THE LONG FUSE, 1953-1967
 [SPRING 1968]   [THE ROAD BACK]

1953	JANUARY - Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as President of the United States. Columbia University Trustees appoint then  Acting President Grayson Kirk as the 14th President  of Columbia University.
1954	Columbia celebrates its Bicentennial on the theme of "Man's Right to Knowledge and the Free Use Thereof." More than a dozen historical accounts of the various divisions of Columbia University are published in observation of the Bicentennial
1955	The Department of Defense creates the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) to coordinate defense research with five universities; Columbia is not among them.
1958	Columbia administration open discussions with NYC officials about the possibility of a University-community gym in Morningside Park. Idea first suggested by Robert Moses (CU PhD 1919).
1959	Columbia joins IDA; Trustee William Burden and President Kirk appointed to its Board.
1960	New York legislature approves plan for a Columbia gym, with limited neighborhood access, in Morningside Park.
1961	SPRING - Columbia College students vote in a referendum to abolish their student government. Plans to replace it with another body not implemented.
	AUGUST - Following public hearings, New York City and Columbia University reach  final agreements on the construction of a gym in Morningside Park; expected cost of $10,000,000 to be raised in a fund drive, chaired by Trustee Harold McGuire
	FALL - Morningside Renewal Council is formed; members  critical of Columbia University's increased ownership of residential buildings in the neighborhood.
1962	Tom Hayden issues the Port Huron Statement; marks beginning of the "New Left" in American politics
	JUNE - First Students for Democratic Society (SDS) chapter is formed at University of Michigan.
1963	NOVEMBER 22- President John Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumes presidency.
1964	JANUARY - President Kirk prohibits picketing of official guests on campus; ruling in anticipation of visit of Queen Fredericka of Greece.
	APRIL - President Kirk rejects Columbia University Student Council [CUSC] proposal to form a tripartite committee on student life; cites administrative workload.
	JULY - Harlem experiences rioting and widespread store-front destruction.
	SEPTEMBER - About 25 Columbia College students form Students Afro-American Society (SAS); Hilton Clark (CC '67) is among the leaders. Class of 1967 first to included recruited black students in any numbers.
	SEPTEMBER - Student protests erupt at University of California, Berkeley, in response to a ban of on-campus political activity; disruptions continue throughout the academic year under auspices of the Free Speech Movement
	NOVEMBER - The incumbent Democrat Lyndon Johnson overwhelmingly defeats Republican Barry Goldwater and is elected to full term.
1965	JANUARY - US military involvement in Vietnam accelerates sharply, as do the requirements of the Draft. Organized campus protests feature "Teach-Ins" critical of Administration policies. Columbia faculty not conspicuous in these public protests.
	MAY - NROTC Awards ceremony is disrupted by anti-war protesters at Columbia. New York City Police called on Morningside campus for the first time.
	SEPTEMBER - Some Harlem residents and Morningside Community activists publicly declare their opposition to the  construction of Morningside gym for the first time.
	NOVEMBER - John Lindsay is elected Mayor of New York; campaign had criticized park incursions by private organizations.
1966	JANUARY - New NYC Parks Commissioner Thomas P. F. Hoving declares his opposition to Morningside gym.
	FEBRUARY - Columbia College students form Columbia SDS chapter;  John Feurst (CC '67)elected chair.
	FEBRUARY - Columbia receives $10,000,000 grant from Ford Foundation to study urban problems.
	FEBRUARY - Administration confirms plan for gym in Morningside Park for which alumni pledges for projected $13,000,000 facility had reached $5,000,000.
	MARCH - Columbia University Student Council opposes construction of gym. Dormitory Council and Columbia Spectator endorse it.
	APRIL - Professor Immanuel Wallerstein forms Faculty Civil Rights Group to focus on local Harlem community.
	APRIL - 1966 ACE rankings of graduate programs shows sizable overall drop for Columbia since 1957.
	MAY - Harlem state legislators Percy Sutton and Basil Patterson vote against Columbia gym project; other Columbia allies in Albany maintain state support for project.
	SEPTEMBER - Student referendum opposes submission of class rank to draft boards; Columbia College Faculty endorses the referendum results; Trustees then direct that class rank should no longer be calculated.
	OCTOBER 31 - Trustees launch $200 million capital campaign, the first of its kind in Columbia's history and the largest ever undertaken to date by an American university.
	NOVEMBER 15 - 200 students, led by SDS members, protest Columbia's involvement with the CIA outside Low Library.
1967	FEBRUARY - 18 members of SDS hold first campus sit-in at Dodge Hall to protest CIA recruiters.
	FEBRUARY - Conservative students,  favoring open recruitment on campus, form the Committee for Defense of Property Rights.
	MARCH - SDS elect new chair: Ted Kaptchuk (CC '68), an advocate of base-building and education rather than confrontation.
	MARCH 24- 500 students hold vigil on steps of Low Library to protest submission of class rank to Selective Service Boards.
	APRIL 20 - 300 members of SDS protest Marine Corps on-campus recruiting in John Jay.
	APRIL 21 - 800 demonstrators, opposing military recruiting, are countered by 500 anti-protesters; marks the first clash between students.
	JUNE - Surprise administrative shakeup effected: Columbia College Dean David Truman becomes Provost and Vice President;  Provost Jacques Barzun and Vice President Lawrence Chamberlain resign; Henry Coleman is named acting dean of Columbia College; Truman seen as likely successor to Kirk as University President.
	JULY - Medical School deans persuade University to endorse a cigarette filter invented by Dr. Richard Strickman, seen as  a means of reducing nicotine intake among smokers. Columbia stood to make millions from patent rights if the filter as effective as claimed.
	SEPTEMBER - Student referendum votes overwhelmingly for open recruitment on campus (67% in favor), despite SDS opposition.
	SEPTEMBER - Administration announced tougher policy on tuition payments, making once-easily secured deferrals now  subject to interest.
	SEPTEMBER 25 - In response to disruptions of Marine Corps recruiting the previous spring, President Kirk declared that "picketing or demonstrations may not be conducted within any University building."
	OCTOBER - Report by the College Committee on Instruction (chaired by Professor Alan Silver) supports open recruiting on campus
	OCTOBER - SDS protests University involvement in IDA.
	OCTOBER - Editorial in Science critical of Columbia's involvement with Strickman filter.
	OCTOBER 30 - University announces that the $59,000,000 in gifts received in 1966-67 was the University's largest fundraising year ever
	OCTOBER 30 - Columbia Spectator editorializes on the political ineptness of SDS and the dexterity of the Kirk-Truman administration.
	NOVEMBER 19 - Students picket University guest, Japanese Premier Sato; demonstration prompts a public apology from President Kirk.
	NOVEMBER 29 - Football coach Buff Donelli is fired after Columbia's first winless Ivy season.
	DECEMBER - University dissociates itself from the Strickman Filter project after inconclusive test results; source of considerable institutional  embarrassment.
	DECEMBER - Black activist H. Rap Brown denounces gym construction in Morningside and urges Harlemites to "burn it down."

[SPRING 1968]   [THE ROAD BACK]