Student, several of them black, gathering at a rally

Students gathered for a rally

Very specific problems on the OSU campus helped fuel the protesters’ are here:

  • The campus student population had doubled to more than 41,000 from 1960 to 1970, producing an antiquated, institutional and impersonal atmosphere for students who were nevertheless seeing constant increases in tuition.
  • Though University enrollment by African-Americans and women had risen considerably in the decade preceding the demonstrations (enrollment for women, for instance, had tripled during that time), no such corresponding services had been created for these increasingly significant populations.
  • There was no student representation on any of the University’s governing bodies, so students had no voice in the decisions that were being made concerning their education.