The Beginning of a Grand Jury Investigation

It was my privilege to chair a Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa that investigated activities at Iowa State University and made several recommendations for changes in higher education.  This study of higher education is even more relevant now than when adopted December 23, 1968.  With the imposition of teacher unions and tenure laws, radicals in the soft sciences now dominate lower-level public education.

 

News reports had made it clear that drugs, immorality and disrespect for constitutional authority had become an ongoing part of the academic menu in our universities.  With about six months left in our term, I suggested to the county attorney, Charles Vanderbur, that the jury investigate what was going on at Iowa State University.  He said, "Dave, I'll do anything I can to help you."  He provided us with tape recordings of campus presentations by radicals.  After hearing the first tape, the jury members gave the go-ahead to undertake the investigation.  The jury's main concern was the education environment and its impact upon the behavioral patterns and decision-making ability of students.

 

My challenge as the foreman was to obtain unanimous agreement for significant recommendations from three Republican and three Democrat jurors.  Several legislative directives for changes in the administration of Iowa's colleges and universities followed the release of the study.

 

Because of tenured radicals embedded in the system, the impact of the Presentment faded within four or five years.  The Grand Jury report received nationwide media attention, and requests for copies of the Presentment came from government officials in Iowa, California and Washington, DC.

 

"As one of the tens of thousands who admire the action of your Grand Jury, I wish to commend  Foreman Norris and his jury for their courageous and true Americanism in focusing public attention on the perverted minority… who would destroy what we have… in America and deliver us unto our enemies" (E. Allen, Burlington, North Dakota, letter to the Nevada, Iowa Journal).

 

"OUT IN IOWA… The jury's report said 'there is a need for increased emphasis at all levels of education of the American ideal.  Our soldiers have been dying for this ideal.  Education as never before should clearly teach it.'  So say we" (from the Boston Record, printed in the Ames Daily Tribune).

 

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