Crimson's Ad Protests Ban On Speeches

In protest against a recent Queens College decision banning a Communist speaker from campus, the editors of the Harvard CRIMSON have placed a full page advertisement in today's issue of the Phoenix, the Queens College student weekly.

The ads, financed by voluntary contributions of CRIMSON editors, cites the responsibility of all academic communities to fight infringements of academic freedom, wherever they occur.

The purchase of the advertisement is a response to an academic freedom debate that has raged in New York City for the past month. On Oct. 26 a speaking invitation extended to Benjamin J. Davis, Secretary of the United States Communist Party, by the Marxist Discussion Club, a student group, was withdrawn by Queens College officials.

The Administrative Council of the City University of New York has upheld the cancellation on the grounds that inviting a Communist to speak on campus would violate the University's obligation to "obey the laws of the state and the nation." The American Civil Liberties Union has prepared a brief contesting the Council's legal analysis of the problem, but the case has not yet been re-opened.

Dr. Harold Stoke, President of Queens College, said that the ban on Communists would probably not apply to visiting dignitaries from Communist countries. A speech by a foreign Communist would have educational value, he explained, while a speech by a native member of the party could only be aimed at propagandizing among students.

Other recent speech cancellations have also provoked protest. Malcolm X, leader of the Black Muslim movement, was prohibited from speaking on the Queens College campus; Hunter College refused to rent its auditorium to the National Review; and Brooklyn College delayed the speech of State Assemblyman Mark Lane, whose arrest as a Freedom Rider in Mississippi reportedly cast doubts over the propriety of his speaking under college auspices.