Alumni v. Robinson

City College, New York City, represents Higher Education to 22,000 of the nation's most tempestuous undergraduates, of whom 15% are Christians. City Collegians are forever holding peace rallies, calling upon reactionary professors to resign, or rushing "To the Flagpole'' to demonstrate.

Atop this socially conscious volcano is the uneasy seat of President Frederick Bertrand Robinson. Dr. Robinson never tires of asserting that a talented person can succeed equally in any field of endeavor. In support of this theory he boasts that he takes up something new every year -- painting, etching, cello playing or swab bing decks on a freighter. In 1933, when pacifists blocked his way to an R. O. T. C. review in the college stadium, he won nationwide notice by belaboring them with his umbrella, later confiding "I think I got twelve" (TIME, June 5, 1933). In 1934 he stormed "Guttersnipes!" at students who hissed a party of visiting Italians (TIME, Oct. 22, 1934). In these years also he showed a gift for painful bluntness by declaring that 1) teaching is a profession commonly chosen by persons with inferiority complexes, and 2) City College students lack social graces. Antagonism to Dr. Robinson bubbled over last week when some 700 alumni surged into a City College auditorium to hear a committee which has been investigating the college administration. A majority report, signed by twelve members, charged that the president "lacks the human qualities necessary to achieve the widespread confidence of his faculty and his student body and to provide genuinely inspired, resourceful and socially imaginative leadership." Four committeemen supported the president, laid student agitation to a radical minority. For four hours the alumni debated. Shortly after midnight they adopted the majority report by a vote of 519 to 217, recommended not that Dr. Robinson be dismissed, but that administration of undergraduate affairs be placed in other hands.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.