plete their term papers or catch up with course assignments. To the annoyance of some rebel leaders, the movement wasn't going so well. The rebel picket lines refused to increase, staying at approximately 150, despite mimeographed pleas, recruiting in the dormitories by left-wing students, and constant bullhorn propaganda. While some additional students climbed in the windows of Low or Fayerweather to join those inside, many were merely curious and left after a brief stay. 'Norse, a few students were beginning to desert the movement. One young man who had left Low told us: "Mark Rudd thinks he is Che Guevara, Lenin, and Lenny Bruce all colled into one. J. J. (John Jacobs) has completely flipped out and wants to blow up America. And Tony Papert is playing Stalin-cool, unyielding, ruthless, hungry for blood. Worst of all, they keep trying to use the Harlem Negro extremists and teenagers as their private army to threaten that blockhead Kirk. The blacks in Hamilton dig it though and are more and more going their own way. It's too wild." Also, a growing majority of Columbia's 17,000 students were adopting "a plague on both your houses" position. An example of this was the mimeographed sheet signed and distributed by seven students (M. Brodin, R. Dickman, J. Meltzer, P. Miller, J. Souweine, and L. Zell) in the College, titled "What is to Be Done-Another View." Today, no perceptive individual can deny that American society (and the Columbia microcosm of that society) is wracked by grave and complex problems ... Given the complexity of these problems, especially as they relate to Columbia, and the concomitant implication that no simple solutions exist, we feel obligated to confront the intolerable tactics of SDS, and to look forward to a viable alternative. \lVe are deeply concerned that the events of the past two days have polarized the Columbia community without reflecting the views of what we feel is the vast majority of concerned shldents who will not sacrifice rational order for emotional expedience. FACT: SDS by its coercive actions has denied our right to attend classes. (Apparently SDS values an attempt at the solution of legitimate problems through illegitimate means.) FACT: SDS demands amnesty for all members participating in the current disturbances as a precondition for settlement. (Social protest, in the tradition of Gandhi and King, entails the necesSPRING, 1968
sity of assuming responsibility for one's actions. ) Let us make ourselves clear ... We consider that re-evaluation of the University's functions both with respect to the external community and to its own members is a critical necessity ... [But] authoritarian solutions, left or right, are not solutions. By 4:00 that Thursday afternoon over 1,700 students had signed a petition castigating SDS and calling for a swift restoration of order and education at Morningside. Also, by 4: 00 President Kirk had agreed to the setting up of a tripartite disciplinary commission recommended by the College faculty the previous afternoon, and said that he would ask the Trustees immediately to approve a halt to the gym construction-concessions that strengthened the students in the middle. Shortly after, Human Rights Commissioner William Booth told a large student group that while he sympathized with some of the strikers' aims, "I do not support their tactics." In Philosophy Hall, the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee was having considerable difficulty agreeing on a proper course of action. There was a hot feeling of urgency and some panic because of the Coleman remark about a possible police raid that night. Generally, the disagreemen t was on two levels: procedure and planks. At the level of pracedure, numerous professors, though a minority, had grave reservations about the decision of Professors Westin, Soviet expert Alexander Dallin, sociologist Daniel Bell, and African authority Immanuel Wallerstein to proceed as if they were trying to resolve a dispute between two equal, legitimate parti,cs. "Kirk and the administration aren't an auto company, Rudd and SDS are not Reuther and the United Auto Workers, and the faculty is not a neutral party with no interest in either side" said one professor. East European expert Joseph Rothschild '52 said, "This group is rising above principle to expedien8y. We're acting like value-free mediators choosing between $2.75 or $3.00 an hour. Have we forgotten about civn liberties, what a University is all about, and what is necessary to sustain an international fellowship of civilized discourse?" Another teacher found it strange that Westin, director of the Center for Research in Education and American Liberties, hardly mentioned
the rights of the majority of students, the faculty, Dr. Kirk or Dean Coleman and seemed to be adopting a "peace at any price" position. But the majority of the instructors in Philosophy Lounge, now nearly 250 but still less than 10 per cent of the total faculty, accepted the Ad Hoc faculty's role as independent mediator. "It's our only hope to prevent violence," said one English teacher. "We're their teachers. They'll listen to us," said another scholar confidently. The other disagreement was over planks in the platform which the faculty would present to both sides. Especially controversial was Assistant Professor of History Robert Fogelson's idea of using a faculty strike to bring both sides to their knees. The strike was accepted, about 5: 30, after several dozen younger teachers-preceptors, instructors, and teaching assistants sympathetic to tI:e student strike-began to fill the Lounge and vote. At one point before that, a professor came in to say that President Kirk had agreed to the tri-partite disciplinary commission and to asking the Trustees to stop gym consh'uction, as the College Faculty had requested the day before. Whereupon philosopher Sidney Morgenbesser said that perhaps the Ad Hoc Committee ought merely to reendorse the College Faculty resolution of yesterday instead of presenting Dr. Kirk with another rump faculty set of requests. He was shouted down. About 6: 15 the following resolution was agreed upon. vVe, the undersigned members of the Columbia University Faculty and teaching staff, make the following proposal to resolve the present crisis: 1. 'We request the Trustees to implement the immediate cessation of excavation on the gymnasium site, by telephone vote if necessary. 2. \Ve request the administration to delegate all disciplinary power on matters related to the present crisis to the tripartite committee, consisting of Shldents, faculty, and administration. 3. vVe request the students to evacuate all buildings now, and we pledge our faith and influence towards a solution. Should the students be willing to evacuate the buildings, we will not meet classes until the crisis is resolved along the above lines. 4. Until the crisis is settled, we will stand before the occupied buildings to prevent forcible entry by police or others. Professors Westin and vVallerstein 37