vigorous cross-pollination and avoid both ossification and a swinging nonintellectualism. Worst of all, in some C:)lumbia persons' eyes, he has not been a fighter. "If he believes in intellect, accuracy, and high culture, why hasn't he denounced the new zealots, rebutted the allegations being spread about Columbia, and criticized the recent emphasis among the young on indiscriminate and instant gratification?" one professor said to us. Said one athletic coach, "Kirk has phenomenal ability to absorb punishment, but he's no
counterpuncher." The president seldom has answered charges against Columbia or higher education, no matter how wild or untrue. The next two weeks, from Thursday, May 2 to Thursday, May 16 were relatively quiet. The campus was still torn into factions; tables on Low Plaza manned by students urged persons to strike or to help expel all the rebels. But a kind of academic atmosphere returned. It was not Columbia's kind of atmosphere, but more like that of a "fun" university in California or Flor-
After the first police bust, SDS expanded its representation and organized a Strike against academic classes. It was only partially successful, and numerous students soon broke with SDS because of tv hat they claimed was the group's preoccupation with revolution and violence and not educational reforms.
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ida. People quipped and wisecracked. Classes met over beer and pretzels in professors' homes or on the campus lawns and talked generally about American li~e and learning without much rigor or any limits. The Grateful Dead, a rock 'n roll group, played on Ferris Booth Plaza for two hours one day with their sound so amplified that ordinary conversation elsewhere on campus was obliterated. The police were gradually withdrawn from the campus. Visitors came by the dozens: Allen Ginsberg'48, the bushy-bearded poet, told a crowd, like some hippie Christ, to practice love more diligently; and Herbert Marcuse, the Hegelian radical philosopher, said that he thought it was foolish to begin the attack on capitalist restrictions and policies by destroying the major universities, which are the precious oases of criticism and free thought in our capitalist society. As for SDS and the Strike Committee, things did not go altogether smoothly. A portion of the Strike Committee wanted to continue working for a new attack on Columbia, for a societal revolution. But other shldent radicals wanted the emphasis to shift to university reform. SDS leaders did not neglect university change. For example, a flyer of theirs on May 2 urged, among other things: (1) that Columbia's budget be public and decided bv students, faculty, and Harlem, (2) th'e end of all military projects and grants, (3) abolition of the NROTC, (4) free classes and use of the library, (5) free contraceptive information, and (6) a course on student rebellions for credit. But, for the most part, SDS chiefs preferred to change the whole "system" and the style of learning. To this end, they moved into a program of agitation of the residential community around the UniversitJ, claiming that Columbia's expansion had been ruthless and racist and would get brutally worse. The move into community agitation was in part an attempt to restock the dropouts among the student left. During the hvo weeks, the Sh'ike leaders repeatedly called for student pickets in front of each campus building, only to meet surprising apathy, resentment, and disinterest. Some days only a few buildings had placard carriers in front, and often they numbered a paltry four or six persons. The Strike was failing. COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY