April 13, 1989 


Abbie Hoffman, member of the 
Chicago Seven, a founder of the 
1960s Yippie movement, and a ma- 
jor player in the 1968 Columbia cam- 
pus upheaval was found dead in his 
New Hope, PA home Wednesday 
night, authorities said. 

He apparently died of natural 
causes. 

Hoffman was found around 8:15 
p.m. fully dressed in his bed under 
the covers by his landlord, Michael 
Waldron, according to Solebury 
Township Police Chief Richard 
Mangen. 

Bucks County Coroner Dr. 
Thomas J. Rusco would not say 
whether any drugs or alcohol were 
found on the scene, and would not 
speculate on the cause of death. 

Hoffman had been depressed over 
an auto accident he had a few months 
ago, Waldron told police. 

However, there was no suicide 
note and no signs that would suggest 
suicide, Waldron said. 

An autopsy was scheduled for this 
morning. 

Hoffman, the author of â€˜â€œRevolu- 
tion for the Hell of It,â€ was in- 
strumental in the 1968 student upris- 
ings at Columbia. He was one of the 
students to occupy the Mathematics 
building, generally regarded as the 
most militant of the buildings seized 
during the â€™68 student strike. 

Hoffman, who once threw dollar 
bills onto the floor of the New York 
Stock Exchange to disrupt business, 
returned to campus last year to 
reflect on the historic uprisings for 
the Columbia University activist reu- 
nion. At the reunion, he said each oc- 
cupied building had itâ€™s own 
significance. 

â€œ*Hamilton was black; Avery was 
hippie, or, now, New Age; 
Fayerweather, traditional, straight 
left; Low was anarchist, and Math 
was the heavy hitters,â€™â€™ Hoffman 
said last year. â€˜â€œâ€˜We were ready to 


COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR 


1968 blockade leader 
Hoffman found dead 


fight the police. It was the building 
we took last.â€â€™ 

Of his 60â€™s days Hoffman said 
â€˜* Â°68 was a great, wonderful year 
they donâ€™t make years like that 
anymore, and if it werenâ€™t for our ef- 
forts we'd have a president today 
sending troops off to exotic countries 
such as Lebanon and Grenada and 
bombing Tripoli.â€ 

As one of the Chicago Seven, 
Hoffman stood trial on charges of 
conspiracy to disrupt the 1968 
Chicago Democratic convention. 

Two years ago Hoffman was ar- 
rested for the 42nd time for pro- 
testing CIA recruitment at the 
University of Massachusetts at 
Amherst. 

Hoffman made his debut as a 
stand-up comedian in New York last 
summer and lectured at 50 colleges 
and universities annually. 

Hoffman, born Abbott Hoffman in 
Worcester, MA in 1936, received a 
B.A. in psychology in 1959 from 
Brandeis University, and a masters 
from Berkeley in 1960. 


Compiled from wire service 
reports by A. Cassidy Sehgal 


SPECTATOR/JOSHUA GILLETTE 
Abbie Hoffman 


: SPECTATOR/QUINTANA ROO DUNNE 
LETTING IT ALL OUT: Director/Actor Chris Boscia does his infamous Sean Penn imitation. Must be getting too much sun. 


SEAS Student Council election ends 


By Caroline Lee 

Elections for the School of 
Engineering Student Council ended 
yesterday, but Elections Commis- 
sioner Ben Wan, SEAS â€™92, refus- 
ed to release the results of the race 
for the University Senate race. 

The senate position is â€˜â€˜to be an- 
nounced. We have to discuss that 
with the University Senate. We have 
to talk to them first,â€ Wan said. 

Wan is also Vice Chair of the 
Engineering Student Council. 

Wan would not say why he would 
not release the name of the new 
senator. 

Current Barnard College Liaison 
Jeff Dean, SEAS â€™91, was elected 
Columbia College Liaison, and cur- 
rent President of the Sophomore 
Class, Touth Evans, was elected Bar- 
nard College Liaison. 

For the Class of 1990, Hyun Bae 
was elected President, current junior 
class president Laura Cordani was 
elected Vice President, and Anita 
Cordani and Ross Fox were elected 
Class Representatives. 

For the Class of 1991, current 


BC Springfest events begin tomorrow 


By Jonathan Ross 

While some students see spring as 
a time for protest, others believe it 
is a cause for celebration. Baranrd 
students will do just that today as 
Springfest â€™89 kicks off with a barbe- 
que and an all-day vendor sale, ac- 
cording to Coordinator Dana Leib, 
BC 790. 

Sponsored by the Barnard Student 
Government Association (SGA), 
Springfest â€™89 is a three-day event 
commemorating the â€œâ€˜rites of 
spring,â€™â€™ according to SGA Vice- 
President for Student Activities 
Peggy Wang, BC â€™90. Todayâ€™s 
events include an all-day vendor sale 
along the various walks of the Bar- 
nard campus. An open barbeque is 
planned from noon to 2 p.m. on 

. Lehman Lawn. 


Friday will bring a professional 
travelling carnival to Lehman Lawn 
as well as the sounds of Dreamspeak, 
the Blues Travellers, and Majick. 

In addition, several on-campus 
bands will perform throughout the 
day, including the Bacchantae, the 
Gilbert and Sullivan Society, the Clef 
Hangers, the Barnard College 
Musical Theater (BCMT), and Notes 
and Keys. 

From 12-3 p.m., McIntosh Ac- 
tivities Council will sponsor a free 
barbeque tomorrow which will be 
followed by a free pizza party pro- 
vided by the Springfest Committee, 
Lieb said. 

The three-day event will be cap- 
ped off by a â€˜â€˜Monte Carlo Nightâ€™â€™ 


10 p: m. to i a.m. ee in 5 


tosh Cafe, Lieb said. 

Co-sponsored by the Chinese Stu- 
dent Club, â€˜â€˜Monte Carlo Nightâ€™ 
will consist of professional gambling 
tables furnished with fake money. 

The Springfest Committee had in- 
itially intended to hold Barnardâ€™s 
famous Greek Games, last held 20 
years ago, according to Wang. 
However, administrators cancelled 
the Games because of a perceived 
lack of student interest and the dif- 
ficulty in coordinating alumnae ef- 
fort, she said. 

Springfest Coordinators then 
decided to sponsor their own version 
of the Games, but were unable to do 
so due to bad timing. 

â€˜â€œâ€˜â€œWe were told too late of the ad- 

See Spring, p. 9 


SPECTATOR FILE PHOTO 
SORRY, ATHENA: Barnardâ€™s annual Springfest Celebration begins Friday, but without. the planned evival of the Greekâ€™ Games... 


Vice President of the class of 1991 
Julie Chow was elected President, 
John Prior was elected Vice Presi- 
dent and Manish Sagar and Nedi 
Telvi were elected Class 
Representatives. 

For the Class of 1992, Yoshi 
Maruyama was elected President, 


John Huang was elected Vice Presi- 
dent, and Janneth Ignacio and Allen 
Chu were elected Class 
Representatives. 


The chair and vice chair of i 


council are elected by other council 
members. 


Mexican-American named 
coordinator of IRC house 


By A. Cassidy Sehgal 

Richard Chacon, a Mexican- 
American first-year graduate student 
at the School of International and 
Public Affairs, has been named coor- 
dinator of the Intercultural Resource 
Center (IRC), according to Assistant 
Dean of Students William Wiggins. 

The IRC, designed to promote 
multiculturalism at Columbia, open- 
ed on January 11 for student 
residents. The 113th street 
brownstone was formerly occupied 
by Chi Omega Rho fraternity. 

Chacon said he decided to accept 
the position as house coordinator 
because he believes the University 
needs a center for minority students 
and because he had met some of the 
current residents of the house who 
said they needed a coordinator to get 
house events going. 

â€œIt is a chance for me to work with 
these people and mold the position 
and define just what the IRC is go- 
ing to be,â€™â€™ Chacon said. 

â€œI hope the opening of the center 


will show that after ten years of plan- 
ning for the house, weâ€™re ready to 
begin,â€™â€™ he added. 

Chacon also said he wants people 


to understand that the house will not- 


only be a resource for minority 
students but for all students in the 
community. . 

The gala opening of the center will 
be held within the next few weeks, 
and a lottery to fill the 14 remaining 


residence spaces will also be held 


soon, Wiggins said. 

Chacon said although he will move 
into the house during the next few 
weeks, he does not expect to hold 
many events this semester since there 
are only a few weeks of classes left 
and finals will begin soon. 

Planning for future events will be 
done over the summer by Chacon 
and other administrators, he said. 


Chacon also said he hopes to have ~ 


the IRC library established in the 
house by next semester. 


Gustafson lectures on 19th 
Century Russian philosophy 


By Martha Cooley 

Professor Richard Gustafson, 
Anne Whitney Olin Professor of 
Russian, spoke on philosophy in 
Russia in the mid-nineteenth century 
yesterday as part of the Barnard 
Centennial Lecture series. 

Gustafson lectured on the 
slavophile movement, popular 
among many 19th century Russian 
intellectuals. Slavophiles believed 
Russia was becoming westernized, 
and that with westernization, came 
many values that were alien to the 
Russian way of life. 

The most prominent of these in- 


vading ideas was that of the 
supremacy of reason, Gustafson 
said. 


Reason was seen as incompatible 
with Eastern mysticism and the 
religious orthodoxy that was such a 
large part of Russian culture, Gustaf- 
son said. 

Slavophiles found it difficut to 
reconcile reason with many of their 
religious beliefs, Gustafson added. 
For example, things such as the trini- 


â€œty; heaven and hell â€˜couldâ€™ not be 


reduced to simple formulas, he said. 

Many philosophers actually dealt 
with the reinterpretation of what God 
was and what doctrine should be, 
Gustafson, said. They denied that the 
being was omnipotent, and omnis- 
cient, but appeared and disappeared 
as well, he said. 

â€˜â€˜Christian doctrine is grounded in 
no logic, he quoted Flavesky as 
saying. 

Gustafson then moved on to the 
topic of language, and how 
philosophers thought it affected 
themselves. 

â€˜â€˜Language makes philosophy im- 
possible,â€™â€™ he quoted Shastoff as 


commenting, referring to how the- 


limitations of language make it dif- 
ficult to convey the 
philosophy.â€â€™ 


Gustafson also commented on the 
universality: of language and itâ€™s 


individuality. 


â€˜Every world has parts that are 
common to all people, and each AAA - 


when _spoken.-is individual,â€ he 


â€œquoted Flavesky as saying. 


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