Reed Harris

Read Harris was the editor of the Columbia Spectator from 1930-1931. His tenure was perhaps the most controversial in the daily's history. Harris launched an aggressive campaign again the Columbia administration. Most notably, he went after excess profit in Columbia's dining halls and attacked college athletics for corrupting academics. Following his assault on the dining halls, he was called in by Dean Herbert Hawkes, brought before an administrative committee, and summarily expelled.

Harris's expulsion prompted mass student revolt. The Spectator altered their design to boldly protest and, more notably, the a mass student protest. His case was taken up by the ACLU and ultimately he was permitted to return. Harris, however, opted to sever his ties and turn his work against athletics into the book Kiing Football.

Harris ended up becoming something of a cold war technocrat, holding a post involved with disseminating pro-US propaganda. He was later called before the HUAC.