Week's wave of unrest gains force on campuses
From Kansan Press Services
Like the wave of U.S. forces that swept into Cambodia last week, a wave of unrest swept the nation's universities during the past few days. The protests gained force when four demonstrators were killed by National Guardsmen Monday at Kent State.
Many of the student protest leaders hope to bring the issue to the President and to the administration by a Saturday demonstration in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, demonstrations, some violent and some peaceful, were held on campuses from California to Massachusetts. Many universities were closed either by administrators in an attempt to prevent violence or by student strikes.
National Guardsmen patrolled the streets at the University of Wisconsin in Madison after more than 35 persons were arrested during two days of window-smashing and firebombings.
A university spokeman estimated 10,000 persons attended a campus rally Tuesday night to protest the President's movement of troops into Cambodia and to hear a "people's petition" against the deaths at Kent State. The rally was peaceful, but scattered vandalism followed it.
At Kent (Ohio) State University, National Guardsmen have been called out by Gov. James A. Rhodes to control anti-war protests. The Kent State faculty senate Tuesday blamed Rhodes and Ohio Adjunct General S. T. Del Corso, for the deaths of the four students Monday.
On Thursday, Rhods urged all universities facing student unrest to close. Ohio State University was promptly closed indefinitely and all 45,000 students were ordered off the campus by noon Thursday. Kent State was closed Tuesday. Rhodes suggested that faculties at state institutions make arrangements to permit students to complete work for the current term through correspondence.
In New York City nearly 4,000 students attended the funeral Thursday of Jeffrey Miller, one of the four students who were shot on the Kent State campus. Mayor John Lindsay and Dr. Benjamin Spock were among those attending the service.
Fifteen persons were injured Wednesday when police broke up a demonstration by about 500 Seton Hall University students in South Orange, N.J. The students had camped around a street bonfire to protest the war.
Eight university presidents, members of the Association of American Universities, met with President Nixon Thursday morning to relate to him the frustration and anger of many students. Several of the presidents said after their meeting that Nixon was sympathetic to the problems facing school administrators.
Organizers of the Washington march, spurning federal court permission for a gathering on the Washington Monument grounds, said demonstrators would try to mass in front of the White House on Saturday. Washington authorities were prepared for 30,000 to 35,000 student protesters to be in the city Saturday.
Violence erupted on several campuses Wednesday night. Fire ruined an administration building on the Valparaiso (Ind.) University campus. Flames gutted a student center on Fordham University's Rose Hill campus in New York City. Student vandals caused heavy damage to two buildings on the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale.
Gov. Louis B. Nunn of Kentucky ordered state police and National Guard "with mounted bayonets and live ammunition" to the University of Kentucky to enforce a Wednesday night curfew. His action came after nearly 750 students ignored a curfew ordered by Otis Singletary, university president, following the burning of an Air Force ROTC building.
About 100 state troopers broke up an all-night vigil by protesters Wednesday on the University of Alabama campus at Tuscaloosa after a fire of undetermined origin erupted in a gymnasium.
State administrators have closed all state universities and colleges in both Pennsylvania and California. More than a million students were affected by the shutdown in California.
The National Student Strike Information Center at Brandeis University estimated 380 colleges were on strike throughout the country with faculty or administration approval.
Princeton University faculty voted to suspend classes for the remainder of the semester and took a group stand condemning the war in Southeast Asia. They also approved a two-week recess prior to the November elections so students could work in political campaigns.
The call for a nationwide student strike was made by Charles Gonzales, president of the 110,000-member Student National Education Association.
Boston University has canceled final examinations and its May 17 commencement exercises where Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was to have the main speaker.
Both Amherst College, which David Eisenhower attends, and Smith College, which his wife Julie attends, voted to strike.
The law schools at Harvard, Columbia, Chicago and Boston Universities voted to strike.
The Harvard school of business administration voted 700-685 Wednesday not to strike but did adopt a resolution condemning Nixon's policy on Indochina.
On Saturday in Washington, no one will be allowed within a block of the White House. David Dellinger, one of the Chicago Seven defendants, said Thursday that the weekend was no time for sideshow violence and that the rally would include several congressmen.
"If President Nixon and Attorney General John N. Mitchell decide to set up the kind of atmosphere where troops will attack the demonstrators, they will have to attack members of Congress," Dellinger said.
Several congressmen, including Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., and Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., said Thursday they sympathized with the protesters but warned them to stay clear of violence.
All 50 governors have been summoned to the White House for a meeting Monday on "the disruption of peace and violence and potential violence throughout the nation."
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Outside the chancellor's office
Photo by Ron Bishop
University of Kansas students supporting a strike to protest U.S. policy in Southeast Asia gathered in the hall outside of the office of Chancellor E. Laurence Chalmers Jr. to request administrative support.
Senators caution protesters
As antiwar protesters handed out leaflets on Washington street corners and roamed Capitol Hill, leading members of Congress expressed sympathy Thursday with their anger but cautioned against violence.
White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler told newsmen after a meeting of university presidents that "the President is interested in problems of society and student unrest."
schools to advise them against violence.
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield said he had met with several students from Montana who were attending eastern
Similar appeals were made by Sens. Harold E. Hughes, D-Iowa; George McGovern, D-S.D., and Birch Bayh, D-Ind. Hughes said those who plan acts of violence "play into the hands of those who want to prolong the war abroad and tighten the repression at home."
While professing its concern with student turmoil, the administration suffered an embarrassment Thursday with the resignation of Anthony J. "Toby" Moffett as head of the eight-month-
old Office of Students and Youth in the U.S. Office of Education.
Moffett, 25, told a news conference he could no longer serve as the administration's liaison with college students because of its "increasingly repressive character." He said he was convinced that Nixon and his closest advisers "will sanction even the most vicious tactics against young people and other legitimate political dissenters."
The average meat consumption per person in the United States in 1967 was 177 pounds.
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