Few figures who were involved in the so-called Straight takeover, when black students occupied Cornell University’s Willard Straight Hall in 1969, have received more scrutiny than James A. Perkins.
As Cornell’s president at the time, he was praised for ensuring that the occupation ended peacefully. But others have said that during the crisis and before, he often gave students too much leeway, contributing to a chaotic environment even after the takeover was resolved. A history professor who resigned in protest over how the occupation was handled said later that Cornell administrators demonstrated “all the courage of Neville Chamberlain.”
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Few figures who were involved in the so-called Straight takeover, when black students occupied Cornell University’s Willard Straight Hall in 1969, have received more scrutiny than James A. Perkins.
As Cornell’s president at the time, he was praised for ensuring that the occupation ended peacefully. But others have said that during the crisis and before, he often gave students too much leeway, contributing to a chaotic environment even after the takeover was resolved. A history professor who resigned in protest over how the occupation was handled said later that Cornell administrators demonstrated “all the courage of Neville Chamberlain.”
But could Perkins, who stepped down shortly after the crisis and died in 1998, have taken stronger steps to pacify a fractious campus?
In his book, Cornell ’69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University, Donald A. Downs offers several suggestions for what Perkins and his colleagues could have done differently. Hindsight is, of course, 20/20, and there’s no certainty that these other moves wouldn’t have led to violent confrontations. But the points made by Mr. Downs, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who was a Cornell undergraduate in 1969, may provide lessons for today’s administrators on how to navigate the turmoil of student protests.
Get an injunction: During the occupation, at least one Cornell administrator wanted to get a court to issue an injunction against the students, who had brought in guns for self-defense. Injunctions had worked at other colleges, Mr. Downs writes. A court order, which would require occupiers to leave by a certain time or risk arrest, would “put the onus on occupiers as lawbreakers while it made the administration look patient and deliberate,” he says.
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Take the guns: After the takeover ended, Perkins said any student carrying a firearm on campus or trying to occupy a Cornell facility would be suspended. But with the Afro-American Society still armed and at least one white fraternity arming itself in response, Perkins should have taken a stronger stance, writes Mr. Downs. The president was talked out of asking the local police to collect guns and rifles from student organizations, a move that would have more clearly displayed authority, says Mr. Downs.
Speak directly: A day after the end of the takeover, Perkins spoke in front of thousands of students in Cornell’s Barton Hall. Wary of a confrontation with student radicals, Perkins avoided talking about the occupation. To Mr. Downs, the president missed a prime opportunity to take control of the narrative and argue for — or against — the deal his administration had struck with the Afro-American Society. Whichever stance he took on the deal, it would have been controversial, but it could also have helped shape campus consensus in a way that might have avoided the bitter conflicts that followed.