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ill wenty-five years after he
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walked out of Willard Straight
I Hall with a rifle in his hand,
I Cornell trustee Thomas W.
JL Jones '69, MRP 72 returned
to campus to speak about his regret—and
lack thereof—about being
a leader in the Willard Straight takeover
of 1969.
The lecture by the president and
chief operating officer of TIAA-
CREF, the world's largest private
pension fund, was one of the main
events in a three-day commemoration
of the April 19,1969 takeover of
the Straight by some 100 black students.
The commemoration featured
workshops led by faculty members, a
photo exhibit and the closing of
Willard Straight Hall for one day, April
19. Though peaceful this time, a group
of conservative students protested in
front of the building, arguing that the
university honored terrorists by participating
in this event.
Salvaging Lives
Saying that all people are in
the 'business of salvaging
something," the Rev. Daniel
Berrigan spoke to an audience
of nearly 200 in April in Anabel
Taylor Hall. The associate
director of Cornell United
Religious Work from 1967 to
1970 and a prominent antiwar
activist, Berrigan told his
audience that while individuals
cannot save the world, they
could help "salvage a few
lives."
NEWS
Jones Speaks at Straight Closing
Jones said he looks back at that
time from his current perspective
with mixed feelings. He asserted that
he has not compromised his student
ideals to achieve his success, and he
urged today's students to go beyond
fighting for "your personal piece of
the pie or [your] group's ethnic turf."
"There is nothing wrong with
having our separate cultural and educational
support centers, be they
called Ujamaa [for students with an
interest in African-American culture],
Akwe:kon [for students with
an interest in American Indian culture],
the Latino Living Center or,
for that matter, the WASP support
centers which in 1969 were called
Delta Upsilon, Sigma Chi and Delta
Delta Delta," said Jones. "But it is
wrong if our various ethnic support
centers are not also contributing to
a community that transcends our
various groups."
As for his participation in the
1969 takeover, Jones said he regrets
rίHΛHRON BENNETT/CORNELL
CORNELL MAGAZINE
some of the effects of the event but
stands by his action. "Yes, I am sorry
that the threat of violence wracked
this great institution which is dedicated
to both reason and truth and
for which I have great affection," he
said. "But I'm not sorry for standing
up alongside my friends and fellows
for what we believed in. I don't regret
refusing to capitulate to those
administrators and faculty who contributed
to the ingredients of the
confrontation."
"They didn't pick up the guns, of
course," he said. "They weren't violent
in the literal sense of the word.
But violence is just the last stop on
a line that also runs through ill will,
arrogance, disregard, contempt and
intimidation. I will not cede the moral
high ground to perpetrators of these
things merely because they had no
need at that particular moment to
turn to force."
FRATERNITY'S SECRET
ROOM EXPOSED
The fraternity Sigma Phi enjoyed
a reputation for being a
quiet, squeaky-clean house.
Then the police showed up at the
fraternity's West Campus house
at One Forest Park Lane with a
search warrant in late March and
found that the brothers of Sigma
Phi had been stealing from the
university and other Greek organizations
and stockpiling the
goods, some 180 items, in a
basement vault. It was a secret
tradition that went back 30
years, perhaps as many as 70,
according to the Tompkins
County District Attorney's report.
"Clearly no one thought anything
of this magnitude was going
on there," said Randy Stevens,
assistant dean of students,
whose office oversees Greek life
on campus. "It was a huge
shock."