City College of New York - Microcosm Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Exercises provided that all students in educational iii'tilutioii' of higher learn ing supported in whole or in part l»v piddir fund lie required to lake oath' of allegiance to Slate and Federal institutions. In 1936 the jame bill, reintroduced, again surcumlied. Karly in the term the Facility censured Milton Kaletsky, editor of an allegedly obscene issue of the Mercury. Four of the Jingo I»a students wen reinstated. The instructional and oflice staffs of the id- lego organized to form the nli-l'ascisl Xssociulion. On pril 22, an anti-war demonstration, sanctioned by the College authorities, was held in the Great Hall. Thirty-five hundred students were present and voted fervent ayes” in favor of the Oxford Pledge and resolutions urging the removal of President Robinson. a boycott of German and Italian goods, ami the abolition of the ROTC and CCC. The Student Council decided to boycott the Charier Day exer- cises, for although a victory had been achieved in the transfer of the annual HOTG Review from Charter Day to another occasion, students of the Military Science department were appointed to serve as the color guard. n attempt to substitute members of Lock and Key was fruitless. One of the twenty-one students of the October 0 affair was reinstated. The faculty said that he had shown contrition for his actions.” Holier! Brown, Meyer Ranged, and Herbert Rob- inson. all of the Independent Student Rights Party, were elected president, vice-president, and secretary of the Student Council for the fall term. Our own new legislature was headed by Mill Xaslow, presi- dent: Jack London, vice-president; no secretary was in sight. The genial Dr. John R. Turner, who until 1028 had been at New York I Diversity, and then bad served as president of the University of W est irginia, was appointed to a new office created by the Board of Higher Education. s Dean of Men he was to coordinate extra-curricular activities. Later he assumed full disciplinary power. Two more students who had participated in a demon- stration against “Jingo Day” on May 20 of that year, were suspended. During the term, under the sponsorship of the newly formed fresh- man and sophomore Houses, Houseboat Dance” was held in the gym. This was the first of a successful series of amusing, easy-on-lhe- purse monthly House Plan dances. The class of ’38 ran off a Spring Dance of its own. On May I, the House Plan, six hundred strong, signed a year’s lease on 202 Convent venue. In the fall of 1035, men in overalls, seemingly obsessed with the ma«l desire to burrow deep into the bowels of the earth, started blast- ing out huge chunks of rock. WPA workers were on the dig. Today a new library is in the slow ami painful process of being transferred from the architect’s drawing board to actuality. The campus has a reasonably clean appearance after being a shambles for so long. The Campus, under the editorship of Irving Neirnan sponsored a v igorous Boycott the Olympics” campaign. At a meeting in the Great Hall, Judge Jeremiah T. Mahoney lashed out at Germany and called on the athletes of America to stay away from Berlin. He was opposed by a few of the college athletes. In 1926, Felix S. Cohen’s brilliant editorials helped to make the 21

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dial a group of touring Italian students were to appear at the freshman eliapei in the Great Hall. The Student Council planned a protest meeting anil sent a letter to President Robinson: this letter called for a cancellation of the official College welcome. On October two thousand students jammer I into the Great Hall. President Robinson's speech of welcome was greeted with boos and hisses by the College students, to which he replied with the angry remark that the conduct of the audience was “appropriate to gutter- snipe.” hen Kdwin Alexander, speaking as a representative of the Student Council, liegan with a message to the enslaved, tricked Italian students, laboring under Fascism, Professor Arhib-Costa attempted to drag him away from the microphone, while students roared out, la-t Alexander speak! The meeting broke up in con- fusion; it was immediately followed by another, held in lewisohn Stadium and attended by fifteen bundled protesting students. Events followed in quick succession. The conflict between students and the administration became intense. On October 11, the Student Council was sus|»eiided for its part in the activities. To this move the student body retaliated with an Oust Robinson' week; ei ght ecu students were arrested for picketing the President’s home. At the requst of Dr. Robin- son, the magistrate referred them to the College administration. The Faculty, at its next meeting, expelled twenty-two students, suspended four, and put twelve on probation. Shortly after the meeting, former Dean Redmond died of a heart attack, while traveling to his home. The Faculty’s disciplinary action was greeted with a deluge of protests. Fifteen hundred students massed on the campus and in Jasper Oval, and in jeering chorus burned a two- headed effigy of Mussolini and l)r. Robinson. ml then the Faculty reaffirmed its decision, refusing to yield to mass-pressure.” The Phi Itela Kappa chapter of the College passed resolutions urging the reinstatement of the Student Council and the disciplined students, and the removal as unfit to Ik the head of a lilicral institution’ of Presi- dent Robinson. Charter Dav group of Campus editors quit the staff in protest against the alleged censorship of the Campus Association and the resultant con- servatism of the newspaper. With the permission of the Faculty Committee on Student Affairs, they edited the Student, which was s|ionsored by the Student Council; its financial sup| ort was meager: its life was short. Affairs at the College quieted down with the advent of exam week. During the season the Beavers won four games and lost three. The Dram Soc presented The Last Mile. With the new semester and the Student Council elections, I-ester Rosner became president of the undergraduate governing body; Rob- ert Brown, vice-president; and Julian Lavitt, secretary'. A new class council was chosen: Jack London, president: Jack Besansky, vice- president; Marty Singer, secretary. In conjunct ion with similar groups from other colleges in New York State, the Student Council helped to block the passage of the super-patriotic Nunan-Devany bill, which 20

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military -ciente courses optional. In September of 193.» undergraduates won a further concession when tlir Faculty voted to make Hygiene five and .six elec- tive for all. Thus the ROTC courses lost any added inducement that they may have had and became pure electives. At the same time Colonel O. I . Robinson became the new head of the department. Two students who hail been suspended at the close of the spring term were reinstated ami thirteen of the fifteen who had been ex|M lled in the welcome of the Fascist students, were | ermitled to return to the College on probation. Julian l.avitt, Herbert Robinson, and ictor xelroad became president, vice-president, and secretary of the Student Council for the following semester. On November 8, forty-five hundred students packed the (ireat Hall to the rafters at the greatest |x ace demonstration ever staged at the College. Students and faculty had cooperated in making plans for the meet- ing, hut the cooperation extended only to a certain point ... to the Oxford Pledge. The students favored its presentation In-fore the assembly: the Faculty un- conditionally opposed it... and the Faculty prevailed. When President Robinson and Charles II. Tuttle, tin- chief speaker had finished, Student Council president Robert Brown, arose to deliver his message. With his concluding statement, the tension of the meeting be- came manifest. He said that, although the Oxford Pledge was banned, he was sure that hud it been introduced, it would have been approved unanimously. A roar went up from the audi- ence. Students stood up and cheered for three minutes. Presi- dent Robinson, advanced to the front of the stage and pointed out that an oath not to defend one’s country in any case, was in direct contradiction to the spirit of the Constitution; it was, lie said, The essence of bad citizenship. The excited boys were in no mood for a rebuke, and they replied appropriately to the President’s words. Shortly afterwards, the City College |w t of the merican Legion announced an eight-point plan, im- mediately submerged by the attacks of students and in- structors, to mericanize the radicals. The meri- can Student I nion, a student organization, encom- passing all shades of political opinion from liberal to the extreme left, was formed in Columbus, Ohio, during the Christmas vacation of 1935. The Student Council of the College chartered the first unit of the newly formed organization. l once the administra- tion stepped in to block this action. The charter of the Sl was referred to the Board of Higher education by the Faculty Committee on Student Affaire. This procedure was extraordinary, ppeals to the Board met with continual |H»stponement of action. renewed impetus was given to the oust Robin- son movement w hen, on January 27, 1936, there was issued the ssociate Alumni re| ort on its investigation of the President’s administration. The President lacks the human qualities necessary to achieve the w idespread confidence of his faculty and student body, and to provide genuinely inspired, resourceful, and socially imaginative leadership. recommendation was made to the effect that the Board of Higher edu- cation take appropriate action. It was a relatively small group of students .. . who has seen fit to engage J. B. Harvey