ABSTRACT
At UB, the year 1969-1970 began with the chief administrator on leave and an Acting President in his place. The radical students were focusing their actions on the Vietnam war, minority rights, Department of Defense research, and the ROTC program. Moderate faculty members began organizing after the confrontation of March 12. They formed the University Survival Group and attempted, with some success, to establish lines of communication with the Chancellor of the State University system. The extent and depth of the crisis apparently undermined public support for the Acting President and several other high university officials. Before the crisis, it had been generally believed that the new president would be chosen from the existing Administration. Blame can reduce a leader's power by giving his adversaries within an organization a cause around which to rally their forces, i.e., by setting one or more Coleman-like processes into motion.
