Administration Building Takeover, 1969

Contains material on the brief takeover of the Administration Building in April 1969. In March 1969, just before spring vacation, Jeremy Pikser and other SDS members staged a guerilla theater skit in Professor Robert Tufts’ class. He was outraged and demanded that Carr do something. Carr suspended Pikser, therefore sidestepping the complex judicial system set up a few months earlier that handled the punishment of those tried for the February 1969 sit-in, including Bruce Ente (see folder 24). A large number of students took over the Administration Building and late one night a compromise was reached with administration officials and Student Senators. Comments by Joe: Rumor had it later, through a few Board of Trustee members, that Carr would have been fired over his actions, had the students not given in. But we did, and he got to stay another year and a half. The Ken Braiterman article in Mainstream is one of the best articles (certainly the longest) written about this incident.