College Officials and the Morals Revolution

THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT: NOTES OF A COLLEGE REVOLUTIONARY

In 1968 Random House published The Strawberry Statement, the random thoughts of nineteen-year-old Columbia University student protester James Simon Kunen, who drafted the book on "napkins, and cigarette packs, and no-hitchhiking signs." Kunen defends his disjointed critique of his world this way: "People want to know who we are, and some think they know who we are—a bunch of snot-nosed brats. It's difficult to say really who we are. We don't have snot on our noses. What we do have is hopes and fears." He talks about himself: "My father talks about the bad associations people make when they see someone with hair. I come back with the bad associations people make when they see someone replete with a shiny new Cadillac.…But as for bad vibrations emanating from my follicles, I say great. I want the cops to sneer and the old ladies swear...

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