Proposals to restructure Columbia University

On October 10, 1968, the Columbia Spectator published a special supplement, entitled Restructuring Columbia, that sought to describe various plans to restructure Columbia's governance and administration structure in the wake of the 1968 protests. Student, faculty, and Trustee working groups all proposed different ideas. At the end of the 1968-1969 academic year, the structure designed and advocated for by the Executive Committee of the Faculty, the University Senate, was submitted for referendum, passed, and implemented by the Board of Trustees. The Senate remains today as Columbia's comprehensive governance, legislative, and policy-making body, subject only to the reserve power of the Board of Trustees.

Temple Special Committee

The Temple Special Committee, chaired by Trustee Emeritus Alan H. Temple, oversaw the initial inquiries on restructuring. The Temple Special Committee did not articulate any proposals of its own, but acknowledged the need for restructuring at every level of the University, and articulated the basic principles of participative idea generation that governed the process.

Students for a Restructured University Proposal

The Students for a Restructured University, a moderate breakaway faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, presented the most comprehensive, far-reaching, and radical proposal for a reform of University governance and administration. It eerily resembled a Qaddafi-esque Jamahiriya of popular committees operating in a multi-tiered form of direct democracy. It is commonly accepted that had this plan been implemented, Columbia would collapse under the weight of its own bureaucracy.

Departments

Each constituency (student, tenured faculty, untenured faculty) in a department would form a Departmental Committee with decision-making powers, with powers shared equally by students and faculty. Committee members would be elected on a 12-month basis, subject to recall, with no representative serving more than two consecutive terms.

The constituencies' respective departmental committees would also elect a Departmental Coordinating Committee, also elected on a 12-month basis, subject to recall, with no representative serving more than two consecutive terms. The purpose of the Coordinating Committee is to be an intradepartmental liaison between the various committees of the department.

All students and faculty would then elect a Department Chairman, on a 12-month basis, subject to recall, with no Chairman serving more than two consecutive terms.