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The Columbia University protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. 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 a local park. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia The protests resulted in the student occupation of many university buildings and their eventual violent removal by the New York City Police Department. [1]

Contents

Origins

In early March 1967, a Columbia University 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. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Students for a Democratic Society ( SDS) was historically a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA is a non-profit corporation that administers three Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs to assist the United States A think tank (also called a policy institute) is an organization institute corporation or group that conducts Research and engages in advocacy in areas such The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government 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. The RAND Corporation ( R esearch AN d D evelopment is a Nonprofit global policy Think tank first formed to offer research and analysis 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. The Low Memorial Library is the administrative center of Columbia University. Events 196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Morningside Park gymnasium

Columbia's plan to construct a gymnasium in city-owned Morningside Park also touched off negative sentiment on campus. Morningside Park is a New York City public Park in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. One of the causes for dispute was the gym's proposed design, which would have included access for residents of Harlem to a dedicated community facility on its lower level. Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African American cultural and business center This design was a solution to the gym's sitting on the park's highly-inclined slope, on the bottom of which is Harlem and on the top of which is Morningside Heights, where Columbia's campus is situated. Morningside Heights is a neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City and is chiefly known as the home of institutions such as Barnard 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 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.

Protests

April student strike and occupations

The first protest occurred eight days before Martin Luther King's assassination. Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader 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 Barnard 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. Barnard College is a women's liberal arts college founded in 1889 Morningside Park is a New York City public Park in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan.

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. Morningside Park is a New York City public Park in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Hamilton Hall is an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. History Columbia College was founded as King’s College by royal charter of King George II of England in the 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. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa 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. Black Power is a racially based Political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Respecting the SAS' decision, Rudd then led the White students to other sections of campus; mainly the Low Library and other such buildings surrounding the campus. Over the next few days, the University President's office in Low Library (but not the remainder of the building, which housed the school switchboard in the basement, and offices elsewhere, but no actual library) and three other buildings (including the School of Architecture, whose students began an occupation after being ordered to leave the building while preparing for final examinations) which contained classrooms were also occupied by the student protesters. 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 students who occupied the buildings demanded an end to Columbia University's involvement with the IDA, an end to the gym construction project in Morningside Park and amnesty for all participants in the demonstrations. Morningside Park is a New York City public Park in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan.

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" 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 3 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. 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. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19 1925 February 21 1965 also known as El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz, was an African American African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa 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. " (It might be noted that in the police arrest of 113 people at 618 West 114 Street, they also arrested four people watching events from the lobby of 622 West 114 Street, an apartment building not owned by Columbia. These four later had their trespassing charges dismissed. None had been directly involved in the demonstrations, although two were Columbia alumni and one a Barnard student. The Barnard student and one alumnus lived in 622, and this alumnus was covering the events for Liberation News Service. The Liberation News Service (LNS was a leftist alternative news service which published news bulletins from 1967 to 1981. )

Fallout

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 University for the expansion of its athletic facilities. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey.

At least 30 Columbia students were suspended by the administration as a result of the protests. [2]

In books and films

See also

References

  1. ^ "Columbia’s Radicals of 1968 Hold a Bittersweet Reunion", NY Times, April 28, 2008
  2. ^ Columbia University - 1968

External links

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