ABSTRACT
T he riots at Columbia University in the spring of 1968 are often remembered as the pivotal protests of the sixties, a series of events that transformed the relationship between American students and university administrators. Columbia students, protesting the construction of a university gymnasium without regard for the well-being of neighborhood residents, occupied the school president’s office until police were called in. For students across the country, it was a heady time. But two months before the Columbia riots, a smaller drama was played out across the street, at Barnard College, Columbia’s sister school — a drama that would turn out to have far greater implications for the future of student life in America.
