Mitchell Attempts to Quiet Anxiety About Repression

College students can expect visits in the Fall from employees of the Justice Department.

The officials will not be making arrests, but seeking to calm fears that the Federal government is engaged in a campaign of repression against student activists, Attorney General John N. Mitchell said Sunday.

Mitchell was replying to charges by James C. Cheek, president of Howard University, that the Nixon administration does not understand students' fears about repression.

Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation." Cheek-one of two college presidents who advised Nixon about student disorders during the nationwide University strike last April-said he was extremely pessimistic" about campus disorders.

Cheek charged that the administration had failed to act in a way that would help reassure students about the responsiveness of the Government to their concerns.

Not a Lot

'So far, not an awful lot has taken place at the level of national leadership in terms of the moral influence of the President's office," Cheek said. "I think we are getting conflicting assessments of the situation from people in very important places, referring to students like they're immature and childish and so forth. I am extremely pessimistic."

Cheek expressed doubt that Nixon had understood what he and G. Alexander Heard, president of Vanderbilt, meant when they warned him of student fears of repression. "Many people in government refer to repression as a myth."

Cheek charged that administration statements "give people the impression of being highly repressive as well as oppressive."

In reply Mitchell called for a "dialogue" which would "put aside this rhetoric of repression." Student fears would be calmed by "a better understanding on the campuses of what this administration's policy is and what it is to be," he said.

Characterizing student charges of repression as 'more of this rhetoric," Mitchell said that the fears posed a problem for the Nixon administration.

Mitchell's statement was close to a statement by Nixon last Thursday that students "shouldn't fear government repression because we intend no repression. We do not believe in repression. It is not a government policy."

The statement by Nixon prompted Cheek to comment, "I think it's rather difficult for him to understand what we mean when we talk about repression."

He added that the recently-enacted. District of Columbia Crime Bill-a socalled "model bill" which includes permission for police to extend their wiretapping powers, to enter homes without knocking or identifying themselves, and authorizes the courts to impose "preventive detention"-"does contain some elements of repression."

Reacting strongly to charges by conservatives that college authorities could end student disorders by imposing a "get tough" policy on campus, Cheek said, "We must understand that students are not aliens from outer space or form some foreign land. . . Students are citizens and they have rights."