SDS Plans March into Low Library Tomorrow at Noon

From the archives of April 22, 1968: The following is part of a web-only series featuring select articles from the Spectator during the spring of 1968. Read the next article in this series here: Challenge to Administration Strongest in School's History.

Students for a Democratic Society will demonstrate inside Low Library tomorrow in apparent violation of President Grayson Kirk's memorandum banning picketing or demonstrations within University buildings.

It is understood that a group of students are planning to confront the demonstrators as they attempt to enter Low Library.

In a leaflet circulated last week, Students for a Free Campus, an ad hoc group formed in October to promote open-recruiting on campus, urged students who were unsympathetic to the SDS cause to be present at the demonstration and to "be prepared."

"We will go into Low Library. We will ask to see President Kirk and present him with a petition," Mark Rudd '69, chairman of SDS, said Friday. He stressed, however, that "this is not a demonstration to test the rule."

In a memorandum issued September 25, 1967, President Grayson Kirk stated: "Picketing or demonstrations may not be conducted within any University building."

Asked if the SDS demonstration was intended to violate the memorandum, Rudd replied, "It is difficult to tell these days which indoor demonstrations violate President Kirk's memorandum."

Rudd stated that the purpose of the demonstration is to demand "an end to Columbia's affiliation with IDA, an end to repression of students' rights, and an end to Columbia's racist policies." He added that SDS intends for the demonstration to be a peaceful one.

Referring to the anti-SDS leaflet, Rudd said, "We think that they are trying to provoke violence. We have called for a non-violent demonstration." He refused to comment on how members of SDS would react if counter-demonstrators tried to prevent them from entering Low Library.

The Students for a Free Campus flyer accuses members of SDS of dictating the University's future and states, "The most distasteful aspect of this demonstration is that SDS plans to embarrass our deans through physical coercion."

A spokesman for the group said that in the past, several students have met with administration officials and urged them to enforce University regulations on demonstrations.

The last instance of violence on campus occurred a year ago when two student factions clashed bitterly in the lobby of John Jay Hall over recruiting efforts by representatives of the United States Marine Corps. Violence began when a group of students, mostly athletes and members of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, charged about three hundred SDS supporters who were attempting to speak with the recruiters.

Several fist-fights erupted during the hour-long melee, and the Marines, who agreed not to continue their interviews that day, left the campus.