This week in history, on October 21, 1967, University of Connecticut students travelled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March on the Pentagon, where more than 100,000 people rallied to protest American involvement in the Vietnam War. The late 1960s and early 1970s marked a turbulent period in UConn’s history and that of higher education in general. This period involved protests, sit-ins, and demonstrations that heightened tensions between students and administration. Reading through the UConn Free Press and Howard Goldblum’s photo collection, it’s easy to see the energy of the movement and the similarities with the protests occurring at UConn today.
One particular event I would like to focus on here is the series of protests against UConn’s ties with weapons manufacturers — General Electric, Olin-Mathieson, Dow Chemical and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Tensions would eventually come to a head in 1967 and 1968 in response to Dow Chemical’s and Olin Mathieson’s job recruitment on campus. According to the UConn Archives, “In October of 1967 over 150 protesters from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) occupied Koons hall to prevent two Dow Chemical representatives from conducting interviews with students.”
This was just the beginning. The Students for a Democratic Society was a student organization in America that protested the Vietnam War. The UConn chapter played a major role in the planning and organization of protests and demonstrations. While students had successfully hindered the recruitment process in October, what resulted was a lengthy battle between the SDS and the board of trustees. The head of the journalism department at the time, Evan Hill, wrote a detailed yet editorialized account of the events. Essentially, shortly after the Dow Chemical protest, the Student Senate issued a resolution that the board of trustees supported, explaining that students were able to peacefully protest but would face consequences for obstruction.
Over the next few months, teach-ins and protests were held in Gulley Hall (the building that housed administration in the ‘70s). The SDS would continue to challenge on-campus recruitment from Dow Chemicals with demonstrations the following year, which led the president at the time, Homer D. Babbidge, to pursue disciplinary action against eight students and four faculty members involved. It was at this time that Babbidge and the administration listened to the concerns of the students and proposed a moratorium on military recruitment. However, things took a violent turn when Olin-Mathieson, a company that produced ammunition, was invited to campus for interviews and protesters were met with state police.
The ‘60s and ‘70s were tumultuous times for college campuses, with the students at UConn experiencing their own unique movement. The parallels between the ‘70s and today are almost uncanny, which I’m sure my fellow columnist intends to discuss. UConn’s history with political unrest is complex and extremely interesting and I encourage those of you reading to look into the university archives and see how these protests unfolded.