I recall that the rule was once relaxed, provisionally, to allow Senator Estes Kefauver then running for Vice-President to make an innocuous campaign speech in the University Auditorium in which he deplored the biological effects of nuclear testing. The Administration seemed enormously relieved when the whole affair passed without incident, and even without comment from the Legislature. I don't know the present policy regarding political speeches at the University of Illinois, but I am fairly certain that any wildly unorthodox opinions such as those of Malcolm X or Gov. Barnett here recently would still be denied a platform.
The scrupulous avoidance of controversy comes from the belief that any words spoken on University property somehow imply State endorsement. This fallacy was applied in earnest during the memorable hulla-baloo of 1960 when an assistant professor of biology was fired for expressing publicly his unconventional views on premarital sexual intercourse. True, he was eventually allowed to complete his term, but not until the Board of Trustees of the University, pressured by the American Association of University Professors and an avalanche of disastrous publicity, had overridden the firm decisions of both the Department of Biology and the President.
In all fairness, it must be recognized that the hapless professor would probably not have fared better at many private institutions who avow a more liberal philosophy, but the uneasy resolution of the case left unanswered the question of just what bounds circumscribe the freedom of inquiry and expression at the University.
Unconcern
But whatever excitement about events at his University may be engendered in the national press, the typical Illinois student remains uncerned. I found that all but a few seemed perfectly content with comfortable orthodoxy and had almost no interest in international or national affairs, or in politics on any level.
Only a few crusading individuals, usually from the Student Senate or the campus newspaper, The Daily Illini, ever protested against such things as the ban on political speakers; most students were probably unaware that it existed. The one generalization which seems to me most nearly true of the Illinois undergraduate is that his sphere of interest begins with himself and may extend as far as the University but usually not beyond his own dormitory or fraternity house.
Illinois has more national social fraternities (57) and sororities (27) than any other university in the country. They are privately owned, usually provide both meals and lodging for their members, and although only about one-fourth of the undergraduates belong to them, they have long been a firmly established part of the University.
All the unfavorable publicity you may have read recently about fraternities is doubled in spades at Illinois. They are excessively competitive and preoccupied with their position in the Byzantine complexity of the social order at the University; they demand an inordinate amount of time from their members, usually to be wasted on some competitive project; and they perpetuate a through going anti intellectual attitude despite any attempts by the University to the contrary.
Most still maintain policies of racial and ethnic discrimination, based on the dictates of their national organizations and/or their own choice. The N.A.A.C.P. and other groups, working in part through the Interfraternity Council at the University, have sought to end racial discrimination in fraternities, or at least to have the flagrantly racist clauses removed from fraternity charters. So far, they have had little success, but the pressure for change is undeniably increasing.
Financial Difficulties
They are also being harassed from another side-this the financial one-because of decreasing undergraduate enthusiasm for joining fraternities. The total number of men being "rushed" last fall was the lowest in five years. The houses are reportedly filled to only 77 per cent of capacity, and some are in serious difficulty. Fraternity alumni, alarmed at the trend, see a nefarious plot afoot. Joseph Hinshaw past President of the Illinois Bar Association, recently discussed the problems facing fraternities today and called upon them to utilize their "basic strengths-their family-like unity, their selectiveness, and their high standards of conduct-to face hostile leftist forces."
But it probably is not a Communist conspiracy that accounts for the warning of fraternities at Illinois, but the fact that they no longer offer the advantages to their members that they once did. Many of the houses are far less comfortable than the new University dormitories; the food is rarely any inducement; and now that the men-women ratio has been improved from 4-to-1 to 2-to-1, their former competitive social advantage has been much diminished. Furthermore, since the firm Calvinist tradition of the Midwest prohibits liquor anywhere on the University-including the fraternities-and there is likewise never any room permission for women guests, no fraternities can offer especially attractive license to justify their extra cost.
Thus far the University has taken no measures to ease the financial difficulties of the fraternities, despite the fact that it depends on them to feed and house one-quarter of its undergraduate population. Similarly, it has made no effort to encourage an end to their racial discrimination although such a move could easily be justified (as it has at other schools) on the basis of the control it exercises over all matters of student housing and welfare.
In addition to their avoidance of fraternities, there is evidence in other areas that the Illinois students may be increasing their intellectual pursuits. The head of the Library reported a record use of this facilities last year and attributed this trend in part to a "general intensification of student effort." An assistant professor of lolitical science commented recently on the overall quality of the students at Illinois: "After grading for three years at Harvard, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that the best exam books here are easily the equivalent of the best at Harvard and that the general quality of the books is relatively close to the Harvard average. The students, however, do not seem to realize this." He continues, "This sort of self-image and lack of confidence can only have deterimental consequence for the intellectual development of the individual student and of the University."
From my own experience, I would agree that the quality of the very best students at Illinois is on a part with that of the best at any of the more prestigious institutions. It is also undeniable that in many departments of the University the faculty and the instruction they impart are first-rate, and that the graduate schools, particularly in the natural sciences are excellent.
What more then, does Illinois require to achieve true eminence among the great educational institutions of the world? First of all, it needs to concentrate on the excellence that it has and improve upon it so far as possible. The recent establishment of a long overdue program to encourage the development of superior students was a welcome start in this direction. Through this program and others of its kind, the University must increase respect for learning among the student body. To do so effectively may require a thorough overhauling of the present dormitory and fraternity-sorority systems to give them some kind of intellectual awakening, or it may necessitate giving different kinds of degrees to graduates of those parts of the University which really amount to little more than advanced trade schools.
In the long run, however, the University will achieve real distinction only when the Legislature relaxes its paternalism and allows the free exchange of ideas, no matter how controversial, among both faculty and students. Then, in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom, the University will be able to give something much more valuable than instruction--on education