'The Student Rebellion at Columbia University' (1968) by Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand delivered,'The Student Rebellion at Columbia University', as a 30-minute radio broadcast on January 1, 1968, via Columbia University’s campus radio station WKCR.

Rand opens by condemning the occupy-style protests at Columbia as violent, lawless, and indistinguishable from fascist tactics of the 1930s. She reads aloud a series of statements issued by the Committee for the Defense of Property Rights, a student group she supports, highlighting their perspective on the disruption and vandalism perpetrated by the protesters.

She critiques the university administration’s response, characterizing it as weak and appeasing—arguing that it encouraged further disorder. Rand frames these student uprisings as part of a broader wave of the 1960s “rebellions,” rooted not in politics, but in irresponsible relativism and a rejection of reason. She asserts that the New Left’s ideology is de facto fascism, because it celebrates brute force over rational persuasion.

Throughout, Rand maintains that true moral change arises from ideas spoken openly, not force. She warns that tolerating violence on campus paves the way for mob rule in society, and encourages intellectuals and students to defend reason and property rights as essential to freedom.