A Convenient Retirement

"It is possible that my retirement at this time might help to ensure the prospect of more normal university operations during the coming academic year." It was not only possible but probable that Grayson Kirk was indulging in understatement when he announced his retirement last week after 15 years as president of Columbia University. For as the start of the new term neared, Kirk's defenders and detractors alike agreed that if he remained on the job, his very presence would provide an excuse for continued controversy on the restless campus.

Since Kirk will be 65 on Oct. 12, and eligible for retirement pay, it was understandable that he talked of his decision as a routine step. The timing, he suggested, was a matter of convenience to all concerned. But the fact is that Columbia does not make retirement mandatory at 65, and Columbia's trustees accepted Kirk's resignation even though they have not yet settled on his successor. Apparently divided over whether the retirement would seem too much of a concession to student rebels, the trustees debated the matter for nearly four hours behind closed boardroom doors. But in the end it was obvious that the student uprising had, indeed, forced Kirk's departure.

To run the university until a new president takes over, the trustees chose Andrew W. Cordier, dean of Columbia's School of International Affairs and veteran U.N. official. At 67, Cordier is even older than Kirk. He made it clear that he does not want the top job permanently.

Fund Raiser. At his farewell press conference, Kirk insisted that he was "not interested in what anyone thinks about my victory or defeat, but only in the welfare of this university." Indeed, the rancor generated by last spring's student rebellion and some 800 arrests has tended to obscure Kirk's lasting contributions to Columbia. After taking over from Dwight Eisenhower, he created six institutes in which scholars from many fields studied selected regions of the world, built up a science faculty that won four Nobel Prizes, set top scholars to work on studies of vital contemporary problems ranging from birth control to computer science to urban planning. A more effective fund raiser than administrator, he attracted enough money to complete $70 million worth of new buildings and push the annual operating budget from $22 million to $136 million. He had almost reached the halfway point in the university's current $200 million fund drive, and will stay on as president emeritus to finish the job.

Kirk's troubles stemmed from an utter failure to develop rapport with any significant section of the faculty or student body. He did not recognize the yearning for change within his own institution. Controversy became inevitable as he allowed relations with the surrounding Harlem community to deteriorate and brashly involved the university in backing an unproven cigarette filter. He tended to shrug off all criticism of Columbia's ties with military research, failed to perceive the extent of faculty and student discontent early enough to deal with it, and finally called in the police to regain control of his campus.

Students Come First. Just how much Kirk's retirement will ease tensions is not at all clear. The student Strike Coordinating Committee insists that its argument is with university policies, not personalities, and that "the board of trustees still remains in absolute control of our university." Acting President Cordier, however, seems sympathetic to some student complaints. He has told both administrators and professors that they must find the time to meet with students, even if it means curtailing "research work and off-campus commitments." But he also issued a sharp warning to the still defiant radicals: "There is no place for willful disruption at a university."

Critics could hardly object to his 16 years (1946 to 1962) of service as Under Secretary of the U.N., or to his 17 years as history and political science chairman at Indiana's Manchester College. But some dissidents still found absurdly farfetched excuses to attack Cordier's record. They noted sourly that he was Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold's special representative during the U.N.'s 1960 Congo operations. His hands, said the students, were bloody with the murder of Congo Rebel Patrice Lumumba. They also charged vaguely that he had supported CIA activities. Within an hour after Kirk's resignation, a small band of rebels was chanting a new battle cry: "Cordier must go! Cordier must go!"

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