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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1936
COLUMBIA HEARS PLEA FOR EXPELLED STUDENT
Burke and Two Other Speakers Demand His Reinstatement at Gathering of 500. Three members of the American Student Union, including Robert Burke, who was expelled in June for leading the anti-Nazi demon- stration last May, addressed a gathering of 500 students of the college and the various schools of Columbia University in front of Hamilton Hall yesterday noon, appealing to them to support the youth in his to fight for reinstatement. The meeting followed the statement of the dean on Wednesday that he would not reconsider his decision against readmitting Burke to the college.
Edward M. David, chairman of the American Student Union chapter, said Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president, had refused to interview student committees after promising to discuss the status of the Heidelberg celebration. He declared it was "this stubbornness and refusal to meet with them" which really caused the South Field demonstration last spring.
James Wechsler, former editor of The Columbia Spectator and an officer of the American Student Union, stated that there were two issues involved in the case, one of academic freedom and the other of fair play. "It is very evident that this is an attempt to smash the American Student," he added.
Burke, who was chosen the as president the class in '38, said in his own behalf: "It is a 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."
Vandals using red paint and rolls of absorbent cotton marred the walls of John Jay Hall and South Hall, which houses the Harkness Library, on the Columbia University campus shortly before midnight last night. Except for an abandoned two-gallon can and a quantity of stained cotton, no trace of the perpetrators was found and no motive established for their sabotage. The damage was done between 11:30 P.M. and midnight, according to university authorities.
Police of the West 100th Street station discovered that twenty-five painters employed by the university as a regular maintenance force had recently gone on strike but were unable to determine if the vandalism had resulted from the walkout. They were also attempting to investigate the movements of leaders in the group who held the meeting yesterday in front of Hamilton Hall to urge the reinstatement of Burke.
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