Nationwide Committee of Professors Calls for 'National Teach-In Week'

A coast-to-coast committee of college professors has called for a "National Teach-In Week" from March 21 to 26.

The group, the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy, Las called the teach-ins both to protest American policy in Vietnam and to counter public ignorance of that policy.

In a full-page advertisement in Sunday's New York Times, the IUC asked that the debate on Vietnam, that has thus far been been confined to college campuses, be expanded to confront "millions of Americans" outside university communities.

The movement stems from a considerable resentment in academic circles of "the government's misinformation and half-truths in facing the public," said Hillary W. Putnam, professor of Philosophy and a member of the national board of the IUC, yesterday.

At least one session is already planned at Harvard. Richard E. Mumma, of the United Ministry at Harvard and Radcliffe, has said that there will be what be called a "Teach-Out" during the week. The Teach-Out, Mumma said, fosters discussion both for and against our policy in Vietnam, and is not directly connected with the IUC program.

Teach-Ins are only part of the IUC plan to fill the "information gap between officialdom and the public," said Harry Zinn, a professor at B.U. The committee also hopes to support political candidates and to promote community action through television and radio programs. Congressional hearings, and community study groups, he said.

Zinn is optimistic about IUC's role, although he does not believe that the group's activity will cause the government to increase its information on foreign policy, or to make it more reliable. He predicted instead that "It will become a normal function of citizen's groups to create sources of information" independent of government sources.