Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1968 [PAGE 435]

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1967]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S

383

Because of the public interest in the proposed organization of a student W.E.B. Du Bois Club at the University of Illinois, the President (in December, 1966) informed the members of the Board of Trustees as to the status of institutional review of the petition of the student group. The General Policy Committee of the Board of Trustees took cognizance of the issues, problems, and concerns which have developed from the fact that the Attorney General of the United States has filed a petition with the Subversive Activities Control Board to require the national organization of the W.E.B. Du Bois Club to register as a Communist front group. The President then asked the Dean of Students at Urbana-Champaign to withhold action on the petition of the group of students seeking to organize a campus Du Bois Club until the General Policy Committee of the Board of Trustees had an opportunity to review the matter in all of its aspects, including the University's responsibilities under the Clabaugh Act. The General Policy Committee has reviewed a large volume of correspondence, memoranda, and reports relating to the subject. These included official statements from the Urbana Senate Committee on Student Affairs and the Urbana Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure. In addition, the Committee held conferences with representatives of the two Senate Committees and the Student Senate. The Committee now recommends that the Board of Trustees affirm its belief that no group which has been determined to be subversive or seditious (i.e., to advocate the violent overthrow of the Government of the United States or the State of Illinois) should be "recognized" by the University of Illinois. In the present instance, the Committee is impressed by the fact that while the Attorney General has filed a petition with the Subversive Activities Control Board to require the national organization of the W.E.B. Du Bois Clubs to register as a Communist front group, that agency has not yet heard the matter on its merits. Since the material which the Attorney General may have in support of his petition is not available to the University, there is no way for the University at this time to make a valid independent judgment concerning the charges. It is also clear that (1) the local petitioning group has denied affiliation with the national body, and (2) that the constitution of the petitioning groups states purposes which are unobjectionable by University regulations and which do not in any way identify the group as a subversive or seditious organization. Therefore, it is the Committee's expectation that the question of recognition will be handled through regular administrative channels. However, at any time that the W.E.B. Du Bois Club or any other student group can be proved to be subversive, seditious, or dedicated to the violent overthrow of the Government of Illinois or of the United States, the Trustees will expect the administration of the University to deny to that group the privileges and ties of association with the University that are allowed to recognized student groups. The report was approved by a vote of four to two. EARL W . PORTER, Clerk Members, Committee on General Policy

THEODORE A. JONES HAROLD POGUK TIMOTHY W . S W A I N MRS. FRANCES B. W A T K I N S KENNEY E. WILLIAMSON W A Y N E A. JOHNSTON, Cliairman

F o l l o w i n g a d i s c u s s i o n , t h e B o a r d v o t e d s i x t o t h r e e in f a v o r of t h e r e p o r t of t h e C o m m i t t e e . M r . H u g h e s , M r . P o g u e , M r . S w a i n a s k e d t o be r e c o r d e d a s v o t i n g " N o . " FINANCE COMMITTEE M r . Williamson, for t h e F i n a n c e Committee, presented the following report a n d m o v e d its adoption. On November 10, 1966, the Board of Trustees adopted a budget request for the operation of the University of Illinois in the biennium 1967-69, to be presented to the Governor and the General Assembly, and authorized the President of the