Spring of Dissent

During the spring of 1970, certain individuals and groups emerged as constants in the chaotic developments of that period, whether it was student groups making demands, administrators conceiving responses, protest leaders organizing marches or government officials trying to restore order.  Below is a list of the key players and their roles:

John T. Mount – Vice President of Student Affairs:
University’s point person in negotiations with student groups about their demands for change at the University. Toward the end of this period of unrest, he suffered from exhaustion and upper respiratory illness.

James A. Robinson – Vice President for Academic Affairs:
Also met with student groups to achieve a peaceful agreement on their demands.  Like Mount, he suffered from exhaustion and upper respiratory illness near the end of the period.

Kenneth Bader – Dean of Students:
Reported on the African-American involvement in the recruitment plans for student personnel directors and assistants and student assistants.  Provided information about minorities and the University to Mount.

M.E. Sensenbrenner – Mayor of Columbus:
Ordered multiple curfews for the campus region in order to prevent more rioting and destruction.

James A. Rhodes – Governor of Ohio:
Called up the Ohio National Guard to secure the campus.  Rhodes also denied monetary assistance to OSU for the hiring of additional security, saying that Ohio could not afford to assist all of the area’s colleges affected by riots.

Charles B. Wheeler – Professor of English:
Wrote a first-person account of the unrest on campus.

Salvatore Marco – Professor and Chairman of University Discipline Committee:
Said students arrested who violated the University’s Disruption Rule would be temporarily suspended.  After the Faculty Council voted to suspend disciplinary actions against students, Marco resigned from the committee.

David Kettler – Professor of Political Science:
Popular speaker at student demonstrations.  Kettler criticized the University’s Disruption Rule, calling it a “continuation of the University’s repressive pseudo-parental code.”

Louis Nemzer – Professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry

Ad Hoc Committee for Student Rights – Made up of the following groups:

Afro-Am Society
Columbus Moratorium Committee
Third World Solidarity Committee
Student Mobilization Committee
Striking students from various departments
Women’s Liberation Movement

Students for an Operating University – Formed to encourage students who are against the demonstrations to make their voices heard.

Committee of Five – Appointed by Faculty Council to push for resolution, especially from May 12 to May 19, during the shutdown, but continued afterward. Members of the Committee of Five:

Herbert S. Parnes (chairman), economics
Richard E. Day, law
Louis Nemzer, political science
George R. St. Pierre, metallurgical engineering
Jack G. Calvert, chemistry

Faculty Advisory Committee – Seven members met every day from May 12 to 28, with about a third of those meetings with student leaders, working toward a resolution. Members of the Faculty Advisory Committee:

Carroll A. Swanson
Albert J. Kuhn
O. Lee Rigsby
W. Thomas Lippincott
Noland VanDemark
Mars G. Fontana
Roy A. Larmee