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Meanwhile he reopened the college, yielded on some student demands but rejected others. Always flamboyant and highly visible, he showed a gift for symbolism, appeared in a bright blue-and-red tam-o'-shanter, sometimes wore leis of flowers for press conferences, regularly delivered quotable and often provocative comments. Speaking of the day the first serious fighting occurred between police and students, he said, "This was the most exciting day of my life since my tenth birthday, when I rode a roller coaster for the first time." After he had become known statewide and was denounced by blacks as "Uncle Tojo Tom," he jokingly told reporters that he represented "yellow power" and that he was "Emperor of California."
At that point, most students deplored the extremists' tactics and were interested only in continuing their education. But soon Hayakawa's tactics were also being questioned. Dealing firmly with all opposition, he invalidated a student election when candidates unfavorable to him won, called the strike leaders a "gang of goons and neo-Nazis," suspended the student newspaper for printing anti-Hayakawa editorials. When four of the college's five black administrators, who had wide student support, resigned, he said, "I am glad to see them go; we can do without them." These moves, together with his massive use of police and his growing support among conservatives, combined to turn many moderate students against him.
At the same time, he repeatedly ignored the expressed wishes of the faculty. When the college's Grievance and Disciplinary Action Panel, made up of faculty members, found him guilty on four charges and demanded his replacement, Hayakawa made a joke of the whole thing. The panel's findings were addressed to the president, so Hayakawa, in his capacity as acting president, wrote himself an elaborately sarcastic letter, chiding himself for carrying out what he believed to be his duty.
What counted with the board of trustees, where the final counting is done, was the fact that Hayakawa stopped the strike. The cost included 731 arrests, 120 casualties, numerous fires and fights. Outside politics had been injected into a supposedly apolitical institution, and many students and faculty members had gone over to the opposition; but a degree of order had been restored, and the college was functioning once again. As for public opinion, as opposed to campus opinion, a recent poll showed that Hayakawa is now second only to Ronald Reagan as the most popular man in California—and a hot prospect for the U.S. Senate race next year.
A Call for Revolution. After the trustees' vote, Hayakawa hailed his appointment as "a vote of confidence in my policies in defense of academic freedom." Members of the official S.F. State presidential selection committee, whose nominees had not even been interviewed by the trustees, were not impressed. They plan to suggest a faculty vote of no confidence, and they intend to call on the chancellor and trustees of the state colleges to revoke Hayakawa's appointment as illegal.