Nixon Asks An FBI Role In Campus Bomb Probes

President Nixon yesterday asked Congress for legislation which would authorize immediate Federal intervention in cases of arson or bombing on any college or university campus receiving government funds.

Virtually every college would be affected by the proposed legislation, which would move Federal agents into affected colleges and universities even if they were requested to stay away by college administrators.

The President also requested the hiring of 1000 additional FBI agents to deal with campus outbreaks as well as aerial high jacking. The agents would supplement the FBI's current force of 7000 men and would cost an additional $23 million per year.

The announcement followed several days during which Administration spokesmen-including Nixon, Attorney General John Mitchell, Vice President Agnew, and Mrs. Mitchell-had expressed severe criticism of college administrators. According to Kandy Stroud, a reporter for Women's Wear Daily, the Attorney General recently labeled college officials "stupid bastards who are ruining our educational institutions."

Emerging from a White House conference with Nixon, Mitchell and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Republican Congressional leaders predicted that Congress will give Nixon what he wants by attaching the necessary language to a Senate-passed anti-crime bill now being considered by the House Judiciary Committee.

"I think it will have a beneficial effect," said Gerald Ford, House Republican leader, adding that Hoover had told him SDS was directly involved in 247 arson cases and 462 personal injury incidents during the past year. There were also about 300 other miscellaneous episodes of destruction to other facilities or property, Ford said. Ford added that "the tragic bombing at the University of Wisconsin" and other incidents of campus terrorism which "have increased in number, tempo, and seriousness" have contributed to a deep concern in the Justice Department.

He said that Congress would hold no hearings to determine the views of college administrators concerning the bill.

"I don't believe that when Federal funds are involved any American would be opposed to immediate action to apprehend and try the people involved," Ford said.