{"id":5528,"date":"2015-05-04T14:24:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T14:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/?p=5528"},"modified":"2020-05-04T13:48:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T13:48:23","slug":"kent-state-and-student-strike-at-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2015\/05\/04\/kent-state-and-student-strike-at-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent State and Student Strike at UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Week of the Strike, May 9 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1968 students at UConn demonstrated\u00a0against the\u00a0ROTC\u00a0and military recruiting on campus\u00a0as\u00a0national uprisings began to foment against the\u00a0war in Vietnam.\u00a0 Corporate job recruiting by General Electric and Olin Mathieson\u00a0on Gilbert Rd.\u00a0drew confrontations between protestors and state police along with\u00a0President Homer D.\u00a0Babbidge’s\u00a0approach\u00a0toward a\u00a0business friendly posture for the university.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0combative times of the UConn Crisis\u00a0in 1968-1969 was the prologue to an even more eruptive\u00a0year to come.\u00a0 Lyndon Johnson’s escalation of the war led to major backlash in the mid to late 1960s\u00a0which President Nixon’s administration promised to diminish\u00a0by quietly\u00a0widening\u00a0military campaigns into neighboring\u00a0Cambodia.<\/p>\n

Student demonstrations in over 1,250 college campuses across the country led to confrontations with local police and the national guard.\u00a0 On May 4th, 1970 protests at Kent State University in Ohio led to National Guardsmen firing into demonstrators killing four individuals and wounding several others.\u00a0 The events of 1970 galvanized much of the public’s perception on the war in Vietnam however clashes at home along class and race lines similarly disrupted any clear consensus about the war at home and abroad.\u00a0\u00a0The days following the Kent State shootings on the University of Connecticut campus would produce the actions of students, faculty and administration which declared 1970 as the high water mark for social upheaval. The events below were extracted from the extensive archive documented by student organizations, administration and the Daily Campus:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

On May 5th College of Liberal Arts & Sciences<\/strong><\/p>\n

“In view of the atmosphere of fear and violence which currently permeates many university campuses in this country, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain normal academic procedures. Recognizing this, the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the University of Connecticut finds it necessary to take the following steps:<\/p>\n

Normal academic programs may be suspended for the remainder of the semester, so that students and faculty will not be denied the opportunity to respond in a constructive way to this ominous situation, and so that they will be free to engage in non-violent activities aimed at the ending of the United States military intervention in Southeast Asia and the systematic suppression of dissent which has already led to five deaths [sic]\u00a0at Kent State University.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n