Monuments: A Tower of Hot Air

The folks at the University of California's Berkeley campus, where students used to major in telling the Establishment where to get off, know how to give the college administration a Maalox moment. Last July more than 100 faculty members who call themselves the Berkeley Art Project launched a nationwide contest to select a fitting monument to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, which paved the way for radical political activity and violent anti-Vietnam War protests on the campus.

And the winner is . . . Mark A. Brest van Kempen, 28, a graduate student at the San Francisco...