How Getting into College Led Me to Study the History of Getting into College

Abstract

I decided to study the history of American higher education shortly after May 1, 1968. Early that morning, over a thousand New York City police officers had cleared the Columbia University campus of demonstrators and the occupants of five university buildings. Upwards of 800 were arrested; perhaps the same number of students, faculty, and police needed medical attention. The next afternoon, the leaders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) gathered on the balcony of the Columbia Law School building, looking at over a thousand demonstrators protesting the police action. The images of the police action initiated by the Columbia administration still haunt me. But so does the triumph of “manipulatory democracy” practiced by SDS members.