Columbia Strike Might Continue Into September

What happens next at Columbia depends no longer on the issues that started the strike, but on the tactics of Columbia's administration and the student Strike Coordinating Committee.

In spite of President Grayson Kirk's repeated references in public statements to a "small minority of 17,500 students in the university," the strike has a wide base in the undergraduate college.

There are only 2700 men in Columbia College. Of the over 1000 people who have been arrested, about half of them are from the college. The strike had the active or passive participation of almost everyone in the college, although this was influenced by the cancelling of most class meetings. Many undergraduates who feared arrest supported the sit-ins in petition, and demonstrations.

Tactics at Issue

At issue now are the tactics from the last bust. Some students dropped a heavy potted tree from an overpass onto parked police cars and then finished off the windshield with bricks. Many windows in administration and classroom buildings were broken. Two fires were started, one destroying ten year's research of a man who had spoken against SDS policies.

The Strike Committee denied Friday having anything to do with the two fires. They alleged the fire in Hamilton Hall broke out 35 minutes after police took the building and arrested the students inside. Police still held it when the fire began.

Friday the Strike Committee proposed that arrested students refuse to talk to the deans about their actions. The college has suspended between ten and twenty students for refusing to come in. On Friday, however, they postponed indefinitely the May 24th deadline which required that 33 seniors talk to the deans.

Today the Strike Committee will meet with the deans to discuss a compromise. If neither side gives in, 300-500 students could be suspended.

It is likely that the 33 seniors will be put on two weeks probation and then given a diploma. The great bulk of the arrest cases will probably be postponed until fall.

The Joint Committee on Disciplinary Affairs (consisting of seven faculty members, seven students, and three administrators) is very angry at Kirk for suspending over one hundred students automatically for participating in the last sit-in. His action goes directly against their agreement on their sovereignty in disciplinary action.

Faculty members feel that the demonstrators will be put on pro. If that is the case, the students will probably stop striking.