Columbia College Today Volume XV, No.3
Within the Family
Spring 1968
Published by Columbia College Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027
This publication is printed for alumni and friends of Columbia College u;ilh the support of The Association of the Alumni
Thomas M. .\tacioce '39, President Eugene Rossides '49, Vice President John H. Mathis '31, Secretary Carl "V. Desch '37, Treasurer Max J. Lovell '23, ExeC1ltive Director
EDITOR George Charles Keller '51 ASSISTANT EDITOR
Peter Salzberg '64 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
l\'lalinda Teel
ALUMNI ADVISORY COMlYUTTEE
Ray Robinson '41, Chairman Arthur Rothstein '35 Edward Rice '40 Edward Hamilton '42 Kermit Lansner '42 Walter Wager '44 Byron Dobell '47 John McDermott '54
IN THIS ISSUE Six Weeks That Shook Morningside: A Special Report
Address all editorial communications to: COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
400 West H8th Street路 New York, N.Y. 10027. Telephone (212) 280-3701
COLUMBIA COLLEGE founded in 1754 is the undergraduate liberal arts college of 2,700 men in COI.:UMBIA UNIVERSITY
Red flags, gr-een ivy, and the Light Blue This magazine has a well-deserved reputation for being tardy in its publication schedule. But it has never been this late. We beg forgiveness. The news from the College, however, has been far from routine recently. Normally, Columbia is a busy, exb'aordinary place, of course. But last spring was tumult, real tumult, That was not the greatest difficulty though. What really slowed us was the small torrent of letters, chiefly (but not exclusively) from College alumni, urging us to forget sports, class notes, alumni reunions, and tell them what actually happened during the revolution, including lots of whys and hows. For example, alumnus Gerald Berkowitz '63, an English instructor at the University of Southern California, wrote us on May 24: "It is obvious that the news media are doing a very incomplete and sometimes obviously biased job of reporting the developments and significance of the current revolution. GGT has shown itself in the past to be a reliably objective and frequently critical observer of University events and policies. You are in a perfect position to prOVide the necessary balanced account of the past few weeks. . . . I strongly recommend that you junk whatever features you had planned for the next issue, and replace them with as complete a coverage of the revolt as you can muster. . . . It will be tragic if the true story is never known. You are the only one I would trust to tell it." Imagine that! We were Hattered, naturally, but also frightened by these letters. How does one capture the "true story" of a hurricane? And, how does one do so rationally, when nearly everyone is impassioned? Still, we had certain advantages. We were in the occupied buildings; were allowed to visit Low Library's innermost offices, even at the most crucial moments; were privileged to sit in the faculty meetings; talked with alumni, trustees, and community residents; were friendly with numerous students; and generally were
acquainted with Columbia's past and present. We had collected documents and photographs like squirrels, and had taken notes-all three of us-like diligent graduate students. No one could possibly tell the whole story, even in 20 volumes. But we could attempt to be more reasonable, comprehensive, and non-partisan than most. This was our aim. As anyone who reads our chronicle will know, we have fallen short of total objectivity and empathy for all. But there are, at least, no heroes and villains in this piece. Nor is there phony melodrama, angry blame-placing, or righteousness. God! There was enough righteousness on campus last spring to launch a new crusade to Jerusalem. Weare sorry to have scrapped everything else normally printed in our magazine. We hope to be back to better fullness in the nex1: issue. V-Ie are sorry also for the profanity in this issue. We have never printed profanity before-we find it too imprecise-but we felt some parties last spring wore their obscenity proudly, as a badge of honor, and to leave it out would have meant losing the peculiar cayenne pepper Havor of some of the personalities and incidents. A word about the College alumni reaction to the spring riot. (Incidentally, there were 101 campus riots last spring. Columbia merely got the best publicity.) While numerous alumni rushed from their offices sputtering vindictiveness and some others blithely condoned the violence as a good thing, like a laxative, many graduates displayed a remarkable desire to get all the evidence, a salutary skepticism, and a sense of humor. Like Hemingway's bullfighters, they had poise in the presence of disaster. In a crisis, men are often unmasked. A surprising portion of Columbia's alumni revealed themselves as cool, curious, and concerned. The College ought to be proud of having produced men like that. CCK
.Cover photo by Alan Epstein; photo on pp. 2路3 by George Gardner
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