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From: lkk@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.college,ne.general
Subject: Re: Eight MIT students arrested in Apartheid protest
Message-ID: <1378@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 25-Mar-86 00:19:51 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1378
Posted: Tue Mar 25 00:19:51 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Mar-86 06:42:48 EST
References: <6728@cca.UUCP>
Reply-To: lkk@mit-eddie.UUCP (Larry Kolodney)
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Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
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Xref: linus net.politics:13490 net.college:1238 ne.general:2976

In article <6728@cca.UUCP> dee@cca.UUCP (Donald Eastlake) writes:
>
>I was wondering when MIT was going to tear down the shanties.
>
>They were
>there for quite a few days. 
>	+1 617-492-8860		Donald E. Eastlake, III


They were up for 10 days.  At Princeton and Dartmouth, they were up
for months.  The point is, the shanties consisted of a non-violent
non-obstructive protest that was being run in a responsible manner, 
and in such a way as to provide educational benefit to the community.

Similar shantytowns at Darmouth and Princeton stayed up for months before 
being removed.

Certainly MIT had a legal right to do what it did.  But Universities are
bound by a higher standard of behavior.  They are supposed to be places
where new ideas ferment and can be expressed freely, where students are 
exposed to the fullest possible range of information and experience, and
where dissent is not only tolerated butt encouraged.

The question to be asked is: Is MIT a University, or a Factory?

If MIT is a factory, whose primary purpose is the efficient production
of amoral technocrats, then it certainly would be expected to have little
tolerance for protests such as a shantytown.  If, however, MIT thinks it is
a University, it damn well better start acting like one.


-- 
larry kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)

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