The student strikes that occurred at Columbia between 1968 and 1972 figure prominently in the material found in this series. This series contains extensive holdings on three campus organizations in particular; the Strike Coordinating/Steering Committee (SCC), the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and Students for a Restructured University (SRU). The SCC, formed by the Columbia chapter of SDS, was composed of representatives from the various units of the University and from other student organizations and quickly assumed the mantle of strike leadership from the Columbia University Student Council (CUSC) and the Coalition of Student Leaders (CSC), whose early activities are also recorded here. The Columbia chapter of SDS had taken an early activist lead on a cluster of issues that prompted student unrest and ultimately the strike. Among them were the proposed gymnasium and other instances of campus expansion, the University's relationship with the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) and the School of International Affairs, ROTC and military research recruiting, and conditions for campus workers. SRU sponsored numerous strike activities and these materials reveal their role in the administration's efforts to address student concerns about the governing structure of Columbia, including the group's co-sponsorship of hearings on University restructuring.
Numerous other student organizations active during the 1968 strike are represented in this series, including the Students' Afro-American Society and the groups of students who occupied campus buildings, known as "communes." Beyond formal organizations, students acting independently or in informal associations are represented by items in the files titled "Students – Unaffiliated," which contain open letters, petitions, and other public statements, as well as accounts of strike events. While the bulk of the material relating to the 1968 strike in this series was produced by pro-strike organizations, the voices of strike opponents are also evident. The Majority Coalition, Students for Columbia University, Students for a Free Campus, and the Committee for the Defense of Property Rights criticized the actions of the SCC, SDS, SRU, and other leading student groups. These strike opponents urged students to avoid strike demonstrations and to attend regularly scheduled classes.
A smaller amount of material exists for the student strikes of 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972. Renewed demonstrations and strike activity in 1969 were prompted by continuing student concern with Columbia's role as a landlord in the neighboring community, as well as the presence of ROTC, military recruiters, and military researchers on campus. Demands for the development of a black studies curriculum also played a contributing role.
Numerous student organizations at Columbia in the late 1960s and early 1970s precipitated disruptions that addressed other campus issues. Columbia's control of real estate in the Morningside Heights neighborhood and its relationship to the local community were taken up by, among others, the Community Action Committee, the Columbia-Barnard Citizenship Council and its Morningside Housing Committee. The literature produced by these groups, such as the Citizenship Council's detailed report entitled Columbia and the Community: Past Policy and New Directions, provided analyses of the campus expansion issue. This and a cluster of topics featured in the strikes prompted activist efforts for a slate of student groups: military and war research recruiting on campus, Columbia's defense and intelligence contacts through the IDA and the School of International Affairs, conditions for campus workers, the role of students in the governance of the University.
International affairs, particularly U.S. foreign relations, were of great interest to student groups at Columbia. The ubiquitous issue, of course, was the American military presence in Southeast Asia. Opposition to the Vietnam War was expressed, in some form, by nearly every student organization represented in this series. It was a major part of the program of SDS and other groups that addressed multiple issues, often in the context of protest against American "imperialism." Numerous campus organizations emerged from the mid 1960s though mid 1970s for the primary purpose of expressing opposition to the war and the draft, among them Action for Peace, the Moratorium Coalition, the Resistance at Columbia, and the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War. Their voluminous literature is contained in this series; as is material issued by unidentified student groups.
Box 9 Folder 40
Organization Descriptions and Membership Lists, 1968
Box 9 Folder 41
Student Strike Literature, 1968
Box 9 Folder 42
Action Committee to Crush Columbia Racism, circa, 1970
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Action for Peace, 1970
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Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Student Meeting, 1968
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Ad Hoc Committee of Staff and Students, 1968
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Ad Hoc Committee Against the Anti-Ballistic Missile, 1969-1970
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Ad Hoc Committee to End the War in Vietnam, 1968
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American Liberation League, 1966
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Anti-Vietnam War Events Literature, 1967-1973
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Anti-War Corporation Coalition, 1972
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Arts Festival for the Benefit of Political Prisoners, 1970
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Asian-American Political Alliance, 1970-1972
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Asian-Americans, 1971
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Citizens Concerned About the Draft, Undated
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City College Committee, 1968
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The Collective Fist: Newspaper of the Columbia Strike, 1968
Box 10 Folder 1
Solkoff, Joel Correspondence, Memoir, and Student Strike Literature,, 1968-1972, 1999
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Columbia Anti Imperialist Movement, 1971-1973
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Columbia and Barnard Citizenship Council and Community Service Council,, 1966-1971
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Morningside Housing Committee, 1968-1969
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Columbia Christian Fellowship, 1968
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Columbia Committee for Harrisburg Defendants, 1971
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Columbia Committee to Keep Biafra Alive, 1968
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Columbia's Committee to Counter-Act Repression, 1971
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Columbia Coordinating Committee, 1970
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Columbia Draft Collective, 1971
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The Columbia Free Press, 1970
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Columbia Labor Committee, 1970-1972
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Columbia Seniors Against the War, 1971
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Columbia Student Movement, American Student Movement, 1970-1971
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Committee for the Defense of Property Rights, 1968
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Committee for Free Inquiry-- Feedback: A Journal of Social Commentary, with articles by Serge Lang,, 1967
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Committee for Peace Politics, 1967
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Committee for a Radical History, 1972
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Committee of Columbia University African Students, 1968
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Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1970-1972
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Committee on the Environmental Teach-In, 1970
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Committee to Aid Anti-War Government Issues, 1968-1970
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Community Action Committee, 1968
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Conferences, Programs, Teach-Ins and Performances--Unsponsored, 1968-1972, Undated, 1968-1972, Undated
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Conservative Union, 1968
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Counter-Commencement, 1970
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December Fourth Movement, 1970
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Dienbienphu Family, 1971
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Ferris Booth Hall Board of Managers, 1968
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The Forum--Excerpts from Address Given by Howard Zinn to Students and University in Our Age of Social Action,, 1968
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Free University, 1968
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Gadfly--Sponsored by the Protestant Office, 1968
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Grad Students to End the War, 1967
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Graduate Student Union, 1968-1970
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Green Armbands, 1968
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Hartley Hall Committee, 1970-1971
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Housing: Program to Activate Community Talent, 1968
Humor and Satire Groups Publications
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Columbia 69 Society
Box 11 Folder 1
Columbia Italian Americans
Box 11 Folder 1
Columbia Unreconstructed Restructurers
Box 11 Folder 1
Sham-Rock Association
Box 11 Folder 1
Silas Q. Jester
Box 11 Folder 1
Sons of Gael
Box 11 Folder 1
Students Demanding Sex, 1968-1969
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Independent Committee for Understanding the Strike-Letter to Parents,, 1968
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Independent Committee of Students and Faculty, 1968
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Independent Committee on Vietnam, 1966-1972
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Independent Radicals Association, 1968
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International Socialists, 1969-1972
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International Students, 1968-1972
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Isaiah 2-4 Committee, 1972
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Janet Benderman Weekly Review, 1969-1970
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Laos Emergency Committee, 1970
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Latin American Student Organization, 1970-1975
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Liberation Study Group, 1968
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Majority Coalition, 1968-1972
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Mao Tse Tung Thought Group, 1972
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McIntosh Anti War Activities Center, 1972
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Mathematics Building Commune, April 1968
Moratorium Coalition
Box 11 Folder 17
New American Tea Party, 1971
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New Leftist Forum, 1968
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New University Conference, 1969-1971
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New York Regional Coalition of Students and Faculty, 1969
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Occupiers of Buildings--Student Statements and Correspondence, Group Positions, 1968, 1972, 1968, 1972, (2 Folders)
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Off-Campus Action Network, 1970
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Pacifist Anarchist Bisexual Psychedelic Conspiracy, 1968-1969
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Peace and Freedom Party, 1968
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People's Peace Treaty Conference, 1971
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President's Advisory Committee on Student Life--Student Representatives,, 1968
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Progressive Labor Party, 1968-1972
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Radical Caucus, 1970
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Radical Jewish Union, 1970
Box 11 Folder 31
The Resistance at Columbia, 1967-1969
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Revolutionary Marxist Caucus, 1971
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Revolutionary Student Brigade, Poison Ivy, 1974-1975
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Seize the Time, 1970
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Service Societies--A Referendum, 1968
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Socialism Study Group Project, 1971
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Spartacus Youth League, 1967-1971
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Special Committee of the Board of Trustees and Temple Committee--Student Representatives,, 1968
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Step Sitters and Sympathizers, 1968
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Strike! Committee and Coalition of Student Leaders, 1968
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Strike Coordinating Committee and Strike Steering Committee, 1968, (2 Folders)
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Strike Coordinating Committee and Steering Committee, 1968-1970, Undated, 1968-1970, Undated, (4 Folders)
Box 12 Folder 5
Meeting Minutes, 1968
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Columbia Liberated, 1968
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The Rational Enquirer, 1968
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Why We Strike, 1968
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Reconstruction Committee, 1968
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The Time: Columbia Strike Bulletin, 1970
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Strike Central and Strike Office, 1972
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Strike Education Committee and Liberation School--Includes Liberation Class Schedules and Notices,, 1968, (2 Folders)
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Strike Journal, 1972
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Student Council, 1967-1971
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Student Draft Information Center, Dodge Hall Group, 1967-1969
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Student Faculty Committee on Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps,, 1969
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Student Guard Organizing Committee, 1969
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Student Homophile League, 1968
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Student-Labor Solidarity Committee, 1970
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Student Mobilization Committee to End the War, 1968-1972
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Students--Unaffiliated: Accounts, Chronologies and Commentaries--Public Statements, Individual and Joint,, 1968-1969, (2 Folders)
Box 13 Folder 6
Students--Unidentified--Handwritten and Typed Correspondence, 1968-1969
Box 13 Folder 7
Students for Columbia University, 1968-1970
Box 13 Folder 8 to 11
Students for a Democratic Society--Miscellaneous Documents, 1967-1972, (4 Folders)
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Students for a Democratic Society--Miscellaneous Documents, 1967-1972
Publications
Box 14 Folder 2
The Columbia Statement, 1968
Box 14 Folder 3
The Hard Core, 1968-1969
Box 14 Folder 4
New Left Notes, 1970-1972
Box 14 Folder 5
The Paper Tiger: Journal of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society,, 1967-1968
Box 14
The Junior Paper Tiger: Journal of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society,, 1967-1968
Box 14 Folder 6
Up Against the Wall, 1968
Box 14 Folder 7
Labor Committee (Successor Columbia Labor Committee), 1967-1970
Box 14 Folder 8
Students for a Free Campus, 1968-1969
Box 14 Folder 9 to 11
Students for a Restructured University--Includes Restructuring Questionnaire and the Student Voice,, 1968-1969, (3 Folders)
Box 14 Folder 12
Students in East Asian Studies, 1968
Box 14 Folder 13
Students Seeking Responsive Representation, 1968
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Students Summoned Before the Dean for Disciplinary Action--The Sixty Bad Boys,, 1968
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Student Afro-American Society
Box 14 Folder 16
Third World Coalition, 1970-1972
Box 14 Folder 17
Tomorrow Press: A Newspaper, 1968
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Transcendental Students, 1970
Box 14 Folder 19
Undergraduate Academic Affairs Committee, 1968
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University Action Group, 1972
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University Committee for a Relevant Education, 1968
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University Senate Elections Committee, 1969
Box 15 Folder 1
Valuable Property Recovery Unit, 1968
Box 15 Folder 2
Veterans and Reservists for Peace, 1970
Box 15 Folder 3
War Against Racism, 1970
Box 15 Folder 4
Work Stoppage Committee, 1970-1972
Box 15 Folder 5
Worker-Student Alliance Caucus, 1969
Box 15 Folder 6
Worker-Student-Community Coalition, 1971
Box 15 Folder 7
Workers League Club of Columbia, 1970
Box 15 Folder 8
Young People's Socialist League, 1971
Box 15 Folder 9
Young Republicans, 1969
Box 15 Folder 10
Young Socialist Alliance, 1967-1975
Box 15 Folder 11
Youth Against War and Fascism, 1968-1970