Columbia's Protests: Western Canon Under the Microscope

Deep in the heart of Harlem, New York, a small band of students begin a two-week fast, eating nothing, drinking only water. A week later a larger group storms and occupies a library, scuffling with police and security guards. Police fight back, handcuffing and arresting twenty-two students. The students strike again, 'liberating' an academic hall — as they termed it — and holding their own 'liberated' class. So begins another spring at Columbia University, year 1996.

The Protest of 1968

While Dartmouth students tend to range from moderate to politically apathetic, Columbia students seem to revel in activism. Recall the protest of 1968. Armed students protesting the Vietnam war occupied the University administrative building for a month. Supported by the faculty, nearly the entire campus banded together behind their cause, and the University was closed down for an entire semester.

The '68 Columbia protest — mirrored by protests at Berkeley — became a benchmark of radical liberalism in the late sixties, and it also set a precedent. Between 1968 and 1992, ten different protests punctuated the spring term at Columbia. The spring of 1996 saw the eleventh.

Protest '96

"What do we want? Ethnic studies! When do we want it? Now!"

Vietnam no longer, the rallying cry of liberal protesters these days is multiculturalism. The groundwork for Columbia's protest this year was laid in February. In that month, students staged a sit-in at the office of Dean of the College Austin E. Quigley. They reportedly discussed the question of an ethnic studies department with him, and nothing more was heard of the issue for nearly two months.

By April 1, 1996, some Columbia students remained unsatisfied. A group of students pitched a blue tent on Butler lawn in the center of the Columbia campus. They announced their displeasure with the ethnic studies issue. Four students then announced — and this was something new to the Columbia campus — that they would begin a hunger strike until their demands were addressed.

Miss Heather Starr, Barnard College '97, was forced to abandon the hunger strike after two days due to illness, but the three gentleman-strikers continued to fast for a total of fourteen days. As these protesters had hoped, this hunger strike began to attract the attention of the media in a way that most other contemporary protests have not. The media attention, including an article in the New York Times on April 2, attracted much initial support for the cause.

Library Standoff

"Fight, fight, fight! Ethnic studies is our right!"

Angered at the administration's lack of receptiveness, the protesters decided to take more drastic action. On the afternoon of April 9, two hundred students marched to the Low Library and proceeded to 'storm' the building.

While the protesters danced and read poetry, the University began to build up a police presence. The occupying students took on a siege mentality, barricading doors and gathering eighteen volunteers to be arrested as martyrs for the cause.

Protesters demanded to speak with University president George Rupp. At 10 p.m., the protesters heard Rupp's response: evacuate the library or be subjected to suspension, expulsion or possible arrest. The protesters did not budge.

By this time a sizable group of protesters had gathered outside the library, clamoring to get inside. The protesters within quickly formed two columns. They marched toward the main entrance, announcing their intention to leave. As the security guards opened the doors, the two lines of students faced each other. They joined hands and formed a human tunnel. They yelled for the sympathetic students outside to quickly join them, and a few outside tried to dash in.

A brief shoving match ensued between students and security guards. Students outside attempted to force their way into the library. The clash ended abruptly when a female student suffered an asthma attack and security retreated.

Through all of this, the hunger strike continued, now in the library. The media began to play an increasing role in the events, as major articles in the New York Times from April 10 through April 16 — including a cover story in their Metro section — brought national attention to the protest.


Library Siege Ends

"Racist, sexist, anti-gay, NYPD go away!"

By 6:30 a.m. April 10, the protesters had blocked the main entrance to the building. Campus Security closed all other entrances, save the security entrance, and the protesters detached a force of twenty-five to keep the library closed.

An hour later, roughly fifty more students linked arms and joined those already blocking the door. At 11 a.m. forty New York Police formed a phalanx in front of the library. Twenty-one students remained at the entrance, resisting a ten minute police ultimatum.

As the grace period expired, the police moved in, arresting those students that resisted. Enraged, a large group of students attempted to block Amsterdam Avenue, on which the paddy wagon would have to travel. One additional student was then arrested on Amsterdam, adding to the twenty-one arrested inside.

The fourteen hour occupation of Low Library thus ended on April 10 with the arrest of twenty-two students. All twenty-two were eventually released on their own recognizance.

Hamilton Hall Liberated

"Woof woof, meow meow — we want ethnic studies now."

On April 11, roughly 130 students decided they needed something big. They broke up into squads of twenty students and occupied the six floors of Hamilton Hall — the home of Columbia's core curriculum. The occupation of Hamilton lasted for the next five days, and classes had to be moved to other buildings.

On Saturday, April 13, 200 sympathetic students gathered for a day of speeches, including a poem by Jack Agueros, father of the hunger striker. The poem was entitled 'Psalm for Open Clouds and Windows': 'Lord if you ain't integrated and the angels are racists, I'm a no-show.'

Protest Management 101

"One, two, three, four, time to change the racist core. Five, six, seven, eight, Rupp will not negotiate."

The protest was disjointed from the beginning, both in leadership and ideology. Neither administrators nor students were certain what the protesters and hunger strikers demanded. An "Ethnic Studies Six" (a racially mixed board of six students) handled negotiations with the administration, but the members of this panel had differing views themselves. What resulted was a hodge-podge of fashionable slogans and few concrete ideas.

According to one student at Columbia, "No one was really sure what the protesters wanted. I think that was the problem." Depending on who was speaking, the demands ranged from a separate ethnic studies department, to additional ethnic studies teachers, to the dissolving of Columbia's famous Core Curriculum program. On Monday, April 15, the Ethnic Studies Six went to the bargaining table with administrators. That evening, a compromise was announced.

The settlement called for the administration to hire one senior faculty member and one tenure-track junior faculty member in Asian-American Studies. This is in addition to the recent hiring of Asian-American Studies professor David Eng.

One senior faculty member in Latino Studies would also be hired, with the possibility of a junior professor to be hired later. Finally, a "Blue Ribbon Committee" on ethnic studies would be formed by the administration. The College negotiators stood fast against the more radical protesters, and the Core Curriculum program emerged unscathed. The agreement was celebrated at a 9 p.m. breaking bread rally. Here, the three hunger strikers ate soup and bread and drank apple juice. Until then, they had subsisted on water and electrolyte supplements alone. The blue tent was also torn down from Butler lawn.

In the end, both sides claimed victory in the settlement.

"They told me I was persona non grata. I don't speak Latin, so I don't know what that means."

—Protester David Suker, remarking on his arrest.