Senators watching U. events

Recent controversies on campus regarding free expression will not jeopardize President Sheldon Hackney's nomination to head the National Endowment for the Humanities, many people in Washington and at the University said this week. Spokespersons for a number of senators on the Labor and Human Resources Committee, which would confirm Hackney, said they do not think Hackney's response to last week's theft of nearly 14,000 copies of The Daily Pennsylvanian by the University's "Black Community" will be an important issue during the hearings, set for sometime this summer. But they added they are aware of the situation and will be keeping an eye on events in Philadelphia. Mike Horak, press secretary for Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) -- a member of the confirmation committee -- said he is not sure if the recent events at the University will have a bearing on Hackney's confirmation. "Senator Kassebaum certainly is aware of the tensions on the campus," Horak said. "However, I think she looks forward to visiting with Hackney." Alan Kors, a history professor who serves on the National Humanities Council, said yesterday that he will not take a public stance during Hackney's confirmation hearings but said "people should draw their own conclusions from the climate on campus." In yesterday's issue of the DP, Kors characterized this climate as grim and said, " . . . we do not have a free society at the University of Pennsylvania." A spokesperson for conservative Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said his office would not comment on the incidents until his office received formal paperwork about Hackney's NEH nomination. But yesterday Hatch's office contacted the DP offices requesting information regarding the theft of the newspapers. Hackney said he does not think his confirmation -- which before last week's incident at the University had received widespread support from the humanities community and Capitol Hill -- will be negatively impacted. "I don't think it will affect it much," Hackney said. "I have taken those stances [supporting free speech] in the past and I am doing so now. There is no stronger stance than what I have taken." During his 12-year tenure as president, Hackney has earned a national reputation as a defender of free expression. In 1989, he spoke out in support of a controversial photography exhibit by Robert Mapplethorpe which was funded in part by a National Endowment for the Arts grant. And although Hackney said in a statement in this week's Almanac that he wanted to "make it clear that neither I nor the University of Pennsylvania condone the confiscation" of DPs, he has not gone as far as to condemn the action. Hackney's public statements of limited support for the DP's rights were criticized last weekend by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on CNN's Capitol Gang program. "This week black students at the University of Pennsylvania confiscated nearly all 14,000 copies of the student newspaper because they didn't like a column in it," Novak said. "What did University President Sheldon Hackney do? "He expressed regrets that 'two important university values, diversity and open expression, seemed to be in conflict,' " he added. "Hackney did discipline university police for harassing the newspaper trashers. By the way, this guy Hackney is President Clinton's nominee to head the Endowment for the Humanities." Hackney said yesterday that the national interest in events at the University is only because of his NEH nomination. "The fact that President Clinton nominated me makes what happens here is a bit more newsworthy," Hackney said. Hackney said he has been contacted by "various reporters who are interested in the issue," but said he has not talked to any of them. Hackney said he is "not doing anything new or different" regarding his support of free speech on campus and said he has "demonstrated countless times" that he is committed to the First Amendment.

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