At the same time another grievance was created. Two students were summarily suspended for wearing academic robes and caps, gags in their mouths, and signs that read, "Are We Acceptable Now, Mr. G.?" ("Mr. G." was President Gideonse.)

A few days later the student council voted, 15 to 8, "that student council call upon all students, regardless of political leanings, to attend a rally--if necessary absenting themselves from classes."

The 15 affirmative voters signed a statement by one of their number: "The administration has time and again exerted undue influence on the activities of the student body in its right to protest the actions of the administration by suspending students with hardly any semblance of legality. As much as I deplore mob action ... I must take this way of voicing my disapproval."

Ten groups supported the rally: A.V.C., E. V. Debs Society, Harriet Tubman Society, Independent Socialist Club, Progressive Coalition Party, People's Songs, Philosophy Club, Hillel, Psychology Club, and the Young Progressives.

These groups listed their grievances. They included the suspension of the five students and increased power over student publications that the college had given faculty advisors.

The five member groups of the Democratic Coalition Committee agreed with the aims, but opposed the means. They said that the strike "would not solve a problem"; that it was called "undemocratically" without a college vote"; and that "a rally initiated by and held in conjunction with Y.P.A. and other Communist-dominated organizations results in a perversion of the aims and ideals of the rally."

One day before the scheduled strike, on May 19, faculty advisors to the A.V.C. and the Progressive Coalition Party resigned. The administration said that the A.V.C. advisor resigned "In protest against A.V.C.'s support of stoppage." But in a telegram to the Board of Higher Education, the local Teachers Union charged that these men "were called before the Dean of Students and requested to resign, thus preventing the existence of these clubs on campus, though no specific charges against the conduct of these clubs have been levelled."

Brooklyn's public relations director told the CRIMSON. "Teachers Union charges are without foundation." Other charges made by the rally supporters were answered one day before the strike in a formal statement by President Gideonse read to all classes.

Gideonse denied "censorship" of the College paper and said that "the faculty adviser ... is authorized to suspend a student from his position as a reporter if he does not observe good journalistic practice." He said that students had been disciplined only where "regulations were knowingly and deliberately broken." And he warned that the college would discipline student actions not in accord with the good conduct which students had pledged when they entered the college.

Despite the warnings, the rally took place in a downpour the next day. Attendance estimates ranged from 150 to 500. One newspaper said 150 stayed out of classes, while the college said "Class attendance was ... normal."

What will happen to demonstrators is not known. The college has said, "Constitutions of those groups supporting the stoppage is to be reviewed to determine the extent of illegal conduct. No individual discipline is anticipated."