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

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

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 18 text:

right of AYD to exist on the campus . . . the Schultz Amendment was defeated ... a proposed Thomas Committee investiga- tion of the college never materialized.... And moro ... in the Fall of '47 the ad- ministration banned a speaker who had been invited by the Marxist Cultural So- ciety to their meeting . . . students were aroused at this attempt to abridge free spooch . . . the day and hour scheduled for the meeting witnessed a student pro- test rally which denounced the action of the administration . . . later the author- ities reconsidered their action ... relented a little.... Then another blow . . . the Collego budget was cut by the Mayor's Budget Committee which later revised its esti- mate upward and granted an additional $51,000...this reduced tho cut to $127,000 . . . students, faculty, and administration protested ... 28 instructors and 12 cleri- cal and laboratory workers would have to be dropped .. . students looked about them and saw crowded classes .. . knew tho budget slash would make the classes larger ... a protest rally, a strike, and a march on City Hall were recommended . . . all but the rally was called off . . . classes wore cut and attendance was A cheap Friday night date Groat Hal! and that Groat Day Townsend Harris Avenue