Columbia University protests of 1968
Encyclopedia
The Columbia University
protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War
, as well as their concern over an allegedly segregatory gymnasium to be constructed in the nearby Morningside Park. The protests resulted in the student occupation of many university buildings and their eventual violent removal by the New York City Police Department
.
Students for a Democratic Society
activist named Bob Feldman discovered documents in the International Law Library detailing Columbia's institutional affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses
(IDA), a weapons research think-tank affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense
. The nature of the association had not been, to that point, publicly announced by the University.
Prior to March 1967, IDA had rarely been mentioned in the U.S. media or in the left, underground or campus press. A few magazine articles on IDA had appeared between 1956 and 1967 and IDA had been mentioned in a few books for academic specialists published by university presses. The RAND
Corporation, not the Institute for Defense Analyses, was the military-oriented think-tank that had received most of the publicity prior to March 1967. But after Feldman's name appeared in some leftist publications in reference to the Columbia-IDA revelation, the FBI opened a file on him and started to investigate him, according to Feldman's de-classified FBI files.
The discovery of the IDA documents touched off a Columbia SDS anti-war campaign between April 1967 and April 1968, which demanded that the Columbia University administration resign its institutional membership in the Institute for Defense Analyses. Following a peaceful demonstration inside the Low Library
administration building on March 27, 1968, the Columbia Administration placed on probation six anti-war Columbia student activists, who were collectively nicknamed "The IDA Six," for violating its ban on indoor demonstrations.
, who opposed the project. By 1967 community opposition had become more militant. One of the causes for dispute was the gym's proposed design, which would have included access for residents of Harlem
through a so-called "back door" to a dedicated community facility on its lower level. This design was actually a solution to the gym's physical placement on the park's highly-inclined slope, at the bottom of which is Harlem and at the top of which is Morningside Heights, where Columbia's campus is situated. By 1968, 7 years after the gym's proposal had been hailed as mutually beneficent, the civil rights movement cast things in a different light. The previously acceptable and pragmatic design was now interpreted as segregationist and therefore discriminatory, and labeled "Gym Crow". In addition, others were concerned with the appropriation of land from a public park. Harlem activists opposed the construction because, despite being on public land and a park, Harlem residents would get only limited access to the facility.
Since 1958 the University had evicted more than seven thousand Harlem residents from Columbia-controlled properties—85 percent of whom were African American or Puerto Rican. Many Harlem residents paid rent to the University.
Black students at a 40th anniversary event said their bitterness evolved from discrimination, that unlike white students their identifications were constantly checked, and that black women were told not to register for difficult courses. A "stacking system" that put all the former black football players in the same position was described.
students were prevented from protesting inside Low Library by Columbia security guards, most of the student protesters marched down to the Columbia gymnasium construction site in Morningside Park, attempted to stop construction of the gymnasium and began to scuffle with the New York City Police officers who were guarding the construction site.The NYPD arrested one protester at the gym site. Columbia SDS chairman Mark Rudd
then led the protesting students from Morningside Park back to Columbia's campus, where students took over Hamilton Hall
, a building housing both classrooms and the offices of the Columbia College
Administration.
An important aspect of the 1968 Columbia University protests was the manner in which activists were separated along racial lines. During the takeover of Hamilton Hall, the 60 African American
Students at Columbia involved with the protest then stated that the white students were not wanted in Hamilton Hall. This was because, while both the SAS and the SDS had the goal of preventing the construction of the new gymnasium, the two groups held different agendas. The goal of the SDS was to mobilize the student population of Columbia while the SAS was primarily interested in halting the gym construction, throughout the duration of the protests.The members of the SAS requested that the white radicals begin their own, separate protest so that the black students could put all of its focus into preventing the university from building the gym. As part of a Black Power
Movement, the African American students claimed that the European-American students could not understand the protest of the gymnasium as deeply as its architectural plans were developed in a segregationist fashion. What began as a unified effort would soon become a tension-filled standoff between black students and white students as the SAS began to meet separately from other protesters and secluding whites, with each group occupying a separate side of the building. There was minimal communication between the SDS and SAS which led to decreased solidarity between the two forces.School of Architecture
, which contained classrooms were also occupied by the student protesters. This separation of the SDS and SAS, with each using different tactics to accomplish its goals, was consistent with the student movement across the country.
In separating themselves from the white protestors early in the demonstration, the black protesters forced Columbia to address the issue of race. Falling so soon after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which had caused riots in the black neighborhoods surrounding the university, caused administrators to tread lightly in dealing with the demonstrators of the SAS. University administration seemed helpless against the group of African-American students who controlled the College’s most important building and had support from off-campus black activists. Any use of force, officials feared, could incite riots in the neighboring Harlem community. Realizing this, those holed up in Hamilton Hall encouraged neighboring African-Americans to come to the campus and “recruited famous black militants to speak at their rallies.” To the demonstration, the black students and community allies brought an unrivaled passion for the cause. The student-community alliance that forged between students of the SAS and Harlem residents led to widespread growth in white support for the cause.
A photo of David Shapiro
wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar in Columbia President Grayson L. Kirk
's office was published in the media. Mark Rudd announced that acting dean Henry S. Coleman
would be held hostage until the group's demands were met. Though he was not in his office when the takeover was initiated, Coleman made his way into the building past protesters, went into his office and stated that "I have no control over the demands you are making, but I have no intention of meeting any demand under a situation such as this." Along with College administrators William Kahn and Dan Carlinsky, Coleman was detained as a hostage in his office as furniture was placed to keep him from leaving. He had been provided with food while being held and was able to leave 24 hours later, with The New York Times
describing his departure from the siege as "showing no sign that he had been unsettled by the experience"
Based upon statistics gathered at the time by neutral campus organizations such as WKCR and Spectator (see URL "Columbia 68", Professor R. McCaughey), the majority of Columbia students did not support the demonstration, although there was sympathy for some of the stated goals. A group of 300 undergraduates calling themselves the "Majority Coalition" (intended to emphasize the minority proportion of students involved in the occupation) organized after several days of the building occupation, in response to what they perceived as administration inaction. This group was made up of student athletes, fraternity members and members of the general undergraduate population, led by Richard Waselewsky and Richard Forzani. These students were not necessarily opposed to the spectrum of goals enunciated by the demonstrators, but were adamant in their opposition to the occupation of University buildings. They formed a human blockade around the primary building, Low Library. Their stated mission was to allow anyone who wished to leave Low to do so, with no consequence. However, they also prevented anyone or any supplies from entering the building. After three consecutive days of blockade, a group of protesters attempted on the afternoon of April 29 to forcibly penetrate the line but were repulsed in a quick and violent confrontation. This was the administration's greatest fear; student on student violence. At 5:00 PM that evening the Coalition abandoned the blockade at the request of the faculty committee, who advised its leaders that the situation would be resolved by the next morning.
The protests came to a conclusion in the early morning hours of April 30, 1968, when the NYPD
violently quashed the demonstrations, with tear gas, and stormed both Hamilton Hall and the Low Library. Hamilton Hall was cleared peacefully as African American
lawyers were outside ready to represent SAS members in court and a tactical squad of African American
police officers with the NYPD led by Detective Sanford Garelick (the same investigator of the Malcolm X
homicide) had cleared the African American
students out of Hamilton Hall. The buildings occupied by whites however were cleared violently as approximately 150 students were injured and taken to hospitals, while over 700 protesters were arrested.
for the expansion of its athletic facilities.
At least 30 Columbia students were suspended by the administration as a result of the protests.
At the start of the protests, professor Carl Hovde
served on a faculty group that established a joint committee composed of administrators, faculty and students that established recommendations for addressing disciplinary action for the students involved in the protests. Appointed as dean while the protests were continuing, Hovde stated that he felt that the "sit-ins and the demonstrations were not without cause" and opposed criminal charges being filed against the students by the university, though he did agree that the protesters "were acting with insufficient cause".
Many of the Class of ’68 walked out of their graduation and held a countercommencement on Low Plaza with a picnic following at Morningside Park, the place where it all began. The student demonstration that happened on Columbia’s campus in 1968 proved that universities do not exist in a bubble and are, in fact, susceptible to the social and economic strife that surrounds them. These 1968 protests left Columbia University a much changed place, with, as historian Todd Gitlin describes, “growing militancy, growing isolation [and] growing hatred among the competing factions with their competing imaginations. The Columbia building occupations and accompanying demonstrations, in which several thousand people participated, paralyzed the operations of the whole university and became “the most powerful and effective student protest in modern American history.” A wide variety of effects, both positive and negative, occurred in the wake of the demonstrations.
Students involved in the protests continued their involvement in protest politics in varied forms affecting the movement at large. Their many activities included forming commune
s and creating urban social organizations. Several Columbia SDS members combined with the New York Black Panther Party
to create Weatherman
, a group dedicated to the violent overthrow of the government.
Columbia became much more liberal in its policies as a result of the student demonstrations Classes were canceled for the rest of the week following the end of the protest. Additionally, a policy was soon established that allowed students to receive passing grades in all classes with no additional work. In the place of traditional class, students held “liberation classes, rallies, [and] concerts outside” which included appearances by Allen Ginsberg and the Grateful Dead.
Columbia suffered quite a bit in the aftermath of the student protest. Applications, endowments, and grants for the university declined significantly in the following years. “It took at least 20 years to fully recover.” The protests left Columbia in a bad spot financially as many potential students chose to attend other universities and some alumni refused to donate any more to the school. Many believe that protest efforts at Columbia were also responsible for pushing higher education further toward the liberal left. These critics, such as Allan Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, believed, “American universities were no longer places of intellectual and academic debate, but rather places of ‘political correctness’ and liberalism.”
Racial divisions had also been strengthened as a result of the protests, made worse by the separate deal that the administration, to prevent a riot in Harlem, made with the black students of the SAS who had occupied Hamilton Hall. These black activists were permitted to exit the building through underground tunnels before the New York Police Department came. Black students maintained their own separate organization with a particular agenda: to foster the relationship between Columbia and the Harlem community and modify the curriculum to include black studies courses.
A University Senate was established as a result of the protests. This council, with representation from the faculty, administration and student population, gave students the opportunity to positively restructure the university. It was a way to produce positive dialogue between students and authority figures. From here on out, university administration would be attentive to student concerns about university policies. Another result of the protests was an improved relationship with the Harlem community. The university was forced to approach neighboring Harlem with a certain respect. Instead of continuing expansion into Harlem, Columbia shifted its focus for expansion to the Riverside Park area.
Columbia’s relationship with the United States military and federal government was forever changed. There would be no more federal sponsorship of classified weapons research and international studies that had been occurring since World War II, as Columbia severed ties to the Institute for Defense Analysis, which had been created in 1955 to foster the connection between Columbia University and the defense establishment. In addition, the ROTC left the Morningside Heights campus as CIA and armed forces recruiters.
According to Stefan Bradley in his book Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s, through the results of the protests, the SAS showed that Black Power
, which refers to the ability for African-American students and black working-class community members to work together despite class differences, on an issue affecting African-Americans, could succeed as it had done in the Columbia University protests of 1968..
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, as well as their concern over an allegedly segregatory gymnasium to be constructed in the nearby Morningside Park. The protests resulted in the student occupation of many university buildings and their eventual violent removal by the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
.
Origins
In early March 1967, a Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
activist named Bob Feldman discovered documents in the International Law Library detailing Columbia's institutional affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses
Institute for Defense Analyses
The Institute for Defense Analyses is a non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers to assist the United States government in addressing important national security issues, particularly those requiring scientific and technical expertise...
(IDA), a weapons research think-tank affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
. The nature of the association had not been, to that point, publicly announced by the University.
Prior to March 1967, IDA had rarely been mentioned in the U.S. media or in the left, underground or campus press. A few magazine articles on IDA had appeared between 1956 and 1967 and IDA had been mentioned in a few books for academic specialists published by university presses. The RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
Corporation, not the Institute for Defense Analyses, was the military-oriented think-tank that had received most of the publicity prior to March 1967. But after Feldman's name appeared in some leftist publications in reference to the Columbia-IDA revelation, the FBI opened a file on him and started to investigate him, according to Feldman's de-classified FBI files.
The discovery of the IDA documents touched off a Columbia SDS anti-war campaign between April 1967 and April 1968, which demanded that the Columbia University administration resign its institutional membership in the Institute for Defense Analyses. Following a peaceful demonstration inside the Low Library
Low Memorial Library
The Low Memorial Library is the administrative center of Columbia University. Built in 1895 by University President Seth Low in memory of his father, Abiel Abbot Low, and financed with $1 million of Low's own money due to the recalcitrance of university alumni, it is the focal point and most...
administration building on March 27, 1968, the Columbia Administration placed on probation six anti-war Columbia student activists, who were collectively nicknamed "The IDA Six," for violating its ban on indoor demonstrations.
Morningside Park gymnasium and discrimination
Columbia's plan to construct a gymnasium in city-owned Morningside Park also touched off negative sentiment on campus and in the Harlem community. Opposition began in 1965 during the mayoral campaign of John LindsayJohn Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer and broadcaster who was a U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, candidate for U.S...
, who opposed the project. By 1967 community opposition had become more militant. One of the causes for dispute was the gym's proposed design, which would have included access for residents of Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
through a so-called "back door" to a dedicated community facility on its lower level. This design was actually a solution to the gym's physical placement on the park's highly-inclined slope, at the bottom of which is Harlem and at the top of which is Morningside Heights, where Columbia's campus is situated. By 1968, 7 years after the gym's proposal had been hailed as mutually beneficent, the civil rights movement cast things in a different light. The previously acceptable and pragmatic design was now interpreted as segregationist and therefore discriminatory, and labeled "Gym Crow". In addition, others were concerned with the appropriation of land from a public park. Harlem activists opposed the construction because, despite being on public land and a park, Harlem residents would get only limited access to the facility.
Since 1958 the University had evicted more than seven thousand Harlem residents from Columbia-controlled properties—85 percent of whom were African American or Puerto Rican. Many Harlem residents paid rent to the University.
Black students at a 40th anniversary event said their bitterness evolved from discrimination, that unlike white students their identifications were constantly checked, and that black women were told not to register for difficult courses. A "stacking system" that put all the former black football players in the same position was described.
April student strike and occupations
The first protest occurred eight days before Martin Luther King's assassination. In response to the Columbia Administration's attempts to suppress anti-IDA student protest on its campus, and Columbia's plans for the Morningside Park gymnasium, Columbia SDS activists and the student activists who led Columbia's Student Afro Society (SAS) held a second, confrontational demonstration on April 23, 1968. After the protesting Columbia and BarnardBarnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
students were prevented from protesting inside Low Library by Columbia security guards, most of the student protesters marched down to the Columbia gymnasium construction site in Morningside Park, attempted to stop construction of the gymnasium and began to scuffle with the New York City Police officers who were guarding the construction site.The NYPD arrested one protester at the gym site. Columbia SDS chairman Mark Rudd
Mark Rudd
Mark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader...
then led the protesting students from Morningside Park back to Columbia's campus, where students took over Hamilton Hall
Hamilton Hall (Columbia University)
Hamilton Hall is an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. The building is named for Alexander Hamilton, one of the most famous attendees of King's College, Columbia's predecessor...
, a building housing both classrooms and the offices of the Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
Administration.
An important aspect of the 1968 Columbia University protests was the manner in which activists were separated along racial lines. During the takeover of Hamilton Hall, the 60 African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Students at Columbia involved with the protest then stated that the white students were not wanted in Hamilton Hall. This was because, while both the SAS and the SDS had the goal of preventing the construction of the new gymnasium, the two groups held different agendas. The goal of the SDS was to mobilize the student population of Columbia while the SAS was primarily interested in halting the gym construction, throughout the duration of the protests.The members of the SAS requested that the white radicals begin their own, separate protest so that the black students could put all of its focus into preventing the university from building the gym. As part of a Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
Movement, the African American students claimed that the European-American students could not understand the protest of the gymnasium as deeply as its architectural plans were developed in a segregationist fashion. What began as a unified effort would soon become a tension-filled standoff between black students and white students as the SAS began to meet separately from other protesters and secluding whites, with each group occupying a separate side of the building. There was minimal communication between the SDS and SAS which led to decreased solidarity between the two forces.School of Architecture
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York City, also known simply as GSAPP, is regarded as one of the most important and prestigious architecture schools in the world...
, which contained classrooms were also occupied by the student protesters. This separation of the SDS and SAS, with each using different tactics to accomplish its goals, was consistent with the student movement across the country.
In separating themselves from the white protestors early in the demonstration, the black protesters forced Columbia to address the issue of race. Falling so soon after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which had caused riots in the black neighborhoods surrounding the university, caused administrators to tread lightly in dealing with the demonstrators of the SAS. University administration seemed helpless against the group of African-American students who controlled the College’s most important building and had support from off-campus black activists. Any use of force, officials feared, could incite riots in the neighboring Harlem community. Realizing this, those holed up in Hamilton Hall encouraged neighboring African-Americans to come to the campus and “recruited famous black militants to speak at their rallies.” To the demonstration, the black students and community allies brought an unrivaled passion for the cause. The student-community alliance that forged between students of the SAS and Harlem residents led to widespread growth in white support for the cause.
A photo of David Shapiro
David Shapiro (poet)
David Shapiro is an American poet, literary critic, and art historian. He has written some twenty volumes of poetry, literary, and art criticism...
wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar in Columbia President Grayson L. Kirk
Grayson L. Kirk
Grayson Louis Kirk was president of Columbia University during the Columbia University protests of 1968. He was also a Professor of Government, advisor to the State Department, and instrumental in the formation of the United Nations.-Early life:Kirk was born to a farmer and schoolteacher in...
's office was published in the media. Mark Rudd announced that acting dean Henry S. Coleman
Henry S. Coleman
Henry Simmons Coleman was an American educational administrator who was serving as acting dean of Columbia College, Columbia University when he was held hostage in an office for a day by the Students for a Democratic Society during the Columbia University protests of 1968 and later wrote letters...
would be held hostage until the group's demands were met. Though he was not in his office when the takeover was initiated, Coleman made his way into the building past protesters, went into his office and stated that "I have no control over the demands you are making, but I have no intention of meeting any demand under a situation such as this." Along with College administrators William Kahn and Dan Carlinsky, Coleman was detained as a hostage in his office as furniture was placed to keep him from leaving. He had been provided with food while being held and was able to leave 24 hours later, with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
describing his departure from the siege as "showing no sign that he had been unsettled by the experience"
Based upon statistics gathered at the time by neutral campus organizations such as WKCR and Spectator (see URL "Columbia 68", Professor R. McCaughey), the majority of Columbia students did not support the demonstration, although there was sympathy for some of the stated goals. A group of 300 undergraduates calling themselves the "Majority Coalition" (intended to emphasize the minority proportion of students involved in the occupation) organized after several days of the building occupation, in response to what they perceived as administration inaction. This group was made up of student athletes, fraternity members and members of the general undergraduate population, led by Richard Waselewsky and Richard Forzani. These students were not necessarily opposed to the spectrum of goals enunciated by the demonstrators, but were adamant in their opposition to the occupation of University buildings. They formed a human blockade around the primary building, Low Library. Their stated mission was to allow anyone who wished to leave Low to do so, with no consequence. However, they also prevented anyone or any supplies from entering the building. After three consecutive days of blockade, a group of protesters attempted on the afternoon of April 29 to forcibly penetrate the line but were repulsed in a quick and violent confrontation. This was the administration's greatest fear; student on student violence. At 5:00 PM that evening the Coalition abandoned the blockade at the request of the faculty committee, who advised its leaders that the situation would be resolved by the next morning.
The protests came to a conclusion in the early morning hours of April 30, 1968, when the NYPD
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
violently quashed the demonstrations, with tear gas, and stormed both Hamilton Hall and the Low Library. Hamilton Hall was cleared peacefully as African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
lawyers were outside ready to represent SAS members in court and a tactical squad of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
police officers with the NYPD led by Detective Sanford Garelick (the same investigator of the Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
homicide) had cleared the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
students out of Hamilton Hall. The buildings occupied by whites however were cleared violently as approximately 150 students were injured and taken to hospitals, while over 700 protesters were arrested.
Second round of protests
More protesting Columbia and Barnard students were arrested and/or injured by New York City police during a second round of protests May 17–18, 1968, when community residents occupied a Columbia University-owned partially vacant apartment building at 618 West 114 Street to protest Columbia's expansion policies, and later when students re-occupied Hamilton Hall to protest Columbia's suspension of "The IDA Six."Aftermath
The protests achieved two of their stated goals. Columbia disaffiliated from the IDA and scrapped the plans for the controversial gym, building a subterranean physical fitness center under the north end of campus instead. The gym's plans were eventually used by Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
for the expansion of its athletic facilities.
At least 30 Columbia students were suspended by the administration as a result of the protests.
At the start of the protests, professor Carl Hovde
Carl Hovde
Carl Frederick Hovde was an American educator who from 1968 until 1972 was the Dean of Columbia College, the undergraduate division of Columbia University...
served on a faculty group that established a joint committee composed of administrators, faculty and students that established recommendations for addressing disciplinary action for the students involved in the protests. Appointed as dean while the protests were continuing, Hovde stated that he felt that the "sit-ins and the demonstrations were not without cause" and opposed criminal charges being filed against the students by the university, though he did agree that the protesters "were acting with insufficient cause".
Many of the Class of ’68 walked out of their graduation and held a countercommencement on Low Plaza with a picnic following at Morningside Park, the place where it all began. The student demonstration that happened on Columbia’s campus in 1968 proved that universities do not exist in a bubble and are, in fact, susceptible to the social and economic strife that surrounds them. These 1968 protests left Columbia University a much changed place, with, as historian Todd Gitlin describes, “growing militancy, growing isolation [and] growing hatred among the competing factions with their competing imaginations. The Columbia building occupations and accompanying demonstrations, in which several thousand people participated, paralyzed the operations of the whole university and became “the most powerful and effective student protest in modern American history.” A wide variety of effects, both positive and negative, occurred in the wake of the demonstrations.
Students involved in the protests continued their involvement in protest politics in varied forms affecting the movement at large. Their many activities included forming commune
Commune
Commune may refer to:In society:* Commune, a human community in which resources are shared* Commune , a township or municipality* One of the Communes of France* An Italian Comune...
s and creating urban social organizations. Several Columbia SDS members combined with the New York Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
to create Weatherman
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
, a group dedicated to the violent overthrow of the government.
Columbia became much more liberal in its policies as a result of the student demonstrations Classes were canceled for the rest of the week following the end of the protest. Additionally, a policy was soon established that allowed students to receive passing grades in all classes with no additional work. In the place of traditional class, students held “liberation classes, rallies, [and] concerts outside” which included appearances by Allen Ginsberg and the Grateful Dead.
Columbia suffered quite a bit in the aftermath of the student protest. Applications, endowments, and grants for the university declined significantly in the following years. “It took at least 20 years to fully recover.” The protests left Columbia in a bad spot financially as many potential students chose to attend other universities and some alumni refused to donate any more to the school. Many believe that protest efforts at Columbia were also responsible for pushing higher education further toward the liberal left. These critics, such as Allan Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, believed, “American universities were no longer places of intellectual and academic debate, but rather places of ‘political correctness’ and liberalism.”
Racial divisions had also been strengthened as a result of the protests, made worse by the separate deal that the administration, to prevent a riot in Harlem, made with the black students of the SAS who had occupied Hamilton Hall. These black activists were permitted to exit the building through underground tunnels before the New York Police Department came. Black students maintained their own separate organization with a particular agenda: to foster the relationship between Columbia and the Harlem community and modify the curriculum to include black studies courses.
A University Senate was established as a result of the protests. This council, with representation from the faculty, administration and student population, gave students the opportunity to positively restructure the university. It was a way to produce positive dialogue between students and authority figures. From here on out, university administration would be attentive to student concerns about university policies. Another result of the protests was an improved relationship with the Harlem community. The university was forced to approach neighboring Harlem with a certain respect. Instead of continuing expansion into Harlem, Columbia shifted its focus for expansion to the Riverside Park area.
Columbia’s relationship with the United States military and federal government was forever changed. There would be no more federal sponsorship of classified weapons research and international studies that had been occurring since World War II, as Columbia severed ties to the Institute for Defense Analysis, which had been created in 1955 to foster the connection between Columbia University and the defense establishment. In addition, the ROTC left the Morningside Heights campus as CIA and armed forces recruiters.
According to Stefan Bradley in his book Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s, through the results of the protests, the SAS showed that Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
, which refers to the ability for African-American students and black working-class community members to work together despite class differences, on an issue affecting African-Americans, could succeed as it had done in the Columbia University protests of 1968..
In popular culture
- Confrontation On Campus - The Columbia Pattern for the New Protest - by Joanne Grant. Back cover: "... a definitive study of the New Protest--how it happens, why it happens, why it is happening again and again."
- The Strawberry StatementThe Strawberry StatementThe Strawberry Statement is a non-fiction book by James Simon Kunen, written when he was 19, which chronicled his experiences at Columbia University from 1966–1968, particularly the April 1968 protests and takeover of the office of the dean of Columbia by student protesters.-Explanation of...
- by James Simon KunenJames Simon KunenJames Simon Kunen is an American author, journalist and lawyer. He is best known as the author of The Strawberry Statement, a first-person documentary of the Columbia University protests of 1968.-Biography:...
. This book details the particulars of the protest. - The Strawberry StatementThe Strawberry Statement (film)The Strawberry Statement is a 1970 cult film about the counterculture and student revolts of the 1960s, loosely based on the non-fiction book by James Simon Kunen about the Columbia University protests of 1968.-Cast:* Bruce Davison: Simon...
- film version of the above with less analysis. - Up Against The Ivy Wall - by Jerry AvornJerry AvornJerome "Jerry" Lewis Avorn, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital...
. Avorn was an editor of the Columbia Daily SpectatorColumbia Daily SpectatorColumbia Daily Spectator is the daily student newspaper of Columbia University. It is published at 112th and Broadway in New York, New York. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after The Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent of the...
and covered far more of the events than did The Strawberry Statement, though he got a few names wrong. - Columbia RevoltColumbia RevoltColumbia Revolt is a 50 minute, black-and-white documentary film about the Columbia University protests of 1968. The film was made that year by a collective of independent filmmakers called Newsreel and mostly shot by Melvin Margolis...
- 1968 documentary about the incident made by a collective of independent filmmakers. - The Fall - 1969 documentary by Peter Whitehead about violence, revolution and the turbulence within late-60s America.
- Across the UniverseAcross the Universe (film)Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...
- by Julie TaymorJulie TaymorJulie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
. - A Time to Stir - by Paul Cronin screened as work-in-progress at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival
- Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker! - by Jim DunniganJim DunniganJames F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.-Career:...
, with Jerry Avorn and Lenny Glynn. A 1969 board game about the demonstrations, published in the Columbia Daily Spectator.
See also
- A. Bruce GoldmanA. Bruce GoldmanA. Bruce Goldman is a controversial American rabbi.-Biography:Goldman first came to national attention with his defense of the right of undergraduate students to co-habit in the dorms, which was then in violation of college rules. This issue was part of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.He next...
- Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
- Grayson L. KirkGrayson L. KirkGrayson Louis Kirk was president of Columbia University during the Columbia University protests of 1968. He was also a Professor of Government, advisor to the State Department, and instrumental in the formation of the United Nations.-Early life:Kirk was born to a farmer and schoolteacher in...
- David Truman
- Hamilton Hall (Columbia University)Hamilton Hall (Columbia University)Hamilton Hall is an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. The building is named for Alexander Hamilton, one of the most famous attendees of King's College, Columbia's predecessor...
- Institute for Defense AnalysesInstitute for Defense AnalysesThe Institute for Defense Analyses is a non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers to assist the United States government in addressing important national security issues, particularly those requiring scientific and technical expertise...
- Low Memorial LibraryLow Memorial LibraryThe Low Memorial Library is the administrative center of Columbia University. Built in 1895 by University President Seth Low in memory of his father, Abiel Abbot Low, and financed with $1 million of Low's own money due to the recalcitrance of university alumni, it is the focal point and most...
- Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
- Protests of 1968Protests of 1968The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
Further reading
- Rudd, MarkMark RuddMark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader...
(2009), Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen, HarperCollins. - Six Weeks That Shook Morningside, Columbia College Today, Spring 1968. (PDF)
- Spring '68: 40 Years Later, Columbia College Today, May/June 2008.
- Stir It Up, Columbia Magazine, Spring 2008.
- A Time to Stir.
- Cox, Archibald et al. (1968),"The Cox Commission Report. Crisis at Columbia. Report of the Fact-Finding Commission Appointed to Investigate the Disturbances at Columbia University in April and May 1968", Vintage Books, Random House, New York.
External links
- Columbia University 1968 by Frank da Cruz
- "Columbia '68: A Near Thing" - lecture by Robert A. McCaughey
- Interactive History of Columbia '68
- 1968: Columbia in Crisis - Online exhibit from the Columbia University Archives