Grayson Kirk

See also Wikipedia's article about "Grayson Kirk".

Grayson Kirk

Grayson Kirk had the misfortune of becoming the 14th University President after Dwight Eisenhower set off for greener pastures, later enduring the 1968 protests. Previously, Kirk had served as Provost.

The neighorhood hated him because... well they really just hated Columbia, and he was just a stand in for the institution. It didn't help that Kirk had proposed a never-completed expansion that would have wiped out half of Morningside Heights.

The students hated him because... well they hated establishment authority figures- it was the 60's after all. The faculty hated him because the university grossly underpaid its employees in relation to peer institutions during his tenure.

The stress of the University's harebrained involvement in the Strickman Filter and the 1968 protests led to his resignation. Kirk is perhaps indirectly responsible for the decades of alumni apathy that followed (including, at one point, the serious thought of closing the school due to a lack of funding) and the affirmation of the university as a left-wing jihadist institution, much like the University of Havana.

Preceded by Albert C. Jacobs

Provost  1949-1953

Succeeded by John A. Krout

Preceded by Dwight D. Eisenhower

President of Columbia University  1953-1968

Succeeded by Andrew W. Cordier