STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT JOSEPH P, MCMURRAY April, Ls 1969

Last night I was forced to make a most difficult decision. This was to
bring police on to the Queens College campus to remove persons illegally
occupying the Social Science Building. I did not do this without a great
deal of forethought, and without exhausting every means of peaceful persua-
sion which I felt was at my disposal. Throughout this entire process I was
in constant consultation with members of the faculty.

The form of protest was in violation of a widely disseminated and
firmly declared policy governing the right of peaceful protest at the Coll-
ege. This policy was established in March 1968 and reaffirmed by unanimous
vote of the Faculty Council. The Administration made a number of efforts to
discuss and to partially accomodate the demands of the illegal occupants.

A letter, indicating the steps we were taking, was transmitted to the pro-
testers. A copy of this letter is published in today's Phoenix. We made
several open and insistent attempts to carry on a dialogue with the protest-
ers, but were prevented by them from doing so.

To ensure the safety of all students and to guarantee the responsible
operation of the College it was mandatory that this illegal occupation be
brought to a close before the opening of school on Tuesday. I was further
moved by the very important consideration of making clear to the College
as a whole and to the larger community our resolve to carry out our respon-
sibility for orderly processes on the campus.

Our letter to the occupants evidenced a clear desire to re-open all the
questions at issue for the most thorough examination, provided that it was
understood that we could not, at the same time, uphold the principle of due
process and yield to threats of disruption. To recognize their demands as
non-negotiable would have effectively destroyed any semblance of due process
or, indeed, the possibility of carrying out our public trust for the welfare
of the College. It was the continued refusal of this group to acknowledge
any basis of discussion or to recognize our earnest desire to search for fair
and resposible solutions which forced me to abandon any hope of reasonable
accomodation and act to end the occupation.

The police were brought in only after intensive efforts to open discuss-
ion and repeated requests for the occupants to leave. Immediately prior to
the police being called they were given the opportunity to leave without any
charges being preferred. The majority of the original occupants did, in fact,
leave at this time. Those who remained and chose to be arrested were escorted
away in a completely orderly fashion under the surveillance of thirty student,
faculty, and administration observers present to ensure that no unnecessary
force would be employed.

I wish to affirm the College's determination to do two things: to act
promptly to bring.to a halt any further disruptive acts which may occur on
the campus, and to continue to evolve, with the widest possible participation,
a stable and enduring structure for faculty-student cooperation to ensure
maximum protection of the rights of all members of the Queens College community.