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

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1 .'landing, since the riot readied its height in a snake dance on Time Square. Only taxis were hold enough to enture into the heart of the snake «lance. Traffic was tied up on Seventh Avenue and Broadway until one o'clock when sheer exhaus- tion sent the celebrants home. Aside from the smoker and a highly successful ’39-'40 gym dance (previewed by an alcove weenie-feast), history was not made by students of City College that fall term. The Student Council was so moribund that President Herbert Robinson trieel housecleaning by forcing the ouster of his vice-presi- dent. Hob Burke, who had been expelled from Columbia. wa refused permission to speak on St. Nicholas Terrace—and did. The College Widow, a humor maga- zine for New York City's College.' appearc«l. was sold out three times and then disappeared: while Aid Loyalist Spain booths hc«’ame alcove fixtures. In the perennial Campus poll “FDR” was reelected, followed by Brow- der and Thomas, with I„'imlon bringing up the rear. Higher ed- ucation W eek was celebrated from November 9 to 13 but attracted few visitors. Professor McGold- rick introduced a resolution which would automatically make the A. S. U. a legal organization, hut a tic vote by the Board of Higher Falucation killed the motion. , Elections at the end of the semester provi«lc«l real fireworks. The Progressive Students party, headed by Vic Alex road, put up a complete slate against the Stu- dent Union, whose camlidate for S. C. President was Sy Slavin. For a week the street-cleaning dc- t partment was forced to put on an extra contingent to take care of the leaflets, which averaged three a day. The Progressives claimc«l their opponents held office merely to pass piditical resolutions. The Student Union re- taliated with cries of “Politicians” and “Red-baiters”. The final result was as close as the campaign had indicated. In the Student Council. Alcxroad, Sollcs (SU) and Jack lam- don (PS) triumphed. ’39 went Student Union by a narrow margin. After four tallies. Leon Katzen (PS) held a one vote lca«l over Jack Fcrnbach (SU) for class president, with one ballot in «louht. A tie resulted when the Flections Committee counted the doubtful ballot for Fcrnbach. but the situation was cleared when Katzen declined. Students became very interested in politics as attempts were made in the first months of 1937 to dis«'ontinue the Na- tional Youth Administration. By countering with a demand for passage of the American Youth ct. a pilgrimage to Wash- ington succeeded in having the appropriation increased rather than cut. Coupled with the A. Y. A. movement, the Anti-War Strike on April 22 caused a majority of the school to cut classes for one hour, ami rc ]uired an S.R.O. sign on the doors of the Great Hall. In general, students were apathetic toward demonstra- tions. I)r. Giovanni E. Conterno, leader of the K.O.T.C. Band, was dismissed for physical incapacity”, although his physi- cian had declared him hale and hearty”. The Campus re- ported that Conterno had carnc ! the enmity of Colonel O. P. Robinson for supporting the movement for a non-R.O.T.C. band. Half-hearted efforts to reinstate l)r. Conterno failed. Charter Day was once more boycotted, thus giving the stu- dents an excuse to stay away. The conservative swing became more evident when pickets failed to prevent a record crowd on “Jingo Day”. A brief Hurry of excitement re- suited when Arthur Frank Payne. Personnel Bureau Director, was refusc«l reappointment. An ap- pointee of President Robinson, Payne had been called a quack by the American Psychologists As- sociation ami had been under fire from liberal students for years. When Payne tric«l to «lis- miss several of his subordinates, he put the final t« uch to his own banishment. Payne «leclarc«l that the “Triple Alliance” (thcTcach- ers Union, the Psychologists League, and the omnipresent Communists) was “out to get him”—they “got” him. He was refused reappointment by the Board of Higher Education, and the quiet but efficient Dr. Daniel Brophy took his place. A start in inter-collcgiate co- operation occurred when the Stu- «lent Council called the first Met- ropolitan Student Council Con- ference. attended by fourteen universities and colleges in New York City. As a result of the find- ings of the conclave, the Student Council was reorganized to give clubs direct representation. The class scored its greatest financial success in a dance chairmanncd by Harold Roth. A less riotous smoker was held in the Hotel Center, where not a mirror was broken. Featuring the current candid camera vogue, Dramsoc staged Don't Look Note. The review gained excellent pub- licity when a hundred alcove-wolves. Ic«l by Dean '39, rioted and chased six chorines, demanding the kisses they ha«l been promised with their tickets. The '39 Council's grandiose plan for a Boat-Ride was taken over by the Student Council. Nevertheless, the '39 Class ran the affair. The show-boat Rear Mountain was fillc«l beyond capacity on the moonlight sail immediately after exams. The hit of the evening was not Kay Parson’s floor show, but Win- some Winnie, a melerdramar staged by the faculty and directe«l by “Kernel” Frank Dav idson. Tho vppor hoW of ho '39 Clou to- «ho lot pvblicotion of THE STUDENT NEWS ot on ♦ipronion of tho difforon collegot' opposition to rcootion on «ho oomput. 21

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.Military Science department Not content with the Ntinan Kill, reactionaries tried a new move. Senator McNahoc charged that .New York City’s Colleges were breeding “reds . Armed with an appropriation, the Senator Marted snooping. I lie College felt .'lighted, for McNahoc devoted more attention to “reds” at Cornell than at City. Although several text- books which used the word communist were uncovered, the McNahoc Committee soon died a derisive death. Throughout the school, and especially in the ’39 class, the students awoke to a new social life. A crew of hard working class members daily harangued the students in T.H.II. and in the alcoves with Da-a-ance Tickets’- and Cla-a-ass Cards”. A deficit on the first «lance was tempo- rarily taken care of by the chairman. ’39 Steps, origi- nally the Courier made its appearance in printed form. Dramsoc kept pace with the times. Proxy, football. W.P.A., ct al. were satirized in A-Men, a musical com- edy. which topped all previous shows. For weeks students hiinnneil “Two Against the World” and I’m Just a Freshman in Your Arms”. Stvdiou» Itwdonh. in n«ed of awicl toning, «njoyod Hygl » dattoi ««opt ot MWth of ition—quorttily qviu« (obovo). Room 100—ot III of tKc Lincoln Corridor llOl.d msny probUmt for worried ic’ v’i ond fmkno, Orgon.wd Froih-Sopl. ocKvlty ot rl« Coltcgo 1,11 Uto dlu,p,l,. tbo J» Clou, o-d Ntbwill (tycK o obov«| com Infreguontly. '1th th« entro-c Intramurals, reorganized under Jimmy Peace, expand- ed ten-fold. The class came out on top in the road race, in basketball and in baseball. Kut hilarity rcigue«l in a packed Jasper Oval as the faculty baseball team defeated ’39 by 16 to 5. The big event of the semester was the selection of Sig- mund S. Arm as class adviser. Waning spirit was quickly revived by his understanding aid, and at his suggestion another dance, free to all class members, was held. Punch, ice-cream and cookies were free. Though critics had termed it a “scatter-brained” i«lca, the affair made a profit. Interest in school elections reached a new low as Kay Michelson was elected unopposed to the class presidency and S.U. candidates Robinson, Burnham and Soltcs swept the Student Council positions. A more important vote occurcd in the Tech School. For a long time seces- sionist ideas had been rampant in the engineering build- ing. hut extremists were squelched when the school voted against divorcing itself from the Student Council. Ill After a summer’s vacation the class returned to be greeted al registration by the '39 Steps and guarantees of free smokers and 15% discounts on other class func- tions. all for a ten cent class card! The council kept its promises, to the displeasure of the Hotel CinridgC. Two rooms (capacity 300) of that staid hotel were hired by the l‘ro h ami Soph classes for a joint smoker. When 1000 students arrived. 50 committee men. all drafted, could do nothing but wring their hands. Dean Turner and Professor Babor were able to hold up the riot for about one hour with appropriate humour, but when the Dean started to distribute cigarettes (donated by Philip Morris) the ravenous horde broke loose. Fortunately, the Dean escaped with his life. Chairman Wnlpin was pushed through a window when lie attempted to rescue hot «l«»gs“ which were being consumed raw. A ledge pre- vented a painful but minor mishap. The Claridgc is still

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E-:-b t.'W (obove) oustod from Colum- bia College for demonstrot g in front of Nicholos Mwrroy Butler's ©fR », spoke of the College dospite odministrotlori oppositio . Having broadened considerably, tlie A.S.U. nominated many former Progressive Student Party men. and the ballot was practically void of opposition. Joseph Janovsky. Jack London, and Stanley Silvcrbcrg were elected President. Vice-President, ami Secretary of the Student Council respectively. Harold Kotli easily won the class presidency. As it must each term, exam week came again to the College. Put this exam week made tile front pages. .No sooner did vacation start, than the Fire Department took over the Main Building. Five fires were discovered in different rooms in one day. Valuable records went up in flames. The Times blamed pymmaniacs. The more original World-Telegram sug- gested that, since examination papers bail been burned, the blazes were caused by students who did not want their failures discovered. As usual, the Journal-American was sure it was red sabotage . Equally positive were the Communists that some subversive Trotskyite bad done the dire deed. IV Towards the end of the spring term. Editor Siissman of the Campus bad scored a Grade A “scoop with a story of a Co-op Store deficit. The charges were confirmed just before school closed, and over the summer an investigation was conducted. Always an object of derision, the Store’s high prices had already aroused student suspicion. Hut the College was enraged on hearing that Gmiinissioncr of Accounts Hlanshard bad uncov- ered a shortage of $51,000. As a result, the co-op was reorganized as the “City College Store , prices were lowered, and a new manager appointed. nli-Scuiilisni. spread by Hitler in Europe and more suhtlely by Coughlin in merica. made headway even in the College. The Hoard of Higher Education, in carrying out its policy of allowing complete freedom of speech, had ruled that any organization might meet on the grounds without official recognition. V group which called itself the American Guards was granted a permit. Numerous protests to the Hoard led to an investigation into the purposes of the club, and when charges of anti- Jewish programs were proven to lie well-founded, the by-law was changed so that anti-religious groups could not meet on College property. The remains of two magazines. Lavender and Clionian were put together, and Monthly appeared. From the start, the new literary effort n Siudor.ii o! »Wo Collogo gotk«r»d 1» espress tKoir support of frude» o«d liberal i-dco. (top): of o progressive moyor ond ooutK mo («ente»).