Collins, Christiane Crasemann.

The Christiane C. Collins Collection of the West Harlem Coalition for Morningside Park and Urban Problems of the Contiguous Communities: West Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Morningside Heights and Manhattanville documents Columbia University's expansionist plans in Manhattan's Morningside Heights and Morningside Park, and subsequent protests on the part of the community and students in the 1960's and 1970's. The collection was gathered by Christiane Crasemann Collins with assistance from her husband, Columbia University Professor George Collins, long-time residents and activists in Morningside Heights.

Between 1947 and 1972 residents of Morningside Heights and surrounding neighborhoods formed a variety of organizations designed to either improve the quality of life in those communities or to prevent Columbia University and the other large institutions in the area, including St. Luke's Hospital and Jewish Theological Seminary, from destroying the multiracial and diversified socioeconomic character of the neighborhood. Columbia University was perceived as creating the greatest threat to the neighborhood, as the plan to expand its campus by purchasing scores of buildings in the immediate vicinity of the main campus resulted in the eviction of hundreds of tenants and the demolition of several buildings.

Although there was significant opposition to two of Columbia's larger construction projects in Morningside Heights, the East Campus Dormitory Complex and the Pharmacy Site, it was the proposed construction of a gymnasium within publicly owned Morningside Park that led to the greatest amount of friction between Columbia and the neighborhood. The gym site became a symbol of the community's resistance to the University's expansion, and a rallying point for students already challenging Columbia's role in U.S. government military research on new weapons, as well as the training of officers through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC).

A wide spectrum of black organizations ranging from radical groups such as the United Black Front and the New York chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to the more moderate West Harlem Community Organization and tenant groups also opposed the gym, and in April 1968 participated in a major rally organized by the Harlem chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. The rally's participants protested institutional expansion in Morningside Heights and Harlem, and Columbia's refusal to permit community participation in the allocation of a $10 million urban grant from the Ford Foundation to the University which was used to establish a Center for Urban Minority Affairs.

Events, beginning in February 1968 when activists and students blocked the demolition of parkland on the site where the gym was to be built, culminated in the Columbia University student strike in April 1968, led by the University's Students' Afro-American Society and the radical Students for a Democratic Society headed by Mark Rudd. According to the Columbia Student Strike Coordinating Committee, the goal of the strike was the struggle for self-determination for students and the residential community. By the end of April, about a thousand black and white students as well as community members representing a wide variety of activist organizations were involved in the strike and occupation of five buildings. The strike was ended several days later when the University called on the police to forcibly remove students from the occupied buildings. Several hundred students were arrested and scores injured. A fact-finding commission was formed to investigate the campus disturbances. Chaired by Archibald Cox, Professor of Law at Harvard University, the Commission's report criticized Columbia's administration, but did not indict those empowered with setting the philosophy and policies of Columbia as strongly as many considered necessary to bring about basic changes.

In 1969 and 1970 a variety of issues galvanized the community and students to oppose Columbia's policies; some were strictly University-related issues, others had far broader ramifications. There were demonstrations for open admissions to Columbia University for black, Latino and white students from local high schools; community oriented urban renewal plans; and the abolition of the NROTC, military recruiting and military research. There were also demonstrations by students and community residents against the operation of a University-owned nuclear reactor, TRIGA Mark II, in their densely populated neighborhood, as well as protests against the United States government's oppression of political dissidents, including a demand for the release of political prisoners such as members of the Black Panther Party, and against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, culminating in two nationwide strikes in April and May of 1970 and the outcry against the killing of the students at Kent State University.

From the description of Christiane C. Collins collection : of the West Harlem Coalition for Morningside Park and Urban Problems of the Contiguous Communities: West Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Morningside Heights and Manhattanville. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122455086

The Christiane C. Collins Collection of the West Harlem Coalition for Morningside Park and Urban Problems of the Contiguous Communities: West Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Morningside Heights and Manhattanville documents Columbia University's expansionist plans in Manhattan's Morningside Heights and Morningside Park, and subsequent protests on the part of the community and students in the 1960's and 1970's with the aftermath extending into the 1980's.

The materials in this collection were gathered by Christiane Crasemann Collins and her husband Professor George R. Collins, long-time residents of Morningside Heights. Mrs. Collins, an art librarian at the Parsons School of Design (1973-1983), was an active member of the West Side Coalition for Morningside Park. Due to her deep-seated interest in the community's welfare and human rights issues, and her professional specialization in architectural history, she was convinced that the events as they were occurring in Morningside Heights were significant and that it was her “duty” to document the upheavals which took place during this period. She was an unofficial Morningside Park historian and wrote articles about the park for the local newspaper, The Westsider. Dr. George Collins, professor of art history and an architectural historian at Columbia University, was involved in community- university relations as early as the mid-1950's when he began protesting Columbia's expansionist plans. He also became an active member of the University Senate's Committee on Community Relations following the upheavals in the spring of 1968. Professor Collins retired from Columbia University in approximately 1986.

History of Neighborhood Organizations

Between 1947 and 1972 residents of Morningside Heights and surrounding neighborhoods formed a variety of organizations designed to either improve the quality of life in those communities or to prevent Columbia University and the other large institutions in the area from destroying the multiracial and diversified socioeconomic character of the neighborhood. Among the organizations that played a role in the events that occurred because of Columbia's building expansion were Morningside Heights, Inc., Morningside Renewal Council, Morningsiders United, the West Side Coalition for Morningside Park, and the Architects' Renewal Committee in Harlem.

Morningside Heights, Inc. was formed in 1947 by a number of institutions in Morningside Heights with the goal of preventing the perceived deterioration of the neighborhood as the population of low income residents increased, many of whom were black and Puerto Rican, and to prevent the expansion of single room occupancy hotels (SRO's). The institutions, which included Columbia University, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Interchurch Center and St. Luke's Hospital, described their purpose as being “to promote the improvement of Morningside Heights as an attractive residential, educational, and cultural area.” According to Christiane Collins, the ideal aspired to was that of an American suburban-like environment, draped in an academic gown: economically and culturally homogeneous, free of “undesirables” and implying discrimination along both economic and racial lines. In the first phase of MHI's plan, low rental housing was demolished in the 1950's and replaced with a middle income cooperative housing complex.

The Morningside Renewal Council (MRC) was established in 1961 by the City of New York Housing and Redevelopment Board (HRB) to represent the needs and interests of the area. The Council was composed of representatives of tenant and community organizations, political associations, schools, churches and other institutions that were responsible for formulating urban renewal plans as per the requirements of the HRB. The MRC recommended local sites for renewal projects, such as schools or low income housing. A city agency then considered the local proposals, and if they were accepted, acquired the property from the landlord for demolition. The MRC approved the surveying and planning stage of renewal and the Early Acquisition Plan (the beginning of land acquisition and demolition). In 1963, the MRC sought the rehabilitation of Morningside Park via the construction of a large Columbia University owned gymnasium, which later became a major source of friction between Columbia and the neighborhood. According to Collins, it is not clear whether it was Parks Commissioner Robert Moses or Columbia that initiated the idea of utilizing the park as a site to construct a gym. Following a bitter spring 1968 student and community protest, Columbia finally withdrew its plans for building the gym in the park. Later, in 1970, the MRC sought to acquire Columbia-owned property to be used for urban renewal projects.

The Morningside General Neighborhood Renewal Plan (GNRP), also developed by the HRB in 1964, encompassed an area greater than Morningside Heights. The plan supported institutional expansion, especially that by Columbia but excluded the immediate environs of Columbia University from urban renewal projects, leaving the interests of the residents unprotected. At the request of the MRC, the GNRP was revised in 1965 to restrict Columbia's expansion. The University, however, continued to purchase scores of buildings, demolishing a large number of these structures and evicting the tenants who were predominately African American and Puerto Rican as well as the elderly and long-term residents with large families who paid low rents. Community members criticized Columbia for establishing a pattern of racial discrimination by its use of intimidation and eviction of these tenants. Columbia's urban policy appeared to be founded on destroying the interracial residential character of the neighborhood without bringing about the improvements originally envisioned by Morningside Heights, Inc. During this period more than 150 buildings were acquired and 7500 people displaced. Columbia forced tenants to vacate buildings by not supplying heat and hot water and refusing to make necessary repairs. Vacant buildings were left standing, causing safety problems and relatively few low income housing units were constructed as compared with the number of middle class units. As a result of this situation, the MRC brought together the heterogeneous groups that included the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattan Valley (below 110 Street) and West Harlem (across Morningside Park), fostering an atmosphere of mutual rapport which began to unite these diverse communities.

Another organization, Morningsiders United, was formed in 1964 by neighborhood residents, owners of local businesses and members of several community organizations to “preserve the Heights as a place to live” and to maintain the diversified, integrated community. Its primary purposes were defense of the community against the threat posed by “institutional encroachment” and to effect neighborhood planning that would be fair to all. Morningsiders United, in conjunction with other groups, successfully obtained a guarantee from the New York City Board of Estimate that included a fourteen block area surrounding Columbia University which was to be part of the General Neighborhood Renewal Plan. This plan called for 25% of the housing to serve families of low income, and another 25% to accommodate families of moderate income.

The West Side Coalition for Morningside Park was formed in 1971 to oppose Columbia's expansion into the park and to plan the restoration of the abandoned gymnasium site. The Coalition was composed of community leaders and representatives from the Department of Parks and Recreation. The organization was instrumental in rallying City agencies, elected officials and private foundations to support the efforts for the total renovation of the park. The Coalition procured a grant from the Foundation for the City which made possible a study by Lawrence Halprin and Associates, a private landscape and architecture firm with an international reputation. The Coalition also conducted a planning study, the Take Part Workshop in April 1973, which sought community participation in redesigning Morningside Park. For many years the park had been viewed as a barrier between the Morningside Heights and West Harlem neighborhoods. Activists began to see its potential for bridging gaps between the diverse adjacent communities and for serving as a focal point for community and person-to-person interaction. The conclusions reached by the Take Part Workshop participants included the following points: that after years of neglect the park should be properly maintained, and the natural features of the park should be utilized in the design of new facilities; the park should be shared by all communities, ethnic groups and age levels; the negative image of the park, especially in regard to crime, was to be eliminated; and the community, along with the Department of Parks and Recreation, should take an active and sustained role in planning, improving and maintaining the park. The results of the workshop were submitted for review to the community-at-large and to appropriate city agencies and decision-making bodies. The recommendations, however, were largely ignored.

Members of the Architects' Renewal Committee in Harlem (ARCH) also provided leadership in the Take Part Workshop. This organization was founded in 1964 by a white architect, Richard Hatch, to provide architectural and planning services to the people of Harlem in order to make improvements in living conditions in the community. By 1966 ARCH had become a predominately black organization. This transfer evolved out of the ideology that black professionals and local residents must participate in the rebuilding of their own communities. Among the services provided by ARCH were: housing development to community organizations, the development of minority professionals in architecture and planning who were specifically prepared to provide services in poor communities, and initiation and development of social service facilities such as day care centers and multi-service facilities. The black architectural team of Bond Ryder Wilson planned a design for the rehabilitation of Morningside Park, but only plans for renovating a brick field house adjacent to Morningside Avenue were approved.

Columbia University's Expansion in Morningside Heights

The geographic areas of greatest concern on Manhattan's Upper West Side in terms of land use and Columbia University encroachment were Morningside Heights and Park, Manhattan Valley, and West Harlem. Within Morningside Heights, two sites that Columbia had slated for expansion which caused the most significant conflict were the East Campus Dormitory Complex and the Pharmacy Site.

Commencing in 1956 Columbia had released plans to expand the campus east of Amsterdam Avenue from 116 to 118 streets. The “superblock” as it was known, was to have held a new School of Law building, a graduate residence hall, and a faculty office building. Despite community protests, all buildings standing on this site were demolished, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of families. Although the plan was modified, the site is now occupied by the School of International Affairs, the School of Law, and an East Campus undergraduate residence hall.

The second major expansion planned by Columbia University was the anticipated move by the College of Pharmacy in 1962 from midtown Manhattan to West 121 Street in Morningside Heights, evicting tenants from six buildings in order to construct a new school. Community opposition, including that voiced by Marie Runyon, a tenant spokesperson and later assemblywoman, successfully fought against the construction of the additional University buildings. By 1971 plans were drawn up to construct a joint community and University housing project on the site containing both low and middle income housing units. Four years later the College of Pharmacy went bankrupt, and to date, the site still remains vacant, part of it turned into a parking lot.

In an effort to study urban and minority problems and combat adverse conditions in the Harlem community, the Ford Foundation awarded a $10 million grant to support the University's fund raising campaign in 1967. The funds were used to establish a new Center for Urban Minority Affairs, the name later simplified to the Urban Center. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Franklin H. Williams was appointed as its director and Ewart Guinier, the assistant director. The Center sought, through institutional change, to improve the University's ability to deal with urban and minority problems, in addition to improving living conditions in the urban ghetto through education, law and culture. The Center encouraged new courses in such areas as welfare law, urban sociology, and black culture. Projects funded by the Urban Center included remedial and enrichment programs for community people, training of small business owners, a study of the social problems facing Harlem residents, and chairs for urban and minority professorships. The programs of the Urban Center were frequently overruled by University administrators, and Harlem residents criticized the lack of community involvement in planning these programs. In 1970 Williams quit his post in protest over Columbia's policies, indicating that the University did not have a sincere commitment to use any of its resources to resolve the problems plaguing the surrounding community. Columbia University's opposition to the goals of the Center were clearly expressed by Vice President for Fiscal Management Bruce Bassett, who stated that “Social problems - the problems of class - are not the business of an institution of higher learning. The university is not a charity.” (Note: Columbia Daily Spectator, November 21, 1974.) President President McGill also confirmed his opposition by noting that the University would not budget its own funds for community-oriented programs. (Note: Columbia University, Office of Public Information, March 8, 1972.) Thus, in 1972 the University dismantled the Urban Center.

Columbia University Gymnasium in Morningside Park

Morningside Park, which was the focus of much of the controversy between Columbia University and the community, extends from Cathedral Parkway at 110 Street, north to 123 Street, and from Morningside Drive, east to Manhattan and Morningside avenues. The park is not large compared to many others in New York City, and is surrounded by three racially, culturally and economically diverse communities. At the southern base of the park is Manhattan Valley, a predominantly Spanish-speaking community. To the east and north of the park is West Harlem, which is largely black, and to the west is Morningside Heights. The Heights is the home of several major educational and religious institutions and chiefly white middle class residents. The park was designed by the well-known landscape design team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux between 1873 and 1901. The terrain was unsuitable for building, due to a cliff 100 feet high. Olmsted realized that because of the uneven terrain of the land, the park would be unsafe for people at night. In fact, a substantial amount of crime and under-utilization of the park have plagued Morningside Park throughout its history. In addition, the park has served as a barrier between the neighborhoods and ethnic groups surrounding it.

The Columbia University gymnasium which was used by students until 1974, was built in 1896. It had been deemed inadequate only two decades after it opened, and in the 1940's plans for another facility were under discussion. In 1955 Columbia University President Grayson Kirk entered into an agreement with the City that permitted Columbia to build an athletic field on five acres of level ground on the southern end of Morningside Park. Use of the facility was to be shared by Columbia students and organized community teams under the supervision of professional staff paid by Columbia. At that time, there was little overt community opposition to Columbia's athletic field, though many questioned the ethics of using a major portion of scarce level area in the park and enclosing it with an eight foot high iron-link fencing.

In 1958 President Kirk and former Parks Commissioner Robert Moses began to discuss the placing of the new Columbia gym in Morningside Park. A lease was drawn up to permit Columbia to use 2.1 acres of land (which was a sigificant portion of level land considering there is a total of 30 acres of parkland) in exchange for $3000 a year and limited use by the community. Columbia planned to store arms in the proposed gym to be used in connection with NROTC activities. Plans conceived in 1963 called for an armory in the gym, containing classrooms, a library, offices and naval science equipment. Opposition to the gymnasium focused on institutional encroachment within the park and on the rights of people to participate in the planning processes that affected and shaped their environment. However, by 1966 African-American political leaders in West Harlem, especially Basil Patterson, Percy Sutton and Charles Rangel, believing that it was impossible to halt the project altogether, pressed for negotiations for greater access of the gym for community use.

Columbia University Student Protest

The Columbia University student strike in April 1968 was spurred by community and student protest over the controversial construction of the gym in Morningside Park. Some of the specific points of contention concerning the gym were: 1) that the community was slated to have access to only 15% of the gym's facilities; 2) that the main door to the gym on upper Morningside Drive would be for University use whereas access by the predominately black and Puerto Rican neighborhhood was to be through the back door on Morningside Avenue; and 3) and that the gym would be controlled by Columbia, not by the community, although it would be constructed on publicly-owned park land. The hours, activities, and policy for use of the community section of the gym were also to have been dictated by Columbia, including the decision to only give access to the facilities to teen-aged boys engaged in organized sports. Faculty and students also expressed dissatisfaction with the plans for the gym, complaining that the new gym would be inadequate in terms of size and training facilities.

On February 19, 1968 Columbia students as well as representatives of the West Harlem Morningside Park Committee attempted to block the demolition of parkland on the site where the gym was to be built. Individuals opposed to the gym were contacted, as was the news media, and the following morning members of the West Harlem and Morningside Heights communities as well as students came out in force. Bob McKay of the West Harlem Morningside Park Committee and eleven others were arrested. Christiane Collins also participated in the demonstrations at this time. Protests continued into March and April, some sparked by the leadership of the leftist organization, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Columbia faculty involvement, including that of Professor George Collins, was manifested through the seventy member Faculty Civil Rights Group that also opposed construction of the gym in the park. Instead the group urged “cooperation with community representatives in the planning and operation of all programs,” and called for a reduction of Columbia's expansion policy. Additionally, in March 1968 the faculty of the School of Architecture, in a resolution prepared by Professor Collins, asked President Kirk and the trustees to reconsider building the gymnasium in Morningside Park. The faculty criticized the decision to construct a gym in public park land, and believed the reaction of the community justified the administration's reconsideration.

On April 20, 1968 the Harlem chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized a rally in Harlem. A wide spectrum of black organizations were represented, ranging from radical groups such as the Harlem Committee for Self-Defense, the United Black Front, and the New York chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), to the more moderate West Harlem Community Organization and other tenant groups. Senator Basil Patterson spoke at the rally, as did Cicero Wilson, head of Columbia's Student Afro-American Society (SAS). The rally's participants protested institutional expansion in Morningside Heights and Harlem, and Columbia's refusal to permit community participation in the allocation of the Ford Foundation's $10 million urban grant.

On April 23, 1968, protesters headed by SAS and SDS and led by Columbia's SDS chapter chairman Mark Rudd, called for a strike against the University. Rudd's admitted long-term goal was to force the U.S. to sever involvement in the internal affairs of all foreign countries, Vietnam being but one example. Rudd wanted to put an end to University complicity with the Vietnam war through its affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA). This Institute was founded in 1955 as a non-profit defense “think tank” and employed academic scientists nationwide to furnish scientific and technical support to the Pentagon's Systems Evaluation Group which studied the effectiveness of new weapons. Columbia was one of twelve corporate members of IDA, and a number of its electrical engineers conducted research for IDA. On March 27, 1968 a campus demonstration against Columbia's participation in IDA, coupled with the administration's ban on indoor demonstrations, led to the initiation of disciplinary charges against six Columbia students who participated in this demonstration. According to SDS, this action in turn led to the strike which began April 23.

The Columbia Student Strike Coordinating Committee (SSCC) stated that a single theme dominated the Columbia strikers' six demands: the struggle for self-determination for the students and the residential community. The six demands were: 1) Columbia sever all affiliation with IDA; 2) probation for the six students who participated in the March 1968 demonstration be rescinded; 3) construction of the gym cease in order to enable the community, not the Columbia administration, to decide what was to be done to their park; 4) lifting of President Kirk's ban on indoor demonstrations; 5) call for a permanent student-faculty commission, democratically chosen, which would hear and pass binding judgments on all disciplinary actions; and 6) amnesty for all demonstrators.

The gym site became a symbol of resistance to the school's expansion, and a rallying point for students already challenging Columbia's role in government and in Vietnam. On April 23 after the call for the strike, approximately two hundred student protesters led by SDS and SAS entered Morningside Park, tore down sections of a metal fence surrounding the gym site and fought briefly with police. Returning to the campus, the students entered Hamilton Hall, the chief classroom building, and location of the Dean's office and the Admissions Office. Black and white students took Acting Dean Henry Coleman as a hostage and staged a sit-in; Coleman was released the following day. When white students left Hamilton Hall that night, activists from CORE, SNCC, the United Black Front, and the Mau Mau Society entered the Hall. The white students entered Low Library and barricaded themselves in the offices of President Kirk and Vice President David Truman. On April 25, architecture students took over the School of Architecture in Avery Hall, drew up a resolution in support of the demonstration that called upon the University to adopt an “expansion policy that does not overrun adjacent areas.” They also demanded a “university effort to recruit more black and Puerto Rican students and greater university recognition of students and community groups in formulating university policy.”

By the end of that Thursday, April 25, a total of five buildings were occupied by approximately 1000 students out of the University's enrollment of 27,000. That same day, the University administration called New York City police onto the campus and sealed it off after receiving reports that black organizations sponsored by CORE in Central Harlem were planning to stage a mass protest at Columbia. A large African-American group consisting almost exclusively of non-students and led by activist Charles Kenyatta, marched through the campus, an action permitted by the police as the best means to allay the anger of the protesters. Militant leaders H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael, leaders of SNCC, were also allowed on the campus by the police and entered Hamilton Hall in support of the African-American demonstrators barricaded within the building.

Several student organizations formed to oppose the students who had taken over the campus - a relatively small minority - among them, the Majority Coalition and the Students for Columbia University, which called for an end to the strike and punishment for the demonstrators. Many individual athletes also shared the same belief, and wanted classes to resume.

An Ad Hoc Faculty Group comprised of some two hundred members met in an attempt to serve as an intermediary between the students and the administration. The faculty proposed, among other items, that a delegation consisting of students, faculty members and representatives of the University administration be formed to handle disciplinary issues. The faculty also encouraged the students to evacuate campus buildings. Additionally, there was mounting opposition on the part of many faculty members and students to the tactics, if not the objectives of SDS.

On Friday, April 26 twenty-five plainclothes policemen armed with clubs entered the campus, but following an encounter whereby a member of the faculty was injured by a policeman, President Kirk agreed to defer any police action while the Ad Hoc Faculty Group concluded its mediation efforts to seek a peaceful solution. That same day the administration announced the suspension of gymnasium contruction pending further discussion, although the administration emphasized that it was not terminating the project in Morningside Park. In addition, the main demand of the SSCC, that of amnesty, was not accepted by the administration.

On Tuesday, April 30 the police “bust” of the occupied buildings began. With the authorization of President Kirk, one thousand policemen forcibly removed students from the five occupied buildings. The American-American students occupying Hamilton Hall were removed without harm prior to the violent encounters with the white students. Close to seven hundred students were arrested, with scores of students, faculty and reporters injured and hospitalized. Many students who originally were not involved in the demonstrations, later opposed the administration's tactics as a result of this encounter with the police.

During the remaining days of the spring semester, classes were suspended in most schools of the University. On June 4, the same day that commencement exercises were held, students held a counter-commencement ceremony. The celebration served to reaffirm the beliefs and issues that had motivated the recent demonstrations on the campus.

Aftermath of Student Protest

As early as May 1968 the SDS and SSCC were moving apart--some members of the Committee wanted to continue working for a new attack on Columbia and for a societal revolution, while others favored a shift to University reform. Although SDS did not neglect University reform, their focus shifted to the residential community around Columbia in an attempt to “restructure society.” Those students seeking University reform broke with the SSCC and formed a new group, Students for a Restructured University (SRU). Although they supported the strike, the demand for amnesty, greater student and faculty power, they disagreed with some of the tactics and aims of the SSCC, specifically the campus disruptions. Also at this time the newly created Executive Committee of the Faculties requested a fact-finding commission be formed to investigate the campus disturbances. The purpose of the investigation was to address the chronology of events up to the intervention of the police and the underlying causes of the disturbances. The trustees and administration gave their support to the investigation and cooperated fully with the commission which was headed by Archibald Cox, Professor of Law at Harvard University. Although the commission attempted to be thorough, two groups pivotal to the events refused to testify: the black students who occupied Hamilton Hall and the Student Strike Coordinating Committee. The report concluded that while some African-American students acknowledged that a public gymnasium would be “beneficial to the community...the project could not be judged out of the context of Columbia's relation with its poorer neighbors and society's treatment of racial ghettos.” The report criticized Columbia's administration, but did not indict those empowered with setting the philosophy and policies of Columbia as strongly as many considered necessary to bring about basic changes.

Action on the part of the students continued throughout the summer of 1968 as radical students held a Summer Liberation School in which five hundred people participated including students, community members, student teachers and young hospital workers. Originally conceived as a series of action-oriented classes, they were called Research/ Action Projects (RAPS) and covered such topics as racism in textbooks, Marxist philosophy, imperialism and national liberation movements.

In November 1968 Columbia announced that I. M. Pei and Partners had accepted the appointment as master planner for Columbia University. Mr. Pei was greeted as a planner of social concern and an architect of human as well as aesthetic consideration. Working with this architectural firm was a 12-member policy review committee representing the University student body, the faculty, administrators and trustees. Final decision-making power in matters of expansion and planning rested with the board of trustees.

In March 1969 Columbia trustees agreed unanimously to cease construction of the gymnasium in Morningside Park. One year later Pei presented an innovative plan that was received without comment. Among his proposals were: a new gymnasium underneath South Field in the middle of the campus, and a dormitory/apartment/park complex containing day care centers to be shared equally by the University and the community with a broad range of rentals, including public housing, rent levels to be jointly financed by the Federal Housing Authority and the State Dormitory Authority. Pei resigned as master planner that same year because Columbia claimed it lacked the funds for physical expansion.

Pei's master plan was never carried out, and many believe it was commissioned in deceit. William McGill, president of Columbia University from 1970-1980, indicated that using I. M. Pei was a placating device, employed by the trustees to “develop proposals that would help alleviate community pressures in 1968.” A new $12.7 million gym was eventually dedicated in December 1974 on the north campus, in almost exactly the spot intended for it when enlarged athletic quarters first came under consideration in the early 1940's. The old gym was also renovated. (Note: “Columbia Devours the Upper West Side,” The Village Voice, May 19, 1980. (Box 2, folder 3))

Following the strike, one of the critical issues which remained to be resolved was the question of amnesty for protesting students and those who had been arrested. SDS and others believed charges should be dropped and the University should take no disciplinary reprisals against the demonstrators, a demand strongly opposed by President Kirk. He retired in August 1968 and Andrew Cordier, Director of the School of International Affairs, was appointed Acting President. Relations with students improved somewhat after Cordier sought to have police charges for 400 students either dismissed or lessened. At the same time, the Joint Committee on Disciplinary Affairs composed of seven faculty members, seven students and three administrators issued directives and recommendations concerning disciplinary action against students for their involvement in the campus demonstrations.

In the aftermath of the widespread student protests begun in April 1968, the Columbia University Senate was formed. The Senate was a response to the evident lack of communication within the University community. The first meeting was held in May 1969, and was an experiment in self-governance. The 101 member body consisted of representatives from the administration, faculty, alumni, research and library staff, as well as institutions that were not part of the Columbia Corporation but were affiliated--Barnard College, Teachers College, the Pharmacy School and Union Theological Seminary. At its inception, the Senate created thirteen committees; among them the Community Relations Committee of which George Collins was a member. This committee dealt with the licensing of the TRIGA nuclear reactor, housing of individuals affiliated with Columbia, and the redesign of Morningside Park.

Related Protests

In 1969 and 1970 a variety of other issues galvanized the community and students to oppose Columbia policies. Some were strictly University related issues, others had far broader ramifications. During these years, Columbia students and community residents demonstrated against the operation of the nuclear reactor, TRIGA Mark II, owned by the University since 1963 for the benefit of its engineering school. Many community members, both black and white, objected to having a nuclear reactor in their densely populated neighborhood, fearing it to be dangerous because of the radioactive pollution and the potential hazard of explosion.

Protests influenced by SDS continued on the Columbia campus into the spring of 1969. Members of the SDS became factionalized and supported various radical groups and causes in addition to the unionizing efforts of Local 1199 to organize Columbia University clerical employees. Demands included the end of the United States government's systematic oppression of political dissidents and release of political prisoners, such as Bobby Seale and other members of the Black Panther Party. In March 1970 hundreds of students demanded that Columbia provide bail and defense funds for the Panthers as well as for the seven defendants in the Chicago Conspiracy Case (the Chicago 7). The SDS students also supported the December 4 Movement (D4M), a citywide black radical organization, which favored the Panthers.

Additional SDS demands during spring 1969 demonstrations included open admissions to Columbia University for black, Latino and white students from local high schools; community oriented urban renewal plans; abolition of NROTC, military recruiting and military research. Some of these demands were met; for example, the Trustees, advised by Acting President Cordier, voted to phase out NROTC by 1972.

Beginning in 1968 SAS began to move away from supporting radical causes and began working toward seeking university support for a black studies program. By 1969 they demanded a separate admissions board, nominated by black students, to evaluate all black applicants. Furthermore, SAS proposed the creation of what was known as an Interim Board to establish a black studies program. This board's responsibilities would be to elect black students and faculty members of the University to design the program which would hire faculty and staff, grant credit for courses, and establish degree programs, as well as establish autonomy in budgetary matters. Columbia's administration supported establishing the Interim Board, but archival records are unclear whether it was actually formed.

While Columbia students had been protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam since 1966, organized activities reached their peak in spring 1970 with the call for a nationwide moratorium on April 15, as a result of Congress' expansion of the war into Cambodia. On May 4, 1970, a nationwide strike took place. Dr. Cordier and the Columbia Faculty Peace Action Committee supported the student demonstrations and endorsed the three national demands: end the war in Indochina, end political repression in the United States, and end the complicity of universities in war research. As a result of the National Guard's killing of four students at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, the Columbia strike was extended and the University joined 350 other American colleges in support of the Kent State victims and to further bolster the three national demands. Students as well as campus employees, supported by the administration and faculty, organized various anti-war protest activities during the ensuing months, thus numerous local and national issues contributed to the continuing student turbulence.

From the guide to the Christiane C. Collins collection of the West Harlem Coalition for Morningside Park and Urban Problems of the Contiguous Communities: West Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Morningside Heights and Manhattanville, 1941-1996, (1968-1973, 1956-1996, 1962-1987, 1960-1994, 1963-1982, 1959-1994, 1941-1986, 1964-1973, 1963-1987, 1966-1975, 1961-1981, 1966-1973, 1967-1987, 1967-1980, 1961-1971, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.)