University of Virginia Library

Rod MacDonald

The Faces
On The Subway

(New York) Remember Ed
Hayes? He was a 1969 graduate,
president of the IFC and chairman
of counselors at the University, and
a highly respected fraternity politico.
Those are not the kind of
credentials one usually finds in a
campus radical, although d at-one
time helped lead the amorphous
Coalition's drive vs. the University's
institutional discrimination.

But Tuesday night d showed
me around Columbia University in
upper Manhattan, where I and
several other University fourth-year
men may go next year. The first
sight we found was six metropolitan
buses parked outside the gates
of the Morningside Heights campus,
each bus full with Tactical Police.
This was, according to some students,
not an especially unusual
occurrence, for the Columbia campus
is famous for its student
activism.

Davis Cheered

That night Rennie Davis,
recently released from the Chicago
Conspiracy trial, had spoken at the
campus. The crowd cheered, sang,
yelled lustily, and adjourned for
dinner at 6 p.m. with an understanding
that the rally would
reconvene at 9 p.m. A friend of
Ed's told me "The radicals here are
so bourgeois that they break for
dinner," but the school officials
took them seriously enough to call
in several buses of police. We
walked around some, and every
building was flanked by policemen;
at the law school Ed had to
produce his student ID card to get
past the uniformed security officer
at the door.

"This place is ready for an
explosion," Ed noted, and pointed
out some of the background. The
city, a crazy world of subway
people anyway has been terrorized
for about two weeks by bombs and
fake bomb threats. When Abbie
Hoffman spoke there the preceding
Friday, he gave his approval to the
bombings, and the theme has
become "shut this place down."
Mr. Rubia also urged the students
to collect reparations for the Black
Panther 21, a group of Panthers
arrested on bomb conspiracy
charges. The ralliers, about 500
strong and including Ed Hayes,
then marched into a nearby building
and took it over. Unable to
decide on a use for their new
possession, the group broke up,
whereby several groups went
around breaking windows. The New
York Daily News, claiming 2,000
students participated, screamed
"STUDENTS RIOT AT COLUMBIA,"
while the Columbia Spectator
mentioned 500 students in
the demonstration. Needless to say,
Columbia University did not offer
to post bail for the Panthers.

Everyone Scared

"With any kind of leadership,
500 radicals could close this city
down," he said. "The bombings
have everyone scared now, because
up here when a student phones in a
bomb threat it's not because he
wants to cut an exam. It means he
probably wants to trash that
building down." So we went to the
rally that night in the center of the
campus. About 100 persons were
there, including 20 or 30 actively
singing "Power to the People."
Several times we heard an explosion
nearby, probably a cherry bomb
thrown from a car, and each time
the crowd burst into cheers. The
rally went nowhere, except to say
that much of the student body
actively hates Columbia University.

Seldom Troubled

So I thought of this University
in Charlottesville, where Master
Plan man Paul Saunier speaks
frequently of adequate grass and
space around buildings; where my
room on the Lawn is seldom
troubled by mad bombers or
busloads of police; and where each
spring, Coalitions and demonstrations
notwithstanding, most students
find the University a very
pleasant place at which to live and
study.

It's common now for upcoming
graduates to speak of leaving
Charlottesville for city schools,
such as Chicago, Columbia or NYU.
Most say they are tired of the dull
social and cultural environment, and
this group includes myself. But
first-hand contact with it makes me
appreciate more what I will soon
leave, for one can hardly find peace
in New York City. The city crowds
everyone so much that the New
Yorker's form of peace comes not
through acceptance of others but
indifference. While I expect to
enjoy a hectic environment, it
obviously has its price.

In this I realized that for some
time few people have said anything
good about the University. Institutionally
it still is discriminate, and
it still lacks the social concern for
minority groups and underprivileged
students that one finds at the
Stanfords and Harvards.

Charm, Beauty

But it has charm, a friendliness
even among strangers that the city
totally lacks, and a certain rural and
pastoral beauty around it.

Yet within this academical
village we have some activist
responsibilities, particularly to
those who are denied the admission
and acceptance they deserve. We
can pressure the University into
accepting its role as a force for
social change, particularly in
making blacks as welcome as
whites. There are black recruiters
and possibly some black faculty
members here next year, but more
needs to be done so all students can
enjoy their experience here. As I
walked through Columbia, I felt
still Virginia's ability to make most
of its students feel at home on the
Grounds. But this University owes
at least as much to those it now
excludes.