PLAINFIELD -- Goddard College shut down Monday after a group of activist students barricaded themselves in the administration offices and issued a list of 26 demands.

"We feel the time has come to take serious and definitive action to arrest apathy at our school, to arrest mediocrity, to address why our school has become dysfunctional," said a fifth-year student from South Africa who gave his narne as "Zenzile."

"We have to take a collective stand as a block of people who have occupied this building and shut this system down."

Zenzile added, speaking from behind a second-floor doorway blocked with chairs and bedsprings. "I will not leave."

Jack Lindquist, president of the 50-year-old private school, said the administration would study the demands and was willing to meet with the students to discuss the issues.

The activists took over the offices Sunday evening after meeting with other students to discuss their grievances.

The list of demands included full disclosure of the school's financial records, recruitment of minority, lesbian and gay faculty and students, a ban on police on carnpus, and full support for the Peace Studies Program and Third World studies.

DEMANDING STUDENTS: A Goddard College student who gave his name as Zenzile, left, shouts slogans as Todd Fradkin prepares to read a statement to the media while leaning from a second-floor window in the Goddard College administration offices Monday. The pair' are part of a group of students occupying administration offices until a list of their concerns and demands are addressed.

The group also demanded that "Washington" acknowledge several political demands, including full. taxation of every corporation in the United States, the freedom of all political prisoners worldwide, and an end to homelessness in the United States.

The group refused to say how many were involved in the action, but other students guessed between eight and 12 were barricaded in the offices.

Faculty and staff, including Lindquist, were unable to enter their offices, and the telephone switchboard was inoperable. Lindquist had been out-of-state over the weekend, and returned Monday at 9:30 a.m. to find his office blocked.

Lindquist sent the staff home Monday morning and most classes were cancelled.

"They are a small radical minority in terms of how much they demand and their approach," Lindquist said. "We're just trying to keep the place running."

About 70 other students met in the cafeteria Monday to decide whether they would support the demands of the activist group. They also carried trays of food and cookies to the students barricaded one floor above.

Students at Goddard have a say in the running of the college, including faculty hiring. Dissatisfaction with the administration has been building since last spring following several hiring decisions that were made over student objections.

Faculty members noted that several students had begun wearing black headbands around the campus and calling for anarchy. In response, the next issue of the school paper was scheduled to deal with the issue of anarchy.

"I worked to organize this action because no real community forum was taking place to guarantee student imput," said 23-year-old Dan Abrams, wearing a black headband. "Goddard talks about freedom, but it's anarchy Goddard needs."

Abrams and first-year student A.J. Rousso, speaking from behind the barrier, said their parents are spending about $13,000 annually to send them to the school, adding they discussed the possibility of being expelled for their actions.

"We're expelling the administration," Abrams said. "If this school is going to move forward, the entire administration is going to have to go. This is not my decision, it's my opinion."

Many other students said they support the list of demands posed by the group, but were disappointed with the action taken.

"They think they are acting in the best interests of the whole school, but I don't think they are," said first-year student Peter Ferland. "Measures in change of this institution can be made through the present system."

Hilary Mosher, who attends Goddard through its Single Parent Program, agreed, adding, "One huge, loud, distressing voice is something we get concerned about. But most of the students are not in support of the way in which their demands were made.

"I went to college in the 1960s when we had reason to protest," Mosher added. "These are people flexing their revolutionary muscles."

Protest is not new to this college of more than 400 students, which was founded as a progressive, experimental school. Students went on a hunger strike in 1973 to protest the firing of two black professors, and faculty struck in 1977 over a salary dispute.

About 120 students live on the school's Plainfield campus.

The list of demands issued Monday included reinstatement of one of the professors fired in 1973, as well as renaming the Goddard Community Center after one of the two professors.

Police were not called in Monday, and Lindquist said disciplinary action probably would not be taken unless students were injured or damaged property.

Members of the activist group said they would not modify their demands if the other students chose not to support their cause.

"This is not negotiable. They must accept our demands. We're not interested in what the students in the cafeteria think and feel," said protestor Levi Monko. "They are punishing the entire school. We caught them with their pants down."