Dallin H. Oaks; from his book; Chapter 10 of “Life Lessons Learned”:
I have been taught and have confirmed by personal observation and experience that laws enacted by governments are often blunt instruments that should be used for correction only when there is no other feasible alternative.
On January 30, 1969, a massive student demonstration seized the administration building of the University of Chicago and held it for fifteen days. As president of the university, Edward H. Levi received enormous pressure to call in the police to forcibly evict and prosecute the trespassers, who were vandalizing the building and paralyzing the university. Instead he announced that the university would govern itself. He appointed a disciplinary committee of nine faculty members from different fields. I was the chairman and the only lawyer on the committee.
In one of the most strenuous periods of my life, our committee held more than 100 individual hearings that handled 150 student disciplinary cases. Our decisions ranged from no discipline through suspensions of up to six semesters to permanent expulsions. During this event, university officials did not call on the police of the courts for any assistance.
After the students were persuaded to leave the building, Levi issued this statement: “The University has sought throughout this period . . . to exemplify the values for which it stands. . . . In a world of considerable violence, and one in which violence begets violence, it has emphasized the persuasive power of ideas. It has sought—-and the unique response of faculty and students has made this possible—to handle its own affairs in a way consistent with its ideals.”1
A few months later, in response to political pressures and high level calls for federal prosecution of students in the numerous campus disorders of that year, Arthur F. Burns, counselor to President Richard M, Nixon, invited recommendations from persons experienced in such matters. I responded with the following summary of what I had learned about this subject:
“My advice is for the federal government and the federal officials to stay out of this controversy. Spare us the spectacle of federal prosecutions of university students for campus related activities. And don’t subject universities to pressure to cut off federal aid from certain students. Don’t create martyrs or force universities to create martyrs. The movement is weakening and providing it with martyrs would only give it renewed energy. Keep your eye on the enormous number of indifferent or uncommitted students and faculty. Leave universities the latitude of action to win the struggle for their support. Let universities give student disruptors enough time for their conduct to alienate their supporters.
“Let the response to student disorder be local. Let universities, in cooperation with local law enforcement if necessary, handle the problem. The great advantage in handling disruption by university discipline is that this means the university can retain the unity and support of those (misguided in my view, but that is beside the point) who would be alienated by any resort to outside force to quell a disturbance. And if it comes to force or outside interventions, local police or laws will be less divisive than federal laws or personnel.
” . . . By all means stay off campus and don’t make university administrators and faculty look like federal policemen.”2
This principle—-voiced by Levi’s teaching and leadership—-is a good principle for every person and every organization, especially those involved in teaching. We should do our own work and not ask the law or other organizations to do it for us.
As it happened, no federal legislation was enacted, Edward H. Levi spoke at my inauguration as president of Brigham Young University in 1971, and in 1975 when the country needed a trusted lawyer to help clean up the mess known as Watergate, Edward H. Levi was appointed general of the United States. ~~~~ Dallin H. Oaks is Profit, Seer, Revelator, and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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