Campus Alert Archive
Cornell

Day Hall Empties at Daybreak: Cornell's 900-Arrest Anti-Apartheid Sit-In and the Shantytown That Burned

NYcivil unrestadvisorymedium confidence

On April 22, 1985, university guards cleared Cornell's Day Hall administration building of more than 200 anti-apartheid protesters and made mass arrests, as students demanded the university divest its estimated $146 million in South Africa-linked stocks. Protesters then built a shantytown adjacent to Day Hall that remained on campus until June 25, 1985; by the end of the semester, more than 900 students, faculty, and staff had been arrested in successive sit-ins, making it one of the largest campus civil-disobedience campaigns of the 1980s apartheid-divestment movement.

Alerts
3
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Cornell University
Private R1 · NY
Campus PA and phone notification (pre-mass-notification era)
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPA System
Approximate reconstruction344 chars
Attention. University guards are proceeding to clear Day Hall of unauthorized occupants. Students, faculty, and staff who are occupying Day Hall are subject to arrest for trespassing. The building must be vacated immediately. All persons who do not leave voluntarily will be arrested. Campus operations continue normally in all other buildings.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

More than 200 protesters, including approximately 25 Cornell faculty and staff, were arrested in the first clearance of Day Hall on April 22, 1985; among those arrested were student organizers Matthew Lyons and Joan Meyers of the South African Divestment Coalition
The April 22 sit-in at Cornell was part of a nationwide wave of anti-apartheid campus protests in spring 1985, with simultaneous demonstrations at Columbia, UC Berkeley, Tufts, and dozens of other universities
In 1985, Cornell had no electronic mass-notification system; campus PA announcements, phone trees, and the Cornell Daily Sun were the primary emergency and administrative communication tools
UPDATEother
Approximate reconstruction420 chars
The University has granted a temporary permit for the construction of a shantytown adjacent to Day Hall as an expression of student protest. Day Hall is a working administrative building. Students and protesters who enter Day Hall without authorization remain subject to arrest. The University will continue to operate normally. The Board of Trustees will address the divestment question at their next scheduled meeting.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The University granted a temporary permit to construct the shantytown starting April 22, 1985; the structures were intended to symbolize the conditions faced by Black South Africans under apartheid
Successive sit-ins at Day Hall continued throughout the spring semester, resulting in a total of more than 900 arrests by the time the semester ended; all charges were eventually dropped
Cornell President Frank Rhodes told protesters that the trustees believed investing in socially responsible corporations doing business in South Africa was the best way to aid non-white South Africans
FOLLOW-UPother
Approximate reconstruction325 chars
A fire has occurred in the shantytown adjacent to Day Hall, destroying three of the structures. The fire has been extinguished. No injuries have been reported. The University will review the status of the temporary permit for the shantytown. Students should avoid the area around Day Hall while damage assessment is underway.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

A fire erupted in the shantytown on May 11, 1985, destroying three of the shanty structures; this accelerated the University's decision to eventually order the entire shantytown dismantled
The shantytown structures that survived the fire remained on campus until June 25, 1985, when Cornell officials dismantled them
By 1988, after continued pressure from students and declining investment by choice, Cornell's South Africa-linked holdings had fallen from approximately $146 million to about $42 million
Context

Background

In spring 1985, the national anti-apartheid divestment movement reached a climax on US university campuses. At Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, the South African Divestment Coalition -- led by student organizer Matthew Lyons -- orchestrated a sit-in at Day Hall, the main administrative building, on April 18, 1985. When protesters refused to leave, university guards cleared the building on April 22, arresting more than 200 people including approximately 25 faculty and staff. As documented in the Washington Post and UPI wire coverage, this was part of a simultaneous wave of anti-apartheid actions at Columbia, UC Berkeley, Tufts, and dozens of other campuses that spring. Following the clearance, the University granted protesters a temporary permit to build a shantytown of symbolic structures representing the conditions of Black South Africans, adjacent to Day Hall. Successive sit-ins continued throughout the semester, with more than 900 total arrests -- all charges eventually dropped. On May 11, a fire destroyed three of the shanties. Cornell President Frank Rhodes maintained that selective investment in socially responsible companies was the appropriate approach; the Board of Trustees adopted a policy of selective divestment in 1986. The shantytown was finally dismantled on June 25, 1985. Cornell held an estimated $146 million in South Africa-linked stocks at the time; by 1988 this had dropped to about $42 million. The 1985 protest is documented in the Cornell Divestment Movement Collection at the Cornell University Library Rare and Manuscript Collections, the most comprehensive archive of the campaign.
Analysis

Key Findings

More than 200 people -- including approximately 25 faculty and staff -- were arrested when guards cleared Day Hall on April 22, 1985; more than 900 total arrests occurred across the spring semester
All charges against those arrested were eventually dropped; the Board of Trustees adopted a policy of selective divestment in 1986 under continued pressure
A shantytown built adjacent to Day Hall survived from April 22 until June 25, 1985, when it was dismantled; a fire on May 11 destroyed three of the shanty structures
The 1985 Cornell divestment campaign is documented in the Cornell Divestment Movement Collection at the university's Rare and Manuscript Collections
Outcome
More than 900 people were arrested across multiple sit-ins at Day Hall over the spring 1985 semester, including approximately 25 faculty and staff in the first round. All charges were eventually dropped. Cornell President Frank Rhodes declined to fully divest but the Board of Trustees adopted a policy of selective divestment in 1986. The shantytown was ultimately dismantled by Cornell officials on June 25, 1985, after a fire destroyed three of the shanties on May 11, 1985.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Source
    Cornell University students sit-in for divestment from apartheid South Africa, 1985 - Global Nonviolent Action Database
    nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu
  2. News
    200 Arrested at Cornell - The Washington Post (April 23, 1985)
    washingtonpost.com
  3. Official
    Guide to the Cornell Divestment Movement Collection - Cornell University Library
    rmc.library.cornell.edu
  4. Student Paper
    From 'Shantytown' to the 'Liberated Zone': Cornell's History of Encampments - Cornell Daily Sun
    cornellsun.com
Tags
civil-unrestprotestdivestmentapartheidnew-yorkhistoric1985pre-mass-notificationmass-arrestshantytownfirepre-clery-modern
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion