Columbia University 1968
On April 23, 1968, Columbia University students began a nonviolent occupation of campus buildings that lasted nearly a week. Students and community supporters called for the university to cut its ties to research for the war in Vietnam and to end construction of a gym in Morningside Park. After negotiations failed, the administration sent in the police, injuring many and arresting over 700, triggering a campus-wide strike that shut down the university.
Forty years later, participants in the protests organized a conference about the events of 1968 and about war, racism, sexism, and the role of universities. This web site is an outgrowth of that conference. It makes the proceedings of that conference and other material on the strike available to the public for non-commercial use. Our goal is to provide a repository for our experiences of the history of Columbia 1968 and to create a source for reflection and discussion of the events and issues of that time and how they relate to today.
