Coverage of the march gave SDS nationalpublicity and a new period of growth. More than 80chapters and 2,000 official members were on thebooks by the end of the 1965 academic year. Thatsummer, the annual national convention drew 450participants.

The newcomers brought a different style to theorganization. Many had been involved in otherorganizations and were more interested in socialaction than in social theory. They were infantryin the new, hierarchical SDS that grew out of themarch.

The newcomers also gave SDS a willingness toengage in the politics of confrontation anddisobedience rather than those of reasoneddissent. Many of them were not even universitystudents.

SDS was now fully focused on the war inVietnam, planning regular protests. In the weekfollowing a sit-in at the Ann Arbor draft board,the national office received 1,000 newmemberships.

But the tension between SDS veterans and newermembers was increasing. The students' protests hadplaced the league's tax-exempt status at risk.

After the split, SDS continued to grow, with anational budget of almost $80,000 a year.

The Draft

In the spring of 1955, Lewis B. Hershey,director of the Selective Service System, longerbe granted automatic deferments from the draft.Instead, eligibility to serve in the militarywould be determined by class rank withinindividual colleges and by a national draft examgiven to all male undergraduates.

Using fact sheets about the war, the SDSnational office initiated a brief and largelyunsuccessful movement against the national exam.

But the group's efforts to force universitiesto withhold class rankings from the military weremuch more effective. In February, a studentcommittee at Harvard containing several SDSmembers moved to block the release of class data,while spontaneous demonstrations and sit-ins brokeout in schools across the country.

At the University of Chicago, SDS membersgathered 800 signatures on a petition opposed theranking. After the administration ignored it, theSDS chapter at Chicago sponsored a sit-in, and onMay 11, 1966, 400 students enteress the mainadministration building and remained there forfive days.

Though the faculty and administration neveragreed to theirdemands, the University of Chicagoprotest inspired imitators. Anti-rankingdemonstrations occurred at almost a quarter of UScolleges in the 1967-1968 academic year.

The Aftermath of Columbia

The 1968 protest at Columbia University markedthe first instance of massive police violenceagainst campus activists(please see sidebar,this page).

In the wake of the Columbia strike, SDSorganizers grew bolder. And college students,seeing their administrations' willingness to useviolence against them, joined activist groups insteadily increasing numbers.