Students Rap Kissinger Move To Columbia

An ad hoc committee of Columbia University students and employees has collected over 700 signatures protesting the possible appointment of former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50 to the Columbia faculty, a spokesman for the committee said yesterday.

Harvey Picker, dean of Faculty of the School of International Affairs, said last night Columbia has had "no recent contact" with Kissinger. The university, however, had contacted Kissinger about a position earlier in the year, Picker added.

Kissinger presently holds a six-month teaching contract at Georgetown University.

Daniel C. McCorkle, a Columbia junior, said the committee will present the petition to the Columbia University Senate on Friday.

The committee will ask the University Senate for a resolution condemning Kissinger. A resolution of the Senate, which is composed of students and administrators from all schools within Columbia, "might have some sort of influence" upon the University's hiring decision, McCorkle said.

The committee does not object to Kissinger's credentials but rather to the "moral results of Kissinger's policy," McCorkle added.

The committee voiced specific objections to Kissinger's actions in dealing with Vietnam, Cambodia and Chile as well as his possible role in domestic wiretapping.

The committee of 15 hopes to have 1000 signatures by Friday.

The student petition states that "the appointment of Kissinger would endorse the murderous foreign policy which he promulgated under the Nixon and Ford administrations."

Sidney Verba, chariman-designate of the Government Department, had "no comment" about the possible appointment of Kissinger to Columbia. Kissinger taught at Harvard before entering government service on a full-time basis.