May 4, 1968

Memorandum from the Strike Education Committee
RENAISSANCE OF LEARNING AT COLUMBIA

To the entire Columbia University community, i.e., all-students, faculty, administrators and other-office workers, clergy, staff, grounds keepers, neighborhood residents, etc.

The old Administration (represented by President Kirk) has proven itself incapable of meeting the legitimate desire of the University community for a free and democratic, creative and relevant educational institution. In fact , the present strike is the direct consequence of the lack of freedom and democracy in the old University structure. Most recently, the old structure has taken a major step toward capitulation by cancelling the old classes for the rest of the term.

The Strike Coordinating Committee (SCC) can and will meet the legitimate desire for free and democratic learning. To do so the SCC has set up a Strike Education Committee (SEC) to coordinate the renaissance of education, learning, and scholarship at Columbia according to the following guidelines:

1.  Any group of members of the Columbia community wishing to identify themselves with the Strike Education Committee and accept these guidelines will be allowed to establish a "counter-class."

a.  Every leader (faculty or other) must consent to having his name and counter-class listed in the Liberation School Bulletin.

b.  All counter-classes should have open enrollment, i.e., any person interested in joining a counter-class should be allowed to do so, within limits of not causing unreasonable disruption.

2. The SEC will assist all such groups in finding satisfactory places to meet and in procuring whatever materials they may require. Classes should not meet in regular classrooms, except when unusual requirements for materials and equipment make this unavoidable.

3.  The-SEC will publish and publicize a Bulletin of all such counterclasses, revising it as often as may be necessary.

a.  Only classes listed in the Liberation School Bulletin will be recognized as counter-class: all others are strike-breaking classes and liable to be picketed by strikers.

b.  The Bulletin will list all counter-classes with leader's name 30 class topic, time and place of meeting.

c.  In the front of the Bulletin will appear the statement, "These classes are being led by persons who respect the strike."

4. The SEC will search for both on-campus and off-campus people qualified to lead counter-classes on topics of interest to the University community.

5.  The SEC encourages all participants in counter-classes to exercise their freedom to experiment with and create new and different forms and content, according to a continuing democratic procedure:

a.  This means that the will of the majority of the participants (students, faculty, and others together) in each counter- class should prevail on questions of form and content.

b.  Content: The SEC encourages all groups to address themselves in some way to the present condition of the University. This might be accomplished in many and diverse manners, for example:

1.  Like the mass meetings presently-sponsored by SCC in Wollman, a group might address itself directly to such topics as: failures in the old university structure, development of the strike, the shape of a new, free and democratic university, and how to achieve that new university. Discussion of these vital topics by smaller counter
classes is necessary to produce specific proposals for the new university and how to build it.

2. A counter-class might take up topics not adequately covered in the old classes, e.g., guerilla warfare, third party movements, the Black experience.

3. A counter-class might take up topics formerly covered in regular classes, but now run in the free and democratic spirit of these guidelines. The distinction between such a counter-class and a strike-breaking class is precisely this spirit, as manifested through initial evaluation of the relevance of the class to Society, discussion of the shortcomings of the traditional power of faculty and impotence of students in the learning situation, and other signs of freedom and democracy suggested in these guidelines.

c.  Form and structure - The SEC encourages experimentation with new forms and structures in counter-classes. Almost anything is worth a try, and special effort should be made to break the confines of the traditional "lecturer and passive audience" mold. Furthermore, it should not be anticipated that a given form can be decided upon at the outset of a counter-class and adhered to rigidly for the life of the class. Rather, after ample discussion some form should be tentatively adopted and then subjected to periodic evaluation and possible modification.

6.  Expertise of leadership - The question of expertise of the leader(s) of a counter-class is be determined by the (relevant) community of faculty, students and other together. This implies that anyone (including undergraduates and custodians) be allowed to run a counter-class as long as the community of students, faculty, and others in his alleged area of expertise recognize him.

7.  Constructing the new University - The SEC implores all counter classes to summarize and evaluate their experience periodically and to submit written reports to the SEC office regularly. This procedure will help our new experience cumulatively build the foundation for the best possible new University, rather than be merely so many isolated attempts scattered by the winds and soon forgotten.

IF YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN THIS ESSENTIAL ASPECT OF BUILDING A NEW, FREER AND MORE DEMOCRATIC, then please contact the Strike Education Committee, Room 316 FBH, telephone 280-3603 to -3607. Ask for Bob Dillan, Steve Weeks, Pot,..: Schneider, Pete Waring, Eric Lerner, Joel Ziff, Linda Schneider or Eric Mann.