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

Page 16 text:

Tho railroad to collogo Crossroads Thursday: sounding oli in tho trianglo was changed, rearranged, a new steam table was installed, but nothing could be done without a place lor the students to meet, to relax, to shoot the breeze.... As the world's worries became less acute with the defeats of Germany and Japan, the College's difficulties increased ... it throbbed with tho beat of tho incoming flow of students ... it struggled, expanded to absorb them ... registra- tion in the Fall of '46 almost developed into a riot . . . the schedule fell days behind ... 50 new classos wore added ... a now system was insti- tuted . . . the beginning of the torm was post- poned . . . finally, the confusion subsided . . . but it wasn't until September '47 that students and tho administration could look upon registra- tion day without a feeling of approaching panic. ... The times kept changing . . . AA books be- came procious again as vots returned to the teams . . . the prospects for winning teams in- creased the demand for AA books . . . linos formed again at tho tickot sales like a haunting spectre which refused to leave the school. . . . A world's disease infected the College as charges of anti-semitism wore leveled at Prof. William Knickerbocker in April 1945 and shocked the school .. . accusations were brought against tho Chairman of the Romance Languages De- partment by four members of his department . . . Hillel led tho demand which rosultod in in- vestigations by the General Faculty, and Student Council . . . the decisions were to dismiss the case.... What were tho times . . . they were bad . . . hate and prejudice had not been wiped out by the blood of men. ... What was the tempo . . . there was unrest . . . men who had fought and boys who folt thoir first stubble of beard found racial prejudice and segregation at the college. . . . Army Hall Administrators were attacked . . . first tho Veterans Association charged that dor- mitory fees were being used to pay for the cost of the building's conversion . . . that the author- ized funds were boing diverted . . . the American Veterans Committee asked its lawyer and ac- countant to check the books . .. finally the rental was reduced. . .. On the heels of this came more charges . . . chargos that an anti-union policy was used in tho hiring and firing of Army Hall employees . . . a faculty committoo appointed by President Wright found validity in the charges . . . one man was rehired ... one remained fired. ... The decision was scarcoly roached when the Frederick Douglas Society accused tho same

Page 15 text:

Book store: If it's not hero, go to Barnos Noblo 700 and their influx only stopped when the restrictions were reinstated aftor the war. . . . Time lookod back for a moment . . . men returned when the Army Specialized Training Program took over an Orphan Asylum and made it a dormitory called Army Hall, requisi- tioned the Drill Hall and used the Cafotoria.... Other things changed, increased, and swelled out with the new tempo and the strange times . .. the book store expanded into two stores, one in the Main building, one in Army Hall ... the hole next to the Library wasn't filled with bricks and mortar but with coal . . . books wore sent to a new reading room in Army Hall . . . surplus books woro stored for lack of shelf space . . . Friday night dances and then afternoon dances in the new lounge were instituted ... to help defray the cost of activities a voluntary U-Card was presented to the student body . . . later in the Spring of 1948 a compulsory Student Activity Fee replaced the inadequate U-Card as a result of a student referendum . . . the new $1.50 foe helped ease the financial worries, of most organizations ... It made THE CAMPUS and OBSERVATION POST free Some things didn't change . . . the long lines which filled the hall outside the bookstore during registration day . . . the queued up students in the cafeteria ... a lunchroom which lookod less like a place to eat and more like a crowded con- vention hall, as students threaded their way through crowds of hungry classmates looking for a place to sit .. . the cafeteria . .. sociology double alpha, psych thro© bota .. . Th© last bil© before Physics

Page 17 text:

It's oithor Language transla- tion, Morcury or PM whon sub- waying homo officials of segregating Negro students in room assignments at Army Hall . . . a now committee chairod by Dr. Joseph Wisan found William C. Davis, Ad- ministrator of Army Hall and Assistant to the President, and his assistant Oscar Dryer guilty of practicing segregation ... newspapers carried the story through- out the city . . . Davis resigned and returned to his former position in the Economics Department... the process of integrating the Army Hall administra- tion into tho rest of the college began . .. the Douglas Society was not satisfied with the action taken but praised the work of the committee. . . . And there was more . . . Queens College banned the American Youth for Democracy from their campus . . . the Schultz Amendment if passed would have eliminated AYD from tho campusos of all the city colleges . . . reper- cussions woro strongly felt here . . . the Student Council protested the Queens College action . . . President Wright fought the Schultz Amendment . . . many organizations opposed to the philosophy of the AYD, nevertheless, affirmed the Sth Avonuo Busses to tho right, loft and in tho middlo