Organized Student Resistance

Gary W. Greer, a second-year student at the Medical School, said last week "there was never any organized form of underground student resistance" at the school until last month.

This week that resistance came out into the open. Greer and two other students informed Dr. Robert H. Ebert, dean of the Medical School, that 75 per cent of the third-year class had effectively agreed not to return to the school this fall unless the faculty rescinds a three-year-old ruling requiring students to concentrate in one of 12 areas.

The third-year class would be the first to fall under such a requirement. But three-fourths of the group has refused to file a plan of concentration, even though Ebert sent all students in the class a letter a month ago stating that those who fail to submit concentration plans will not be allowed to return to the school in the fall.

Students and faculty have been discussing the new requirement since the present third-year class arrived at the school, but last week both sides said the dialogue was no longer accomplishing anything. Students and faculty accused each other of being inflexible.

But Ebert suggested a compromise this week when Greer and two others told about him about the third-year students' agreement. The student leaders also gave Ebert a statement explaining why they felt concentrations should be left optional.

Under the compromise, students would be strongly encouraged to concentrate--to spend four months of their second two years taking courses in one field--but the final decision on whether an individual student should concentrate would rest with faculty advisers.

Students met with the council Thursday and are still discussing the compromise. The negotiations should reach some conclusion by early next week.