Universities: New Man at Berkeley

For the tumultuous times that may well lie ahead at the University of California, the board of regents last week picked a new top official, competent in the field of “student political activity.” The choice for acting chancellor: Martin Meyerson, 42, an internationally known authority on city planning who since 1963 has been dean of the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley. He takes over from Chancellor Edward W. Strong, 63, who has been suffering from a gall-bladder ailment as well as heavy nervous strain.

City Planner. “I sort of fancy myself as a troubleshooter,” says Meyerson. In one of his books an important topic is “decision making in the face of conflict.” A native of New York City, he studied urban planning at Harvard (M.C.P., ’49) after graduating from Columbia College. He has taught at Chicago, Pennsylvania and Harvard, served on U.N. urban-planning missions in Japan and Indonesia, was a consultant on the reconstruction of Skoplje, the Yugoslavian city devastated by an earthquake in 1963. In manner Meyerson is shy and whimsical. One close friend says of him that “his favorite word is ‘meld,’ and his characteristic posture is melding the interests of a great variety of people.”

As a dean, he voted last month with a majority of the faculty for concessions to the students in the self-styled Free Speech Movement. Taking his new job, he said: “One of the absolutes in my world is that the rights of democracy have to be extended not only to those with whom we agree but to those with whom we disagree.” As for civil disobedience, which students used last month in their sit-in at the university’s administration building, Meyerson thinks it “warranted as a last resort in our democracy—it was warranted in Boston at the famous tea party.”

Exam Time. First-semester final exams are about to begin at Cal, and for now most students are willing to skip demonstrations and let Meyerson work out his own way of running the university. But the conflict is not settled. Student Leader Mario Savio questions “whether the regents are the proper people to be running the university,” and his Free Speech Movement wants to “establish the availability of a revolutionary experience in education.” Concessions so far, he says, do not permit “free speech with consequences, free speech which may lead to sit-ins and picket lines and other civil rights demonstrations.”

Clark Kerr, president of the whole California university system, knows that the procedure for free expression will not work unless students show good faith. “Suppose a loudspeaker can be used only until 1 p.m., because its use would interfere with classes after that time,” he says. “One proposed stratagem would call for a loudspeaker to be employed after 1 o’clock with perhaps 100 persons lined up to say hello or make talks.” Troubleshooter Meyerson’s prospect is that he will have plenty of trouble to shoot.