April 26, 1968 Student Strike, University of Connecticut

Students’ actions at the University of Connecticut during the Vietnam War era were charged with radical and idealistic electricity. At a time when the student population was smaller, quieter, and only a third of the size that it is today, the on-campus presence of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) helped mobilize individuals who either did or did not associate themselves with the group. One action that took place on campus during this era was the ten-day long demonstration of December 1968. Producers A.H. Perlmutter and Morton Silverstein of National Educational Television captured this demonstration on film and turned it into the 1969 black and white production Diary of a Student Revolution.

The film suggests that the reason for that December’s unrest was that many students were strongly opposed to the principles of the companies conducting job recruitment interviews on campus. One such company was the DOW Chemical Company, the maker of both Saran Wrap and Napalm, a chemical weapon whose rampant usage in the Vietnam War became highly controversial in the U.S. in the late sixties. Students demonstrated against the university’s permission of DOW recruitment by first occupying the office of President Homer D. Babbidge in November 1968. SDS continued to garner support from some students and faculty and called for the student government to join their side on December 8, 2012. This was just the beginning of that December’s ten-day period of unrest.

Although the immediate cause of the December action was students’ opposition to recruiters on campus, interviews with students reveal the underlying moods and motivations advancing the demonstration. One individual stated, “Power, you know, is at the top; it’s held by a corporate elite. And the country is organized to protect the corporate elite.” Another student claimed that “this system cannot be tolerated and must be destroyed.” This severe distrust of American government and industry existed at a time when the Vietnam War was becoming more and more brutal and thus unpopular, and when social and civil rights activists like Abbie Hoffman and Martin Luther King, Jr. were at the forefront of the media.

In response to students’ and SDS’s call for a moratorium on recruiting starting on Tuesday, December 10, 1968, President Babbidge stated in a campus-wide announcement that, after great deliberation, there would be no moratorium on recruiting. Needless to say, that Tuesday saw the height of the action; people demonstrated against Babbidge’s announcement outside an off-campus building where recruiting was taking place. 67 students and faculty who weren’t formally associated with SDS were arrested by state police. The film shows that many of those individuals wished to be arrested to symbolize their dedication to the cause.

Contrarily, in an impromptu interview conducted in a lecture hall, a non-acting student called the acting students a “minority”, and one student claimed that the activists should be arrested and suspended. When a small number of SDS members entered that lecture hall to arouse their fellow students while the cameras were filming, a group of non-acting students shouted at them, “Keep the status quo, keep the status quo!” This debate would continue on until 1971, even after this specific period of action began to collapse on its ninth day.

The film also reveals President Babbidge’s tribulations during the demonstrations. Viewed by radical students as part of America’s ‘corporate elite’, Babbidge actually appears more conflicted and concerned than anything. We ultimately know from documents found in the President’s Office Records that Babbidge, too, believed in the same causes as the students, including racial, educational, occupational, and economic equality and justice. But he believed in pursuing different means to those ends. This can be seen in a statement he made on May 10, 1970 in response to another student action: “I can honestly say that I believe I understand the foundation causes of the student strike, I support many of them…but I cannot support the strike.”

The events of 1968 at the University of Connecticut indicate that the community struggled locally with issues that originated from society at large. Our university community continues to do the same today.

Carey MacDonald, writing intern

Carey MacDonald is an undergraduate Anthropology major and writing intern.  In her blog series Through the Lens of an Anthropologist, Carey analyzes artifacts found in the collections of Archives and Special Collections.

What began in January 1878 as George Coy’s and Morris Tyler’s New Haven District Telephone Company serving a mere 21 customers in New Haven, Connecticut, ultimately became the Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET) serving millions of customers by 1970.  SNET was a leading force in the evolution of modern communication systems.  Interestingly though, it was also a leading force in creating a profound sense of pride and loyalty among its employees.  What is most intriguing is how SNET achieved this.

Yellow Pages Dress

The ‘Yellow Pages Dress,’ found within the SNET Company Records, was a promotional item for the company’s Ecology Program that began gaining ground in 1968.  A second dress made of yellow pages is found in another grouping of SNET-related items known as the SNET Collection.  According to Laura Smith, Curator for Business, Railroad, and Labor Collections, when the second dress was donated in 2010 by Mr. Joseph Kennedy, a former SNET employee from 1948 to 1978, it was not cited as an Ecology Program promotional item like the first dress was.  However, despite this terminological difference, it is apparent that both dresses stem from the same period of the company’s history.

Both dresses are literally made of yellow pages paper – advertisements and all – which was recycled from old telephone directories, treated, and sewn together into a shift dress shape.  The dresses were made by the Waste Basket Boutique by Mars of Asheville, North Carolina, and some of the other dresses made by the Boutique are also found in the archives of the University of North Carolina Asheville.

Intriguingly, Laura Smith says that it is most likely that these dresses were not actually meant to be worn, but were instead given to employees as pieces of company memorabilia – as representations of the SNET institution as a whole.

Smith says that although both dresses show some slight tearing, they do not appear to have been worn habitually, or even just occasionally, by anyone, further suggesting that their purpose was simply to evoke employees’ loyalty to and pride in the SNET Company.  At a time when unionizing was very common, it was especially important for SNET to keep its employees content.  By organizing such events as sports games and by distributing such things as these yellow pages dresses, for example, SNET could maintain the structure of its business and avoid potential dissent among its employees.

Additionally, the dresses, particularly the one explicitly named as a promotional item for the Ecology Program, helped to foster company cohesion by forming a unifying environmental awareness among employees.  This awareness, in turn, helped SNET develop ecological policies aimed at making a greener Connecticut, as seen in the SNET Company Records collection.

For instance, in the early 1970s, SNET Company President Alfred Van Sinderen enlisted former Connecticut Governor John N. Dempsey to act as an environmental consultant on the potential ecological issues of SNET operations.  Upon spending months in the field observing SNET Company operations, Dempsey wrote his 1977 report, “Impact.”  In it he declares that SNET employees would no doubt accept and support the Ecology Program as some employees freely articulated their sincere concern for the environment.  Dempsey also discusses the need for people in the higher-ranking managerial positions of the company to effect the actual implementation and maintenance of such a program.  Such things as the company dispersal of the 1977 Employee Education handbook, which contains tips for employees on how to be “green” and environmentally sound, worked to create an ecological consciousness within the company.

Ultimately, it appears that SNET developed the yellow pages dresses as part of a 1960s-1970s campaign to gain employees’ dedication to the company as a whole.  It also appears that since one of these dresses was made particularly for the Ecology Program, it was part of the same campaign to unite employees under a company-wide environmental consciousness.  Undoubtedly, the socially unifying and ecologically perceptive policies of Southern New England Telephone are utterly fascinating.  This artifact study looks at the SNET Company as a microcosm of the larger social world in that it demonstrates just how people initiate and contribute to a socially bonding experience or movement.  We can only hope, though, that those who initiate such a unifying movement do it for noble reasons and do it well.

Carey MacDonald, writing intern

Carey MacDonald is an undergraduate Anthropology major and writing intern.  In her new series Through the Lens of an Anthropologist, Carey analyzes artifacts found in the collections of Archives and Special Collections. 

Sociocultural traditions pervade the human experience and provide a reliable mechanism for social cohesion.   It is commonly thought, though, that traditions are strictly old manifestations of an earlier cultural context, when, in actuality, they evolve and create a distinct reality for each successive generation.

Yet traditions only evolve and persist for as long as their adherents maintain, reproduce, and reinforce them in their culture.  Such is the case of the college freshman beanie, a colored cap that freshmen were required to wear as a form of initiation into the greater university social setting.  According to the University Archivist Betsy Pittman, the tradition of wearing this cap was ubiquitous among American universities during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  For younger generations though, this tradition no longer exists in the form that it once did, although there certainly exist other freshman initiation rites, particularly within the scope of Greek life, honor societies, and sports teams.  An example of the UConn freshman beanie tradition comes from the University Memorabilia Collection.

The crown of this beanie resembles a circus tent: it is patterned by six alternating blocks of navy blue and white (university colors) and is held together in the center by a white fabric-covered fastener.  An insignia of ‘5 C 7’ is embroidered on the front of the cap above the narrow, white brim.  ‘5’ and ‘7’ are placed on either side of ‘C’ in a thin, navy blue felt font and represent that freshman class’s graduating year – in this case, the class of 1957.  ‘C’ is sewn in a larger, thicker, navy blue felt font and most likely represents Connecticut.  Also important is the name Eugene H. Starger, which is handwritten in what appears to be thin permanent marker or black pen on the inside rim of the hat.  It seems that Eugene got a lot of use out of his beanie since it is stained; it is apparent that he wore this beanie more than once, as it was a necessary part of his attire for at least some time.

We see the first evidence for the freshman beanie tradition in a student handbook from the academic year of 1921-22 called The Handbook of Connecticut Agricultural College.  In the handbook’s “Message of ’24 to ’25” – as it was written by the class of 1924 to the incoming class of 1925 – we see abrupt, intimidating, student-to-student language used to enforce the university’s traditions:

As your infantile brain could not possibly assimilate the significance of a proper beginning, tradition places the burden of guiding you through this, your first year at C.A.C. on the broad, capable shoulders of the Class of 1924…Transgress sacred College Tradition and never…will the haunting memory cease to picture that terrible night when you so unexpectedly disturbed the Waters of Swan Lake.

This message is clearly intended to ensure that no freshman would ever “transgress sacred College Tradition,” capital letters and all, because if they did, they’d be punished and thrown into the lake.  The handbook continues by giving freshmen explicit instructions for using the beanie.  They were to wear this distinct cap and conform to the rules.  Sophomores were to distribute the caps and enforce the rules.

Thirty-two years later, the student-written Husky Handbook of 1953-54 – the same year that Eugene H. Starger was a freshman – requires freshmen to wear their purchased beanie until the ‘season’ is over.  The season ended if the freshmen won the Frosh-Sophomore Rope Pull contest across Mirror Lake during the first month of school, but if the sophomores won, then the freshmen would have to wear their beanies until Thanksgiving break.

Most importantly, the handbook explains the overall significance of wearing the beanie: the upperclassmen wanted to know who the freshmen were so that they could meet and help them more easily. Interestingly, this section ends by saying, “Wear your Beanie with pride, because we are proud to number you as ‘one of us.’”  Betsy Pittman expands on this notion by describing that the ‘controlled ritual’ of wearing the freshman beanie signaled to others one’s commitment to the university, its culture, and its people.  She also remarks that since the upperclassmen had to wear a beanie during their first year too, the student body in general had this experience to which they could all relate.  This would, in effect, foster a beneficial sense of community, and ultimately, as Pittman says, the “beanie is a physical manifestation of that community.”

Carey MacDonald, writing intern

In her new series Through the Lens of an Anthropologist, undergraduate Anthropology major and writing intern Carey MacDonald will analyze artifacts found in the collections of Archives and Special Collections.  ‘By asking a set of questions, I intend to reveal and highlight many intricate patterns of human behavior, such as social actions and customs, and the ways in which those patterns of behavior are represented in certain artifacts.” — Carey MacDonald

Clothing, as a fundamental, human form of expression, is symbolic of our cultural, social, and physical environments, as well as of our experiences and beliefs. T-shirts, jerseys, hats, pins – these things are worn as distinct symbols of an individual. But what about a pair of socks?

Abbott “Abbie” Hoffman, the Massachusetts-born activist and co-founder of the Youth International Party, or the Yippies, of the 1960s and ‘70s, is best known for his unabashed and public criticism of American government policies and politicians. He used calculated political theater to engage young people in the political and social issues of the time and to organize them in the effort to reform the government and the nation. Hoffman’s revolutionary ideology manifested itself in his own self-expression; he publicized his ideas by way of media coverage of his demonstrations, as well as through the very clothes he wore on his body.

In the collection of the Hoffman Family Papers we see that Jack Hoffman, Abbie’s younger brother, maintained regular correspondence with Abbie throughout his years of activism.  Jack later gained many of Abbie’s possessions, such as the aforementioned t-shirts, political pins, and, naturally, a dirty, well-worn pair of red, white, and blue socks that resemble the American flag. The socks’ knitting is worn away in the toes, heels, and calves, indicating their habitual use. Since he frequently wore them and kept them long enough for them to eventually reach his brother, these red, white, and blue socks must have meant something to Abbie. And they certainly mean something to us today about his life and his activism.

At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Abbie and eight other leaders and their Yippie followers held a demonstration against the war in Vietnam and pushed for social and political reform in Washington. In an amateur video taken of Abbie discussing the forthcoming demonstration in Chicago, he articulates his plan to take social action at the Convention for the exact purpose that there would be extensive media coverage of the goings-on. He expected that every hour or so during the televised Convention the cameras would cut from the politicians’ speeches to the Yippies’ demonstration, and the viewers would immediately be interested in what they were doing. In preparation for the demonstration, the mayor appeared on television constantly and stationed police forces and Secret Service agents in the city. In interviews with journalists prior to the event, Abbie likened the whole scene to an exciting football game, like the Rose Bowl. By implementing dramatic, theatrical tactics to capture the public’s attention, Abbie and his Yippie friends could deliver their message in the spotlight.

However, to the Mayor and politicians, the demonstration at the DNC was viewed as a violation of the Anti-Riot Act that had been established in April 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Similarly, the American flag t-shirt that Abbie wore during the ensuing trial of the demonstration leaders, who were known as the Chicago Seven, was perceived by the judge as a desecration of the flag, a national symbol that is meant to be revered.  By practicing these forms of political theater, Abbie Hoffman managed to create “an advertisement for revolution,” as he calls it in his 1968 book, Revolution for the Hell of It. As for his red, white, and blue socks, it is very possible that he wore them to be viewed as a defilement of the flag. Or, after he was acquitted of conspiracy in 1973, he may have worn them during the years that he was on the run after jumping bail for his arrest for cocaine possession.

Yet it is also conceivable that he wore them to promote his image of a new, reformed America. He could have been expressing his patriotism and hope to his fellow Yippies and Americans, and since he personally knew he was wearing them, they could have symbolized, for himself, his idealism and belief in social change.

Carey MacDonald, writing intern