"Student Officers: Izzy Pivnick" from the "1947 Franciscan" yearbook (page 54)

Photograph of Student Body President Isadore "Izzy" Pivnick (1920-2017), was a student at SF State before World War II and returned after the war as a veteran on the G.I. Bill. SFSC President J. Paul Leonard (1902-1995), backed by hundreds of fellow student activists, met with San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham (1883-1966) at City Hall in February 1947 to discuss acquisition of additional land near Lake Merced for the campus. The mayor asked Pivnick: "Who are you, and why did you bring [the students] down here?" Pivnick replied: "My name doesn't matter . . . what does matter is that I and many other of those students out there waded through the mud of France to protect democracy in this country, and we are here to tell you that the action of your Board of Supervisors does not represent the kind of democracy we fought for." After a protracted battle that reaches as far as the state legislature, the College is able to purchase the additional land.