Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

104 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:89
ing for Burke’s reinstatement. 44 Wechsler proposed a general strike of the
entire student body to achieve this. 45
Columbia College’s Board of Student Representatives (student government)
rejected Paul Thomson’s resolution to support Burke’s reinstatement
by a four-to-three vote. The previous semester’s Student Board had opposed
the administration’s sending a delegate to the Nazis’ Heidelberg festival.
During the hearing on the resolution, Board member Richard Foster
declared to Burke, who was present, that in leading the anti-Nazi demonstration
at Butler’s mansion he had not been “on the right side of the fence
with opinion.” Burke shot back: “You mean powerful opinion, Dick.” The
Spectator condemned the Student Board for endorsing “reaction” and joining
“the goose step.” 46
Student newspapers at several other New York City colleges published
editorials denouncing Burke’s expulsion as a blow against students’ academic
freedom, including those of New York University’s (NYU) uptown
and downtown campuses, City College of New York’s (CCNY) The Campus,
and the Hunter College Bulletin. 47 CCNY, Hunter, and NYU’s downtown
campus had overwhelmingly Jewish student bodies, and Jews were
also a sizable presence at NYU’s uptown residential campus. Support for
Burke at these schools was undoubtedly reinforced by Jewish students’
abhorrence of Nazism and admiration for a youth willing to sacrifice his
academic career to fight it.
The Campus’s editorial, entitled “Crime at Columbia,” was typical of
those in the New York college press. It blasted the Columbia administration
for “obstinately cling[ing] to the doctrine that expelling student leaders is a
powerful means of halting student protest.” The Campus ridiculed Dean
Hawkes’ charge of “ungentlemanly conduct” against Burke, noting that five
witnesses had submitted sworn affidavits that Burke was not boisterous and
had used no profanity at the anti-Nazi demonstration at Butler’s mansion.
The Campus’s editors were “quite certain that ‘ungentlemanly’ or boisterous
conduct in connection with a big football game or dance would have
44. New York World-Telegram, September 24, 1936, and New York American,
September 25, 1936, roll 128, ACLU Papers; The New York Times, September 25,
1936; Youngstown Daily Vindicator, September 27, 1936.
45. New York American, September 25, 1936, roll 128, ACLU Papers. Burke
declared at the rally that the controversy over his expulsion centered on the “question
whether the president, dean and trustees of Columbia will tell me what to think
and do or whether I shall do what I think is right.” The New York Times, September
25, 1936.
46. Columbia Spectator, September 30, 1936.
47. The Campus, September 25 and 29, 1936; Washington Square College Bulletin,
October 5, 1936; Hunter Bulletin, October 13, 1936.