President Kirk's response to
AHFG "Bitter Pills" Resolutions

April 29, 1968

Office of Public Information
Columbia University
New York, New York 10027
Telephone: (212) 280-2371
John Hastings, Director

Statement by President Grayson Kirk:

I commend and fully share the objectives of the resolution adopted by the ad hoc faculty group on April 28. I am deeply grateful for the dedicated concern for the integrity of the University that their proposals imply. I am confident that the following decisions carry out the essential spirit of those proposals.

1. I have already informed the members of the committee I appointed on April 25 -- Professors Galanter, Hovde, and Trilling -- that their report recommending a tri-partite commission is fully acceptable, and I am prepared to appoint as its members the students, faculty, and administrators whose names they have recommended to me.

2. I will recommend to the Trustees that the statutes of the University dealing with disciplinary matters be re- examined in the light of the recommendations to be submitted by the tri-partite commission.

3. Matters such as the question of uniform penalties for those involved in this incident will be referred to the tri-partite commission, since the Galanter report, which I have already accepted, proposes that such matters be a part of the commission's mandate.

4. Excavation work at the gymnasium site has been suspended, at the request of the Mayor, as of April 26, pending further discussions, and I shall recommend to the Trustees that they authorize me to proceed with discussions concerning the gymnasium problem, as requested in the resolution adopted at the joint faculty meeting on April 28, 1968.

Proposed membership of the Tri-partite Commission recommended by the Committee appointed by President Kirk on April 25th: Students Mrs. Pearl Chesler Robert Delahunty Andrew Gaspar James McMillian David Malament Richard V. Porcelli Eric Witkin Faculty Professor Quentin Anderson Professor Arthur Danto Professor William K. Jones Professor Peter B. Kenen Professor William E. Leuchtenburg Professor J. Malcolm Miller Professor Chester Rapkin

Professor Jerome H. Weiner Administration
George A. Perera, Associate Dean of Medicine
Richard C. Robey, Assistant Dean of the Graduate Faculties
John Wellington, Director of College Admissions