SUNY at Stony Brook - Specula Yearbook (Stony Brook, NY)

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ln honor of St. Valentine, a variety of Stony Brook-style love notes were exchanged. Another petition for Mr. D. was circulated. The New York State Senate passed a measure to deny scholarship funds to any student who is convicted of on-campus mis- demeanors or felonies. And Stony Brook pledged its troth to sports with the organization of a football club. President Toll's problems were far from over. Two hundred students rallied in front of the Library to demand a voice in the hiring of faculty members and in the rein- statement of Mr. D. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company gave us an exercise in rhythm and space. Dissenters sponsored protest-of-the-week demonstrations in an effort to awaken Stony Brook students to the social ills surrounding them. A group of about 200 students kept an Army recruiter in a room in the gym for about three hours during a demonstra- tion protesting recruitment, Then they marched to the Library and presented President Toll with a list of demands to which he responded, A University does not respond to demands. Police Commissioner Barry urged strict controls over campus demonstrators in accordance with the long standing All-American tradition of freedom of speech. With the end of February and the beginning of March came the most exciting sports event of the year, perhaps the most exciting in the history of Stony Brook. The Patriots, amidst record-breaking crowds, downed first Pace and then Lehman, to walk away with the coveted Knickerbocker Conference Basketball Championship. The fact that we were disqualified later because of a technicality did not diminish our pride in our first winning team.

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uw-. March came in like a lion with protests over Dow and a day-long confrontation over re- search files. Then, to prove that protests aren't always mass, Phil D'Arms of the Special Projects Office resigned because of frustration at the University's failure to fund commu- nity service projects. Mitch Cohen and Glenn Kissack were arrested in G Cafeteria, Mitch for being on campus after being declared persona non grata, and Glenn for protesting Mitch's arrest. A chain reaction led to an SDS sit-in in the Library after a rally to decide what to do. About four hundred students stayed past midnight despite President Toll's vacillating threats to call Suffolk County Police. By 6 a.m. most of SDS's demands had been met, and students began to leave in twos and threes. At 8:30 the Police arrived, and all but 21 students left en masse. The remaining students were led out by the Police and brought to the Police Station. The Student Council unanimously called for Toll's resignation and censured the President for his failure to create and utilize sufficient channels for instituting change. A petition was signed by 2300 students condemning disruption and destruction. Toll said that he wouldn't change the policy in response to disruption since that would encourage disrup- tion. Mitch was permitted access to the campus again in expectation of good behavior. The campus was polarized, left versus right, and an uncomfortable atmosphere was in- evitable. 1