In this series of interviews, almost all conducted on the Columbia University campus in May, 1968, participants and observers -- student activists (conservative, independent, and radical), junior and senior faculty, administrators, supporting staff, and parents -- describe and discuss the many phases of the crisis that resulted in the occupation of five Columbia buildings by students April 23 and 24, the suspension of classes, fruitless negotiations, police intervention on April 30, a campus wide strike, a lesser eruption May 21-22, and the eventual restructuring of the University. Factors behind the crisis are examined and weighed in tones ranging from analytical detachment to passionate concern. A researcher for Archibald Cox Fact Finding Commission read a small fraction of this material, with the explicit permission of each interviewee. The project was conducted independently by the Oral History Research Office.