Willard Straight Hall Occupation Study Guide: Primary Resources

President Emeritus, Johns Hopkins University; Vice President for Public Affairs, Cornell University, 1966-1971.
Transcript and audiocassette of an interview with Muller conducted by Keith R. Johnson concerning activities at Cornell University, particularly events surrounding the occupation of Willard Straight Hall, Spring 1969. Includes discussion of the role of then President James A. Perkins.
Use prohibited during the lifetime of James A. Perkins. May be used only with permission of Steven Muller.

2.3 cubic ft
Cornell University Trustee files and Cornell Council files of Austin H. Kiplinger. Also, letters to Kiplinger and newspaper and magazine articles concerning the takeover of Willard Straight Hall by black students at Cornell University in 1969, and the black studies program at Cornell, 1970.
Restricted.
Correspondence and notes within committee files or files of South African divestment and the Performing Arts Center are closed for fifteen years from the date of creation.

4 tape recordings; 292 pp. transcript
Oral history interviews by Gould P. Colman with Robert D. Miller, with 4 pp. index, 134 index cards, 4 tapes, and 1989 appendix

3.1 cubic ft.
Pasley's files as a member of the board hearing the case of the proposed dismissal of Cornell University Professor John D. Hartman, including transcript of the hearings, exhibits introduced at the hearings, papers supplied to the board by Hartman, and papers initiating and closing the case; also, material relating to the Uniform Code of Military Justice; University Committee records relating to the takeover of Willard Straight Hall by black students; material relating to the Institution for the Unity of Science; and transcript of a panel discussion, "Student Unrest - Will Next Year Be the Same?" in REPORTS OF VIRGINIA STATE BAR ASSOCIATION, Vol. CXXX (1969). Also, material concerning computers and the law.
Hartman case files restricted to permission of the president of the University.

1.3 cubic ft.
Files relating to the reorganization of the College of Human Ecology, particularly the Reorganization Committee, chaired by Dr. Ricciuti; files relating to his membership on the Faculty Committee on Student Affairs, 1966-1969, with much material on events leading up to the Straight takeover in April 1969; and materials relating to Cornell's involvement with day care, starting with the Cornell Day Care Committee, 1971-1972; the Cornell-Tompkins County Day Care Project, 1972-1974; the Infant Care and Resource Center, operated in Sage Infirmary, 1975-1980, under a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission; and the unsuccessful efforts to continue to offer work-site infant day care on campus.

.5 cubic ft.
Correspondence, memoranda, clippings, leaflets, and other items concerning events at Cornell University in 1969-1970 including the occupation of Willard Straight Hall and other student protests.

7 cubic ft.
Cornell Professor of English. Walter J. Slatoff chaired the Faculty-Student Committee on Human Rights at Cornell University.
Includes typescript of a lecture on blacks at Cornell and in American society, given shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King; handwritten notes for a talk on the same subject a year later; typed notes for a talk on racism, April 24, 1969; and a column entitled "Cornell Racism" written by Slatoff for the CORNELL DAILY SUN, April 17, 1969.
Also, subject files, correspondence, lesson plans, syllabi, and other professional papers

Eight page manuscript by Cornell Professor Van Riper, April 21, 1969, expressing his views on the takeover of Willard Straight Hall by black students and Cornell University.

1 videocassette (VHS) (15 min.) ; 1/2 in.
A film by Ralph Diamant, narrated by Tom Jones, A News Reel Film.

1 cubic ft.
Photographic prints and slides taken on the Cornell University campus, include the Willard Straight Hall takeover by black students protesting discrimination and the Carpenter Hall takeover by Vietnam War protestors.

2 cubic ft., 30 tape recordings.
The Special Trustee Committee on Campus Unrest (also known as the Robertson Committee) was formed in order to investigate the issues and forces surrounding the armed takeover by black students of Cornell's Willard Straight Hall, April 1969. Douglas Williams Associates, Inc. was employed by the commitee to study these issues and events through interviews of Cornell students, faculty, and administrators, and local government officials.
Includes tapes and transcripts of interviews, printouts, financial records, and other materials relating to the Special Trustee Committee on Campus Unrest (Robertson Committee).
Access restricted to permission of office of origin from October 27, 1986 through October 26, 2031.
Access restricted to permission of the Archivist after October 26, 2031.

2 videocassettes.
"April 19, 1969." Videocassettes of the occupation of Willard Straight Hall, the mass assembly and addresses in Barton Hall, and members of the University Faculty leaving Bailey Hall.

2 items.
Video tape and transcript of the Cornell Faculty Forum discussing Cornell '69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the University, by Donald Downs, on the takeover of Willard Straight Hall and the events of 1969 at Cornell University.

29 tape recordings, 1 transcript (94 p.), 7 volumes of transcript (1133 p.)
Reflections on his career and tenure at Cornell University include assessments of the contributions of individuals and organizations to education, industry, and public life. Subjects include athletics, administration, the budget, black students, faculty, trustees, students, and the Presidents' Papers Project. Major individuals mentioned include James A. Perkins, Robert Kane, Robert Plane, W. Keith Kennedy, Solomon C. Hollister, Robert Purcell, and Arthur H. Dean. Interviews by Gould P. Colman.
Box 2 transcripts partially restricted. See Preface, volume 1.

4 tape recordings; 292 pp. transcript
Oral history interviews by Gould P. Colman with Robert D. Miller, with 4 pp. index, 134 index cards, 4 tapes, and 1989 appendix

Transcript and audiocassette of an interview with Muller conducted by Keith R. Johnson concerning activities at Cornell University, particularly events surrounding the occupation of Willard Straight Hall, Spring 1969. Includes discussion of the role of then President James A. Perkins.
Use prohibited during the lifetime of James A. Perkins. May be used only with permission of Steven Muller.

.3 cubic ft., 33 tape recordings.
Finding aid
The President's Commission on Student Involvement in Decision Making was created by Cornell University President James A. Perkins in order to study student political activity at Cornell and its relationship to the educational and institutional operation of the University. Commission members included Jon Anderson, Mark Barlow, Sarah Diamont, Stephen Hadley, F. A. Long, Ian Macneil, Richard Marchase, Robert S. Miller, David Moore, Robert S. Morison, Raymond Thorpe, William Tomlinson, and Michael Wright.
Collection includes membership lists, invoices, budgets, tape recordings, memoranda, bibliographies, printed material, correspondence, drafts, and reports concerning the President's Commission, also known as the Morison Commission. Records primarily relate to student activism and involvement in university governance.
5" letter box: access restricted to permission of office of origin.
Tape recordings: access restricted in part.
Tape recordings: use restricted in part.

7 items.
Papers on student activism at Cornell University in 1969, written by students in Gordon J. Cummings' rural sociology classes: William R. Doyle; John F. Deasy, Jr.; Michael E. Lynch; Arthur Serotoff; Priscilla A. Bibbens; Paul Romero; and Tunnie Martin, Jr.

1 item.
Paper discussing the black students' takeover of Willard Straight Hall at Cornell in 1969, written while Feinstein was a graduate student in history.

.3 cubic ft.
Correspondence, collected subject files, newspaper clippings, posters and ephemera collected by a Cornell student in 1969 pertaining to the Willard Straight Takeover. Includes correspondence from James Perkins, Cornell University President at the time.

3 items.
Photocopy of letter from Tom Jones to James Perkins, July 18, 1980; letter from Neal Stamp to Gould Colman relating to Jones' letter, May 4, 1984; and Colman's response, May 11, 1984. Also, a speech consisting of reflections on the 1969 Willard Straight takeover.

5.4 cubic ft.
Collection consists of documents, correspondence and publications generated by leftist political groups active in the Ithaca, New York area from 1966 to 1972. Also, material concerning political events and disturbances, such as the takeover of Willard Straight Hall, Cornell University, April 1969; the Cornell draft resistance, and the involvement of Bruce Dancis and Daniel Berrigan (1966-1968); the Cornell TROJAN HORSE incident, January 1967; and anti-Vietnam War protests. Also, documentation of the activities and internal evolution of organizations including The Office and the Glad Day Press (1966-1971); the national and campus branch of Students for a Democratic Society (1967-1969); the Cornell Draft Resistance (1967-1968); National Caucus of Labor Committees, and its publications, SOLIDARITY, NEW SOLIDARITY, CRISIS, and CAMPAIGNER; the Socialist Labor Committee (1971-1972), including its national publications, CRISIS, QUANTUM, and PERSPECTIVES; the Socialist Labor Committee in Ithaca, New York, and its publications, THE ELEVENTH HOUR and ILR VOICE; the Socialist Workers' Party; the Worker-Student Alliance and their publication, NEW LEFT NOTES; the Young Socialist Alliance; the New Left; the Ithaca Labor Committee; the Independent Socialists; the Independent Radical Coalition; the Cornell Mobilization Direct Action Project; National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam; New American Movement; Progressive Labor Party; The Resistance, Ithaca, New York; and the Ithaca Neighborhood Center.
Also, materials on the Revolutionary Youth Movement and Revolutionary Youth Movement II, and their publications FIRE and LIBERATED GUARDIAN; and Students for a Constructive Foreign Policy, Cornell University. Printed material includes magazines, newsletters, pamphlets, brochures and leaflets, and internal documents such as position papers, proposals and drafts of documents. Other material includes published and unpublished commentaries and articles, as well as political journals, meeting notes, correspondence and notes of Lawrence Kramer; government files obtained through requests under the Freedom of Information Act; clippings and editorial material concerning left groups and events; lists of signers of public petitions; university disciplinary citations; buttons and other memorabilia. Some material has been annotated by Kramer and Peter Agree (Cornell University Class of 1969).
There is also information on early left-wing activities of Lyndon LaRouche, then using the alias Lyn Marcus.
Material in Box 6: access is restricted to permission of the donor until January 1, 2014.

.1 cubic ft.
Records of the takeover of Willard Straight Hall, Cornell University, by black students, April 19-20, 1969; includes a memorandum regarding damage done, and photographs

.3 cubic ft.
Student paper, with extensive suggestions for revision by a Cornell faculty member, on the incidents of 1969 at Cornell University. Also "A Case Study of a University's Pattern of Error," presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Sept. 1969.

Cornell magazine. Vol. 97 (1994), July/August, page 7
Article by Dennis Williams on the 25th Anniversary of the Willard Straight Hall Takeover.

1 Folder.
Contains newspaper clippings and articles about the fire and general comments on student unrest. Also includes letter from Lola Dudgeon to Dave and Tove hammer regarding Africana Center fire and events of April, 1970.

7.8 cubic ft.
The Constituent Assembly became the Cornell University Senate
Subject files, correspondence, budget material, newsletters, committee working papers, and other records of the Constituent Assembly.
Related collection: #54/6/2930.
Box and folder list available.

.4 cubic ft.
Advisory Board minutes, correspondence, printed material, and memoranda of an African-American program at Cornell University directed by Chandler Morse.

3.6 cubic ft
Includes questionnaires relating to student and faculty opinion concerning selection of a new president of Cornell University; minutes, reports to the Trustee Committee, and memos of the Faculty Advisory Committee.
1969 accession: restricted to permission of the Dean of Faculty.
1970 accession: restricted to permission of the Director of the office of origin.

2 cubic ft., 30 tape recordings.
The Special Trustee Committee on Campus Unrest (also known as the Robertson Committee) was formed in order to investigate the issues and forces surrounding the armed takeover by black students of Cornell's Willard Straight Hall, April 1969. Douglas Williams Associates, Inc. was employed by the committee to study these issues and events through interviews of Cornell students, faculty, and administrators, and local government officials.
Includes tapes and transcripts of interviews, printouts, financial records, and other materials relating to the Special Trustee Committee on Campus Unrest (Robertson Committee).
Access restricted to permission of office of origin from October 27, 1986 through October 26, 2031.
Access restricted to permission of the Archivist after October 26, 2031.

.3 cubic ft., 33 tape recordings.
Finding aid
The President's Commission on Student Involvement in Decision Making was created by Cornell University President James A. Perkins in order to study student political activity at Cornell and its relationship to the educational and institutional operation of the University. Commission members included Jon Anderson, Mark Barlow, Sarah Diamont, Stephen Hadley, F. A. Long, Ian Macneil, Richard Marchase, Robert S. Miller, David Moore, Robert S. Morison, Raymond Thorpe, William Tomlinson, and Michael Wright.
Collection includes membership lists, invoices, budgets, tape recordings, memoranda, bibliographies, printed material, correspondence, drafts, and reports concerning the President's Commission, also known as the Morison Commission. Records primarily relate to student activism and involvement in university governance.
5" letter box: access restricted to permission of office of origin.
Tape recordings: access restricted in part.
Tape recordings: use restricted in part.

5.1 cubic ft.
Correspondence, transcripts of interviews, minutes, statements, broadsides, photographs, clippings, and other materials pertaining to civil rights activism and the work of various groups at Cornell to alter the institution's governing structure. This collection includes incoming correspondence and clippings from alumni to President Perkins and Vice President Steven Muller; notes, clippings, and statements from various Cornell departments and interest groups; files of the Mass Media Committee, the Barton Hall Commission, the Constituent Assembly, the June (1969) issue of the CORNELL ALUMNI NEWS, and the WHCU News Department; a geographically arranged file of newspaper clippings from the United States, France, and England; circulars and broadsides; copies of papers by students and faculty members regarding their impressions of campus events; a file of all news releases issued by the university pertaining to the events on campus; and letters, reports, and photographs relating to the occupation of Willard Straight Hall. Subjects include the Vietnam War and the peace movement; the rights of women and minorities, especially blacks' rights and the militant takeover of Willard Straight; efforts to change the governing system at Cornell; and related issues.

7 cubic ft.
Files of John Marcham, editor of the CORNELL ALUMNI NEWS, contain correspondence, background material for articles, clippings, notes, photographs, letters to the editor, and other materials pertaining to Cornell University, campus figures, college pranks, student unrest and the Willard Straight takeover, and many other topics relating to the university. Included are files relating to the reprinting of Strunk and White's Elements of Style, and correspondence and an outline of a biography of Howard Stephenson.

29 tape recordings, 1 transcript (94 p.), 7 volumes of transcript (1133 p.)
Reflections on his career and tenure at Cornell University include assessments of the contributions of individuals and organizations to education, industry, and public life. Subjects include athletics, administration, the budget, black students, faculty, trustees, students, and the Presidents' Papers Project. Major individuals mentioned include James A. Perkins, Robert Kane, Robert Plane, W. Keith Kennedy, Solomon C. Hollister, Robert Purcell, and Arthur H. Dean. Interviews by Gould P. Colman.
Box 2 transcripts partially restricted. See Preface, volume 1.

134.9 cubic ft.
The Dale R. Corson papers consist of office files, correspondence, and other material deriving chiefly from his provostship (1963-1969) and presidency of Cornell University (1963-1977). The papers illustrate the Corson administration reconstituting the University following the trauma of the 1969 student revolt and the negative publicity following the takeover of Willard Straight Hall; dealing with anti-war demonstrations and protests relative to other social and local issues; and surviving the university fiscal crisis of the early and mid 1970s. Subjects include long range financial planning, the endowment fund, relations with trustees, and the improved functioning of the university administration; also, relations with trustee special committes and the many formal and ad hoc university committees, social responsibility and investment policy, the cultivation of alumni support, relations with the University Faculty, relations with the New York State College of Agriculture, the New York State College of Human Ecology, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Cornell University Medical College, the School of Nursing, the Center for International Studies, the Center for Environmental Quality Management, the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, the Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory, the Human Affairs Program, and the Society for the Humanities; the collection also documents the separation of Cornell and the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, and the growth of the Division of Biological Sciences.
Other subjects include the controversy surrounding Cornell United Religious Work and the role of Daniel Berrigan, the investigation of the Safety Division, the involvement of university employees in decision making and grievance procedures, the problems of parking and space needs, the issue of minority hiring on university construction projects, the building of the Campus Store, North Campus Dormitories, and several other facilities, the development of the Dept. of Physical Education and Athletics and intercollegiate athletics generally, and the investigation of Cornell by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The papers show the growth of the Personnel Dept. and the reorganization of the central administration, and the relations between Cornell and the Ivy League and other colleges, and with several educational and philanthropic foundations, including the American Council on Education, the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York, the American Association of University Professors, the Ford Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation. Similar files are concerned with university research and government funded research, and with relations with state and federal governments and corporations such as IBM and Xerox. Topics also include academic freedom and the rights and responsibilities of the University Faculty, representative governance, the University Senate, the Faculty Council of Representatives, and the Office of the Judicial Administrator.
Includes tape recordings of interviews conducted by Gould P. Colman, University Archivist.
Includes employment contracts, and correspondence with Frank R. Clifford.
Other subjects include the development of the Affirmative Action Program, the Africana Studies and Research Center, Ujamaa Residential College, and the associated difficulties arising from HEW guidelines pertaining to the college, and the needs of non-black minorities and international students. Other topics include the emergence of women's issues and programs, including the Women's Caucus, the Women's Study Program, and the Committee on the Status of Women; student dissent, protest, and demonstration, and the administration's several means of dealing with them. There is ample documentation of the takeover of Carpenter Hall in 1972, and the vandalism on campus and in Collegetown; the administration's response to the use of drugs and the changing deportment of students, to the new attitudes concerning commencement, and to the demands and interests of several student groups, including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Another issue is the involvement of students in matters of educational relevance, and the appearance of controversial speakers on campus. Major correspondents include Morton Adams, J. Robert Barlow, Mark Barlow, Max Black, Derek C. Bok, Ernest L. Boyer, Stuart M. Brown, Patricia J. Carry, Lisle C. Carter, Van Alan Clark, W. Donald Cooke, Edmund T. Cranch, H. Justin Davidson, Arthur H. Dean, Mary H. Donlon (Alger), Thomas Gold, Henry Guerlac, William D. Gurowitz, Jackson O. Hall, David B. Hayter, Delridge Hunter, Herbert F. Johnson, Alfred E. Kahn, and Robert J. Kane.
Other correspondents include William R. Keast, John G. Kemeny, W. Keith Kennedy, David C. Knapp, Samuel A. Lawrence, Paul J. Leurgans, Harry Levin, Sol M. Linowitz, Franklin A. Long, Thomas W. Mackesey, Deane W. Malott, Paul L. McKeegan, Robert D. Miller, Robert S. Morison, Steven Muller, Floyd R. Newman, Benjamin Nichols, Jansen Noyes, Nicholas H. Noyes, Ewald B. Nyquist, Robert D. O'Brien, John M. Olin, Spencer T. Olin, Charles E. Palm, Kermit C. Parsons, Norman Penney, James A. Perkins, Arthur H. Peterson, Robert A. Plane, Robert W. Purcell, Richard M. Ramin, Gustav J. Requardt, Robert F. Risley, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Thomas R. Rogers, Byron W. Saunders, Andrew S. Schultz, Robert A. Scott, Alain Seznec, Robert L. Sproull, Neal R. Stamp, Thomas L. Tobin, James E. Turner, Henry G. Vaughan, J. Carlton Ward, John H. Whitlock, Philip Will, Diedrich K. Willers, L. Pearce Williams, and Theodore P. Wright
Restricted to permission of the President's Office until 2007.

3 tape recordings; transcript (214 p.)
Tape recordings and transcripts of an interview conducted by Keith Johnson with James A. Perkins, President of Cornell University 1963-1969.
Restricted to the permission of James A. Perkins. (restriction needs to be addressed since he is deceased)

8.5 cubic ft.
Papers relating to James Perkins' career before coming to Cornell; speeches and articles; files relating to his inauguration as Cornell's president; files relating to activities at Cornell, including the events of 1969; subject files relating to other activities; a few photographs and personal letters; and certificates and honorary degrees.

1 tape recording.
Tape recorded interview with former Cornell University President James A. Perkins, November 10, 1977, conducted by David A. Kaplan and Stuart Berman.

44 cubic ft.
Finding aid
The James A. Perkins papers consist of the administrative papers of his presidency from 1963-1969; subjects include the issues of academic freedom and freedom of speech, the educational needs and sociological problems of black students in the university, and the establishment and maintenance of programs to facilitate black students' success; there is also extensive correspondence concerning trustee and alumni affairs, particularly regarding fund raising and university endowments; other topics include the funding of the Andrew Dickson White Professors-at-Large and other professorships and chairs, the construction and funding of new campus buildings, planning for and celebration of the Cornell Centennial of 1965, the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Council, university research and government funded research, university relations with Ithaca New York and Tompkins County; also, Cornell Latin American Year, Cornell United Religious Work, Cornell Clubs; relations with the State University of New York (SUNY), the development of the Division of Biological Sciences, the Society for the Humanities, and the Cornell University Library rare book collections; also, relations between the Administration and the University Faculty, the Residential Club fire of 1967 and the six year Ph.D. Program; the funding and development of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and the separation of Cornell University and the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory of Buffalo.
Topics also include anti-war protest relating to ROTC, the suppression of the distribution of "The Trojan Horse" and the resulting conflict between students and the administration; housing for students both on and off campus, the difficulties and emergency situations arising from student conduct, dissent, protest, and demonstrations, and the question of university governance particularly in the Spring of 1969. Organizations and corporations discussed include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Council on Education, the National Science Foundation, the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, the Cornell University Medical College and New York Hospital, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and United States Selective Service. Correspondents include Morton Adams, Eric Ashby, Max Black, James E. Allen, Kingman Brewster, McGeorge Bundy, Van Alan Clark, Dale R. Corson, Arthur H. Dean, Mary H. Donlon, Jean-Jacques Demorest, Mario Einaudi, Orville L. Freeman, Henry Guerlac, John W. Gardner, Jacob K. Javits, Herbert F. Johnson, George McT. Kahin, Alfred E. Kahn, Burnham Kelly, W. Keith Kennedy, Milton R. Konvitz, Sol M. Linowitz, Franklin A. Long, Deane W. Malott, Arthur M. Mizener, Chandler Morse, Steven Muller, Floyd R. Newman, and Jansen Noyes.
Other correspondents include John M. Olin, Spencer T. Olin, Charles E. Palm, Robert W. Purcell, Edgar M. Queeny, Laurance S. Rockefeller, Clinton Rossiter, Allan P. Sindler, Robert L. Sproull, James E. Turner, Maxwell M. Upson, and Harold D. Uris.
Also, reports of the President's Commission to Study the New York State College of Agriculture, the Commission of April 1968, the Commission of Undergraduate Education, and the Committee of Student Involvement in Decision Making.