioning black felt armbands with "14-Mars" inscribed on them in chalk, and plans were supposedly laid for a mass surrender to the New Haven police and for a march on a local precinct station. Another student plot hoped to have the entire undergraduate body flush all the toilets at Yale simultaneously in hopes of flooding New Haven streets. However, the Deans probation decree appears to have silenced any such mass action