Dr. White taught at a number of universities, including Wayne State, the University of Rochester, Wesleyan, Stanford and several campuses of the University of California system. In 1972, while he was a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, his career acquired an unusual footnote: He sued Edward M. Davis, the Los Angeles police chief, over the department’s practice of enrolling undercover officers as U.C.L.A. students so they could monitor the goings-on in classrooms and student organizations. He argued that the practice violated the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and privacy. The California Supreme Court, in 1975, ruled for Dr. White, reversing a lower court decision. “Given the delicate nature of academic freedom, we visualize a substantial probability that this alleged covert police surveillance will chill the exercise of First Amendment rights,” the court said.