October 23, 2009 – Campus Politics

Having grown up with all kinds of political activity on campus, I have always been surprised that so little is visible at the universities here. Maybe they think we have enough politics in this country, or maybe the students are too busy earning a living, or maybe people are trying to get a broader and more intelligent perspective on the specific situation, but the amount of actual political activity on campus is pretty minimal. So I was a little surprised to read Benjamin Pogrund’s piece in the pages of Ha’aretz today. Then I remembered how I graduated from the University of Rochester in 1966. Our distinguished speaker was Richard M. Nixon, coming back from a long silence after “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.” And we all know it was going to be trouble. A large group of us didn’t want to attend the ceremony but we were warned that we wouldn’t get our degrees, and so there was a brief movement to show up, but turn our chairs around on the green in protest when he began speaking. But we didn’t. We sat there and listened to him, and from that day he came back into politics, became president, and I left the U.S. instead. Often I regret my silence, but then I remember: At the very least, the campus is supposed to be a place of open discussion on all sides.