Mark Rudd began his years at Columbia College in the fall of 1965. His political activism flourished in his second year as the Vietnam War galvanized vigorous opposition among college youth. Rudd devoted his time to anti-war activities and became involved with Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, becoming the chair of the Columbia chapter of the left-leaning political group. He became convinced that drastic action and not passive resistance was needed to alter social injustices.
One of the foremost institutions of higher learning, Columbia University was part of the decision-making apparatus in shaping American policy in South East Asia, Rudd asserted. In a position paper for SDS, he wrote it was necessary "to end university complicity with the war: I.D.A. (Institute for Defense Analyses), N.R.O.T.C., C.I.A. contracts, recruiting, etc."
Rudd believed that the students and faculty needed to be "radicalized." In 1968, a pivotal year of Columbia's history, Rudd became bolder and more vocal in the campus community. He along with the members of SDS engaged in spontaneous demonstrations that were targeted at Columbia's complicity in the war effort in Vietnam.
Carrying posters and chanting slogans, on March 27, 1968, a month before Columbia buildings at the Morningside Heights campus were taken over, Rudd led about 110 students into Low Library at noon to protest against both the ban on indoor demonstrations and the University's cooperation with the Institute of Defense Analyses.
Many SDS rallies took place on the sundial. During an demonstration on April 23, 1968, Rudd advanced the position that the university was run by a small ruling group with connections in business, the military, and the government, that runs America and oppresses the people, especially the poor and African-American. Through IDA and other agencies, Columbia was aiding the forces of American imperialism in South East Asia.
SDS
Racial injustice and the war in Vietnam were the focal points of SDS's activism on the Columbia campus. In 1968, SDS organized a number of demonstrations against what they believe was Columbia's complicity with the war effort in Vietnam that was claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of South East Asians. This included protesting recruitment on the campus and University affiliations with the United States military and foreign policy establishment as well as Columbia's collaboration with IDA.
Decisions at SDS were made through the process of "participatory democracy." The principal emphasizes the people's right to be directly involved in decisions that affect their lives.
Their concessions from the Columbia administration centered on Six Demands:
1. All disciplinary probation against the six originally charged must be lifted with no reprisals.
2. Kirk's Edict on Indoor Demonstrations must be dropped.
3. All judicial decisions should be made in an open hearing.
4. All relations with IDA must be severed.
5. Construction of the Columbia gym must stop.
6. The University must see that all charges against persons arrested for participating at demonstrations at the gym site are dropped.
Following the police evacuation of the student protesters from the occupied buildings, SDS promoted a number of objectives. Among them were:
1. that Columbia's budget be public and decided by students, faculty, and Harlem.
2. the end of all military projects and grants.
3. abolition of the NROTC.
4. Free classes and the use of the library.
5. free contraceptive information.
6. a course on student rebellions for credit.
Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA)
The Institute for Defense Analyses was established by the Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1955 in order to obtain university research and counsel on such matters as weapons systems and the conditions of warfare. At its establishment, five universities became institutional sponsors and seven more joined during the next decade. Columbia University became an institutional member of IDA in 1959 and President Kirk served on the IDA Board of Trustees as well as its Executive Committee.
Columbia University received criticism for its affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses by SDS and other campus groups, symbolizing complicity in the Vietnam War. The severance of Columbia's ties with IDA was one of SDS's demands. Many educators and academics at Columbia were distressed by the secrecy in university research and the dependence on government contracts serving nonacademic interests. This issue coupled with the construction of the gymnasium in Harlem's Morningside Park led student protesters to takeover and occupy university buildings.
Students for a Free Campus
An ad hoc group, Students for a Free Campus was formed in October 1967 with the goal of promoting open recruiting and free speech at Columbia University. The group voiced their opposition to SDS's demands, accusations and disruptions.
Outlining their position, on Monday morning, April 22, the Students for a Free Campus distributed a sheet throughout campus that read in part:
Tired? Tired of an organization that claims to represent you and doesn't. Tired of a two-standard university that gives virtual immunity to SDS agitators while you are subject to immediate suspension if you toss a paper airplane out a window?
Tired of an environment where you cannot listen to a guest speaker and be sure he won't be physically harassed by SDS? Of an environment where your sacred privacy of worship is allowed to degenerate into political showmanship? Must one group be allowed to dictate this university's future....
The question is not one of liberalism vs. moderation. It is a question of whether democracy can survive on a campus dominated by one faction victorious only through physical coercion....
The Students Afro-American Society (SAS)
The Students Afro-American Society gained prominence during the 1968 protests over the construction of the gymnasium in Morningside Park as well as their occupation of Hamilton Hall. SAS was a student group that included the small number of Columbia's black students. They published a journal called the Black Student and organized a black student conference months before the 1968 protests and occupations. Joining with other student groups, they organized the primarily black and Puerto Rican cafeteria workers at Columbia. SAS became more politically active. The building takeovers in April 23-30 placed SAS in the forefront of the campus protests.
Ad Hoc Faculty Committee
Ad Hoc Faculty Committee, a group of active Columbia educators, recommended immediate suspension of on-site excavation of the gymnasium facility in Morningside Park. They requested that the administration to delegate all disciplinary power to a tripartite committee comprised of student, faculty and administration. Until the settlement of the crisis, the faculty will stand before the occupied buildings to prevent the police from entering or other hostile confrontations. They asked the students to evacuate the occupied buildings. In turn, the faculty will not hold classes until the conflict involving IDA and the proposed gymnasium is resolved.
The Faculty Committee received criticism for backing the student radicals. As the standoff continued, critics charged that the Ad Hoc Faculty group was dominated by leftists professors and infiltrated by radical junior instructors and teaching assistants.
In the early days of the occupation, a special meeting of the College faculty agreed on five revolutions:
1. That a University exists as a community dedicated to rational discourse, and the use of communication and persuasion as the means of furthering that discourse.
2. That this Faculty endorses the right to protest, but strongly condemns both obstructive behavior and physical violence on this campus. In this light we deplore the use of coercion, and the seizure of Dean Coleman as a hostage. Further we condemn the act of invasion of the President's office and the rifling of his files.
3. That we believe that any differences have to be settled peacefully, and we trust that police action will not be used to clear Hamilton Hall or any other University building.
4. That to the extent that the issues which have arisen in the University community are due to a failure of communication and discussion within the university, we call upon the Administration to set up a tripartite body to discuss any disciplinary matters arising out of the incidents yesterday and today, the issue of the gymnasium and any other matters which are subjects of legitimate concern to the University community.
5. That this faculty respectfully petitions the University administration a. to arrange the immediate suspension of on-site excavation of the gymnasium facility in Morningside Park. b. to be prepared to review the matter of the gymnasium site with a group of community spokesmen; the administration will immediately invite the Mayor to designate a group who will take counsel with the University with respect to the location and character of the gymnasium.
College Faculty Resolution
On Thursday evening, April 25, 1968, the following College Faculty Resolution was passed:
We 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. We request the administration to delegate all disciplinary power on matters related to the present crisis to a tripartite committee, consisting of students, faculty and administration.
3. We 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.
Majority Coalition
On Wednesday, April 24, 1968, a group calling itself the "Majority Coalition" gathered signatures--2,000 signature it announced--to a petition that stated:
We, the undersigned, students at Columbia University deplore the tasteless, inconsiderate, and illegal manner in which the protests of April 23 and 24 against the Institute for Defense Analyses and construction of the new gym were conducted. We believe such outrageous conduct to be contrary to the best interests of Columbia University and her students. We urge the Administration to take firm action to prevent a recurrence of the deplorable disruption and to punish severely those responsible for it.
The Majority Coalition was comprised of conservative students actively opposed the SDS-led rebellion and the takeover of the buildings. Students aligned with the Majority Coalition became increasingly impatient with the Administration's inaction in the face of spreading disruption. They urged the administration to quickly remove and punish the students occupying Columbia's buildings and a resumption of classes. During the occupation, the Majority Coalition handed out flyers. One of them read:
Mr. Rudd has made his demands. We demand nothing. We can only request.
We support any reasonable alternative to SDS's ultimatum, including the Tripartite Commission. It is a positive step. We look for others.
SDS demands amnesty. Amnesty is out of the question. This is the feeling of the majority of the students and many of the faculty.
We represent campus moderates, not the right wing as Mr. Rudd would lead you to believe. Internally we may differ on substantive issue, but we are united in our condemnation of SDS tactics. We have acted responsibly and rationally in the face of provocation; yet, make no mistake, we are resolute in our purpose.
The Majority Coalition's "Statement of Principles" stated the following:
WE REFUSE: To admit the principle of government by a lawless and self-appointed minority.
WE BELIEVE: That the demonstrators are motivated not by a passion for justice, but a desire to act like professional revolutionaries.
WE AFFIRM: That the University has acted in good faith; that the gym would be welcomed by the Harlem community as a whole; and that the controversy has been stirred up by political opportunists.
WE DEMAND: 1) That the fate of the gym be decided in consultation with responsible and representative opinion from the Harlem community as a whole. 2) That those who have broken University regulations be punished in accordance with normal disciplinary standards.
WE RESOLVE: To support the kind of negotiation that the faculty are at present conducting.
Strike Steering Committee
The Strike Coordinating Committee was comprised of students from the occupied buildings who negotiated with the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on a settlement that would force Columbia's administration to alter its position in Harlem and its cooperation with the military research.. The occupied buildings of the Columbia campus at Morningside were Low, Avery, Hamilton, Mathematics and Fayerweather.
Pupils for an Indian Society (P.I.S.)
In a comic parody, on Saturday afternoon, April 27, 1968, three fraternity members dressed as Native Americas staged a rally demanding that the island of Manhattan be returned to its indigenous inhabitants, allowing the buffalo to roam free. They students handed out flyers which read:
We the Indians of Manhattan, feel that because we have a significant minority, we can demand the following:
1. Give Manhattan back to the Indians. 2. Destroy all buildings on Manhattan so the buffalo can roam again. 3. Reserve the state of Indiana for Indians only. 4. Reinstate the Indian head nickel. 5. Halt classes on Sitting Bull's birthday. 6. Grant complete amnesty for Geronimo.
If these demands are not met, we will hold Mark Rudd hostage.
Support your local Indian. Injun Power!
--P.I.S. (Pupils for an Indian Society)
A Declaration of Liberation
The following is the Preamble of "A Declaration of Liberation." It was written by students occupying Low Library.
When things get so rotten and screwed up that the people and the students of a country have to smash their power structure and the repressive, imperialist system that sustains it, and to go it on their own, everyone doing his own thing--as their natural rights entitle them to do--then they really should tell everybody, openly, why they are forced to do it.
Look, there are certain truths that no one can deny. Everybody is created good and beautiful and equal. So we're as great as anybody else in this sick culture, and probably a hell of a lot better. Second, everybody has their rights, lots of them, and no one on earth, not even a professor or a mother, has any business interfering with any of them. Among these is the right to Life, a big, full, beautiful life--without middle-class hangups like money, responsibility, examinations and grades, the Puritan ethic, military service, and pressures. Another is Liberty, the right to come and go as you please, whenever you please, without the government manipulators, crummy businessmen, religious spooks, uptight parent, the stupid CIA, the sadistic cop, and the really out-of-it college Administrators imposing their totalitarianism. Also, there is the pursuit of Happiness, the moral right to have a fun time, to blow your mind, to sleep around, to turn on, however and whenever you like--so long as you don't interfere with anybody else.
Now, it's only because you sometimes have to protect these rights from right-wing idiots and jocks that governments have any rights to exist at all. But politicians and everybody in authority must be totally and at every minute responsible to the people in the streets. That's where all power comes from. As soon as government, or authority of any kind, starts pushing people around or impinging on any liberties with their decrees, the people have a perfect right to tear down that power structure and build a better one based on love and total freedom.
Of course, you don't have to start a revolution every time something bugs you. You really should wait until the guys in charge prove how totally corrupt and inept they actually are. If you check out recent experiences, you'll see that most people do keep their cool and tend to put up with an amazing amount of crap before they move into action.
But, when things just get ridiculous, and one incredibly stupid or brutal act after another by The Establishment leaves you no choice except to become an alienated person, a digit in their IBM set-up, a helpless part of their murderous machine, you just have to wipe it out. In fact, at such times it's the absolute moral obligation of the people in the streets and the students, who have thought through a lot about these things (but not so much that they have become bogged down in facts and ideas and forgotten the necessity for action) to go into guerrilla warfare, using wild, imaginative tactics--as well as the press and television--until they win. No compromises! No deals!
That's the situation in this country, man, right now. Like here are the facts on some of the absurd and repressive deals we have had to put up with....
Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg, the poet laureate of the Beat Generation and a Columbia alumni, told a crowd on campus days after the police evacuation that they needed to practice love more diligently. Ginsberg was also a vanguard of the political protest movements of the 1960s and 70s. He was at the forefront of the sexual revolution, the drug culture and anti-Vietnam war and anti-CIA demonstrations. In 1967 he was arrested in an antiwar protest in New York City. He was arrested again for protesting against the war at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
A message distributed at Columbia's 1968 Commencement.
A message printed on blue paper and distributed to guests at the 1968 Commencement exercise articulated the position of some students:
As students of Columbia University we wish to apologize to the parents, friends of the University, and to the public as a whole for the acts of a few of our number....
These elements determined to tear Columbia down, have labeled the University "despotic," "oppressive," and "illegitimate." Such charges are patently absurd. The very reason the would-be destroyers have been able to attack Columbia so viciously is that a great modern university such as ours does its utmost to encourage free expression of dissent. Columbia's liberal attitude is part of its greatness, but to some students and outside supporters it was to be perverted and callously exploited....
A number of graduating students have threatened to walk out on graduation. This rude, irresponsible, and hostile act against Columbia, fellow students and their families is indicative of the total disregard the strikers have shown for the rights of others. Though highly repugnant, it is only a mild sample of the methods employed by strikers to show their contempt for authority.
We suggest that the parents of these students reassess their own position. Parents who actively condone their children's illegal and immoral behavior, or who by silence and continuing provision of financial aid seem to approve of that behavior, must share responsibility for what has happened at Columbia.
We realize that what has happened will cause some to lose faith in the University, and to condemn all Columbia students for the acts of a few. We wish all to know that we will continue to fight those who are attempting to destroy Columbia. Our hope is that you will support our effort.
SDS's message passed out on Commencement day
SDS planned a counter-commencement and passed out the following statement.
While Columbia awards honorary degrees to distinguished men for their contributions to society, it will continue to sponsor IDA research, to suppress the ghettos and perpetuate the inhuman war in Vietnam.
While Columbia is afraid to hold its graduation outdoors where the community members can participate, it is not ashamed to arbitrarily buy up and tear down their homes all over Morningside Heights and West Harlem.
While Columbia congratulates students for their studies, it busts the unions of the employees who make that education possible....
We invite the residents of the Harlem and Morningside communities to join us in developing our political movements....