to compromise on nothing whatever (they demanded total amnesty and wanted "to win"), so he called Mayor Lindsay, who assented to police clearance of the buildings in the early hours of that morning. Kirk and Truman then began to arrange for special precautions with the police: no nightsticks in the buildings; ample bullhorn warning to all the demonstrators allowing any of them to leave without arrest before police entry; four policemen to every rebel in the buildings so that recalcitrants could be peacefully carried out; paddy wagons at the side exits to the campus for swift, undramatic removal of the students. Kirk requested that each detachment of police be lectured at length by a senior police officer in the several precincts in which thev gathered, so that the students would be treated as "student demonstrators not common criminals." Chief Police Inspector Garelik was involved in the arrangements and agreed to carry them out. GareJik and his top aides were relieved that it would probably be Thursday night, or rather early Friday morning, that Columbia had selected as the time for removal because the police officials estimated that New York's force would be so busy on Friday and Saturday nights handling the huge peace demonstration in Cenral Park that they would not help Columbia. Shortly after 1: 00 a.m., about 20 student rebels from Low led by "J. J." Jacobs ("SDS's answer to the jocks," as one admiring protester put it), Tom Havden, former SDS national chairman and now agitator in Newark, N. J., and the revolutionary Protestant chaplain William Starr, with another 15 of the most radical students from Fayerweather, sprinted across the campus into Mathematics Hall. They threw out the two janitors and piled a half ton of furniture in front of the door as a barricade, scribbled revolutionary slogans on the walls, and held a meeting to decide what to do when the police came. As soon as the news of the seizure of the Math building reached 109 Low Library, President Kirk definitely decided to go ahead with the police action. Vice President Truman took it upon himself to walk over to Philosophy Hall to tell the Ad Hoc ComSPRING, 1968
mittee of the faculty of the btest seizure and to inform them of Dr. Kirk's decision and the impending police action a few hours away. "I felt a deep obligation to my colleagues," he said later. Without ceremony, a bit embarrassed, and terribly saddened-as if he had to announce a faculty salary cuthe entered the lounge and stood at the back. When he got the surprised attention of the 200 disputing teachers, he said: "Gentlemen, I want to make an announcement that I expect most of you will not like. Another building, Mathematics, has just been taken over by the striking students and the situation has reached such a point that we now have no alternative except to call in the police. In 10 minutes the President will call Mayor Lindsay to request such action. Thank you for yOiJr concern and efforts. I'm terribl~, sorry." Truman turned and walked out. There was a moment of stunned silence and several gasps, then cries of "No, no!" and "Shame" rang out above the few murmurs of "It's about time." Professors Westin and DaIlin, along with several others, bolted out of the door to catch up with Truman. Th3Y succeeded. Inside Low, they pleaded with Kirk and Truman to "give us more time." They voiced their belief that the rebellious students would be reasonable and that the faculty, having a closer tie to the young students than the administrative officials, would be able to bring about a compromise resolution fairly quickly. Dr. Kirk yielded. The President promptly called off the police operation, to the annoyance of several police officials who had been making intricate preparations. One condition that President Kirk made, though, was that the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee, in asking for power and time to effect a solution, had tQ assume responsibility themselves for dealing with the increasing threat of violence and destruction both inside the campus and from without. Professor Westin agreed on behalf of his colleagues, and beginning that night 24-hour faculty patrols were set up at each building, especially Low, and full professors of Japanese and chemish'Y, and instructors of sociology and English checked identificaion cards day and night at both the Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway entrances.
While Professur Westin and his colleagues "vere meeting with Dr. Kirk, a group of 40 or so faculty members, mostly left-wing and younger teachers, locked arms outside Low to prevent the police from entering the building. The police had orders to keep the Low entrance open; the strike-svmpathizing faculty were expecting a police "bust," as it is called, so there was a nastv clash of teachers and police in front of the doors at Low at 2:00 a.m. Pro-rebel French instructor Richard Greeman suffered a cut on the head from a plainclothesman's club. At 2:2,5 a.m. Vice President Truman stepped outside and announced to 300 teachers and students at the Low Library east door that the police action for that night had been cancelled at the request of some professors, that consh'uction of the gymnasium had been suspended, and that the University would be officially closed until Mond:1Y morning. No library use, no classes, no laboratories. Hoping to convince the rebel leaders to compromise a bit since Dr. Kirk had given in on several matters, vVestin, sociologist Allan Silver, historian David Rothman ',58, and College dean Alexander Platt, accompanied by Spectator editor Robert Friedman '69, met with Mark Rudd and other sh-ike heads in the Mathematics Librarv at 2:4,5 a.m. and talked for one and a half hours. The Ad Hoc faculty were trying to deliv~r on the three points of their resolution of nine hours earlier: a halt to the gym construction, a tripartite disciplinary tribunal with final power, and evacuation of the buildings. They asked Rudd and his colleagues to leave the buildings, and negotiate matters. "You can always go back in," said Westin. Rudd replied, according to Professor vVestin, "Are you crazy? Listen, so many of our people are studious types that they would never go back in. We'd lose our revolutionary cohesion. You don't give up a neat situation like this once YOH have it." The faculty representatives left around 4:00 a.m. a bit shaken at the sh-ikers' rigidity and revolutionary fervor, but both sides agreed to talk again the next day. The Ad Hoc Faculty Committee was now on the spot, and the best of them knew it. They met almost continuously from 10 o'clock in the morn41