Brandeis Alumni Split Over Davis Candidacy

In the past, the election of the president of the Brandeis University Alumni Association (BUAA) has been a placid, non-controversial event, but it is anything but calm this year.

A group of Brandeis alumni have nominated by petition black militant Angela Davis to oppose the two candidates chosen by the BUAA Committee on Nominations, conservative incumbent president Morton Ginsberg and liberal contender Judith Aranson.

The petition placing Davis on the ballot states that Davis's election is sought as "a symbol against the racist, sexist, imperialist policies of the Establishment."

Davis has never done anything more than sign her name to the petition for her own candidacy while she sat in the Morin County (Calif.) Jail awaiting trial for murder and kidnapping, but her signature has been enough to cause the resignation of one candidate, accusations of unfair election procedures, and a flurry of statements denouncing "the political exploitation" of the contested presidency.

The charge of "political exploitation" appears in a letter sent to all Brandeis alumni by two Harvard professors, both Brandeis alumni by two Harvard professors, both Brandeis alumni themselves: Martin H. Peretz, assistant professor of Social Studies, and Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government. The letter is also signed by Aronson, the BUAA nominee who left the ballot to avoid splitting the anti-Davis vote.

The letter appeals to "those who don't regard the university as a pawn in the political struggles of the American Left" to vote for incumbent President Ginsberg, and states that the Davis petition is to some "a joke," and to others "a cheap way of being, or playing being, radical," and to others "an effort to use the University for their own political purposes."

This letter is one of three denouncing the Davis candidacy received by Brandeis alumni. These letters include a statement by the BUAA Nominating Committee that describes the Davis candidacy as "an irrelevant political gesture" that has no bearing on running the university.

Paul Solman, the Boston organizer for the Davis petitioners and an editor of Boston After Dark, described the three letters as part of an "all-out blitz" on the part of the university to persuade alumni to vote against Davis. Bo Burlingham, a BAD colleague of Solman, accused the BUAA Nominating Committee of 'running scared" in his BAD column, "Bottom of the News" on April 13.

He charged that the Nominating Committee sent out its own statement denouncing Davis's candidacy with each ballot.

BUAA Nominating Committee Chairman Sanford Freedman argued Wednesday that the petitioners' statement seeking Davis's election as a symbol "bore no relevance to the election proceedings." Out of fairness, he said, the Committee had decided not to submit Ginsberg's statement with the ballots.

Freedman also said that the Nominating Committee's statement against Davis had not been "included with the ballot." He did not mention, however, that the statement had been mailed out in different envelopes the same day as the ballots.

He added that Aronson did not decide to leave the race under pressure. "She asked my opinion if it would help or hurt Ginsberg, and I said I don't know. It was completely her own decision Aronson could not be reached for comment.

Brandeis Student Council member Mark Hamqmershmidt, who acts as a liaison between the BUAA and the undergraduates, said yesterday that Aronson decided not to run "because she feared the possibility of 99 per cent of the alumni pulling their money out of Brandeis if Angela wins."