It should be noted that in accepting this contract Harvard University wished to protest, in strongest terms, the so-called "Anti-Riot Provision." Practically speaking, the Provision is unenforceable and without reasonable relationship to the central purposes of the Act... (It is) wholly inconsistent with the nature, purposes and responsibilities of the University.

ANOTHER reason that the legislation is not being enforced is that, up until March, 1969, the Congress was not eager to have it enforced. Individual Congressmen had scored with their constituents by denouncing the rioters. The substance of the legislation mattered very little. It is a case of symbolic legislation. Finally, the permanent government has opposed the legislation, especially the riders to the appropriations acts, because it would interfere with their dealings with the universities. The permanent government, with few external pressures, merely wants to get its job done, a job for which it requires a good working relationship with universities.

THE MAIN defender of the permanent government's interests is Robert H. Finch, who apparently has had some influence on President Nixon. Finch's Department of Health, education, and Welfare is the top purchaser of university research, and Finch has consistently opposed legislation that would aggravate the government's relations with the university.

In testimony before the Green committee April 18, he said that the government was not equipped to "play cop by cutting off funds" to universities with disorders. In an article in the Washington Post May 8, David Broder said that Finch "disagrees with last week's tough denunciations of militant students by Vice President Agnew, Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and Justice Department aides." Broder said that Finch believes that setting up "the federal government as a regulatory agency would be a mistake."

Despite all of this powerful support, the university is facing some serious problems. First, the non-research share of federal funds to universities is rapidly increasing. In 1962, scholarship and miscellaneous federal support accounted for only 5 per cent of total federal funds to universities. Today, it is over one-third. Recent plans for more federal aid, such as the Carnegie Commission proposals, would involve Congress further. Second, there is no doubt that public pressure for some kind of an end to university disorders is increasing. Americans want their problems over right away, and they still believe that getting tough can accomplish anything (Eric Hoffer said so in his congressional testimony.)

In the end, however, this experience with Congress may be more helpful than anyone realizes. Suddenly, universities are waking up to the enormous costs they are paying for federal funding. And, perhaps, if the government cracks down and cuts off research funds, the university will be on its way to being free again. The sit-ins will have worked again. The Federal government will be driven out of the university. And that cannot be bad.