BUCKLEY: So far as I know, you're correct, Mr. Slater. But what keeps them from acting? What prevents them from outlining some sort of a policy that will guide their economics department?

SLATER: Well, Bill Buckley, can you answer that one?

BUCKLEY: It seems to me obvious that university trustees thought the country have been so badgered that many of them become convinced that it's not the job of an educational institution to have a policy about any basic issue. Instead, they allow the student to be taught everything, and then left to decide for himself what is the best course.

SLATER: That doesn't exactly fit in with the educational ideals we used to consider American; the student was supposed to be guided. . .

Precaution

BUCKLEY: Exactly. But for some reason, the trustees of a university seem to assume that a student grows up a overnight between high school and college; that the student no longer needs to be guided, but should be taught everything? As at Yale, he should be taught pro-capitalism and anti-capitalism, Christianity and anti-Christianity, absolute ethics and ethical relativism--and then left to make his own choice. The University doesn't even take the elementary precaution to make sure that the most effective faculty members defend capitalism or Christianity.

SLATER: Let me ask you, Mr. Buckley, do you think that a student should be forced to believe in free enterprise, and the conservative position?

BUCKLEY: Of course not. To begin with, this is impossible. You can't force anybody to think anything, but I do believe that the administrators and trustees of a university should give themselves the same credit that we give them: they should have the courage and straightforwardness to insist that since they have earned positions of responsibility, and are nominally, at least, in charge of the University, they should do everything they can to persuade students of the rightness of those ideals. They don't have to sacrifice scholarship to do this. Conflicting opinions--socialism, Marxism, atheism--all should be explained, and they should be explained by teachers who are primarily interested in pointing out the errors of such positions.

SLATER: Then you think that university has a right to do this?

BUCKLEY: Unquestionably it has that right. The policies of a private University are entirely governed by its trustees. Setting up a curriculum and hiring and firing faculty members is ultimately their responsibility. They not only have the right to guide students; they have the responsibility to guide students. I can't understand the position of a man who sincerely believes that a certain attitude towards certain issues is necessary for the well-being of America for the preservation of individual freedom, and yet will allow completely conflicting doctrines to be preached--notice I say preached--to student where educational earners are his responsibility. He not only allows the teaching of doctrines which he considers allen to the best interest of his country but be subsidizes them. This is what is happening today. Trustees who as citizens are fighting socialism, nevertheless are responsible for proceeding thousands of undergraduates who--let me be the first to admit--are not leaving Yale and Socialists, but are leaving Yale without first a proper understanding of the benefits of free enterprise, and secondly and especially without having been taught the educational and moral necessity of adhering to certain basic American principles.

SLATER: May I ask right there, Bill, where do you think such lack of direction is leading American youth?

BUCKLEY: The graduates of Yale and other universities which follow similar policies will be easy prey to the propagandists who insist that collectivization and various degrees of Socialism are all we need to make our economy stronger. These unguided men will be useful men to the leftist cause.

SLATER: Now what, in your opinion, is the general attitude of university alumni on this question?

BUCKLEY: You've hit on a vital point, Mr. Slater-Without the active help of the alumni, most private universities would go bankrupt. Now the need of money is something that brings real unanimity of action. A university administration can't run without money, and they want to run. There are two sources they can tap: one is the government, the other the alumni.

SLATER: What keeps them from going to the government for help?