Letters
…getting pleasure from reading
the obituaries…
“New” versus “Old”
Chicago Seven
I missed the original Magazine
story last year about “the new Chicago Seven”
(“Chicago
Seven: One Year Later,” February/03), so don’t
know whether it included the U of C link to the original
“Chicago Seven,” the famous radicals from
in the late 1960s.
During those
turbulent years I was both a Ph.D. student in English
and director of student activities, cutting my teeth in
college administration. Through my assistant director
I received a request that our offices, then on the second
floor of Ida Noyes, be used in the evenings under her
supervision by some people “working in the community.”
Ever innocent, I approved the use, not thinking to probe
the nature of their “community work.” I would
see our visitors from time to time, assembling materials
or mailings, and we always exchanged greetings. By the
time of the 1968 elections, they were gone. It was only
much later that I learned that our visitors were the original
Chicago Seven, and that the U of C Student Activities
Office had a role, albeit minor and unwitting, in what
transpired.
To the University’s credit (or
possibly to a defecatory umbrella in the Dean of Students’
office—I can’t believe the top administration
didn’t find out), I never heard about this from
anyone in the administration. But then, enough happened
during the ensuing months that the mistake of a young,
naive administrator might easily have been overlooked.
Dan (“Skip”) Landt, AM’62
Chicago
I learned from an excellent and mind-expanding
undergraduate experience at the U of C, and I do appreciate
the “big picture” education I received. I
must, however, strongly object (and I am using my indoor
voice) to you naming a group of (admittedly high-potential)
students as the “New Chicago Seven.” Do we
now live in a such politically repressed and politically
correct society that even an enlightened group as the
University of Chicago can stand up and take pride in proclaiming
a group of undergraduates equal to a group of political
activists who took a stand and fought for it? This makes
me ashamed of the school I went to. I was grounded in
the values of reason over all, learned the importance
of the “big picture” over tunnel vision, and
these are the things I value most about my U of C education:
the ability to step back from a situation and put it into
a historic, sociological, and scientific perspective.
You have perverted this notion by associating a random
group of undergrads with a politically proactive group.
Yes, they may be doing good things, but not with the imperative
of the original Chicago Seven. Shame on you for perverting
this well-known icon to your own agenda.
The children may be our future (barf),
but we are living in the here and now, and so are the
people we should be lionizing.
Susan Garland, SB’79
Baltimore
Advertising