Memories of Columbia 1968

National Review, August 9, 1985 by D. Keith Mano

What were the issues? A new gym proposed for Morningside Park. Columbian involvement with the Defense Department. Student say in faculty hiring and curriculum. The usual black agenda. In 1985, by contrast, liberal rhetoric was limited to apartheid and divestiture. (Though, certainly, the defense argument is still available.) We ought to thank South Africa.

It has taken heat for us without shredding any national tissue. In 1985 Columbia was inconvenienced, not maimed for a decade. It might be new moderation. I think it is also fear. The 1968 insurrections were truly fundamental and terrific. They went to the hem of human viciousness: civil interchange was almost lost. Student, professor--SDS, Center, black, me--bent down and saw, as Kurtz did, the horror in us. We are all a little more frightened by each other now. And that is progress of some small sort.