What was your role on campus at the time:

Undergraduate

During the school year 1969-70, where did you live:

Dormitory

Were you a member of any student organization on campus? If so, which one(s)?

N/A

During the weeks before the university closed, what was the most significant thing you observed?

During the first afternoon of actual confrontations, I was at my friend’s fraternity house when a member of what we referred to as the “D-Platoon” shot a tear gas canister into the bedroom of one of the fraternity students. When he yelled that his room was on fire, I ran to the front door, opened it and yelled: “Fire….fire in here!!” Of course, I meant that there was a fire in here, but one of the agents decided to fire a tear gas canister right through that front door. It went over my head as I was down on all fours when I made that announcement. I shut the door, and we fled out the back way. Later, we observed the spent canister in the house, so I know it wasn’t my imagination. The entire campus tasted more tear gas that day then any of us cared to remember. But we all remembered.

What were your impressions of campus during the time period?

There were people who seemed to be in charge of what appeared to be students and possible outside agitation. After a while it was like: “Chase me, chase me” and it all started seeming like a carnival atmosphere, but I’m sure the police and National Guard were taking it seriously enough. Still, we broke for lunch, and classes took a back seat to all this.

Did you think the university should be closed? Why or why not?

I suppose that’s all that could be done at the time as nothing was really getting accomplished. Students stopped attending class, and people spent the days ahead running across the campus yelling: “Pig!!”, getting stoned and having parties. Hair got longer, and by that time, I looked quite different then when I started my first year there.

What did you do during the two weeks the university was closed?

I stayed home and listened to my parents tell me how bad I looked. Longer hair, beard, bell bottoms, used army jacket and the like. “You’re there for an education, not all this!!” remarked my father who was an electrical engineer with Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio. He had also served overseas during WW II. Yeah…..all that went over really well with him!! Not!!

Did you return to finish the quarter?

Yes

Looking back, what do you think are the lasting legacies of the student demonstrations?

It was a special time when we believed we were standing for something. The war in Vietnam, racial inequality, long hair and radical looks seemed to stand for something. As a black man told some of us: “You white kids can cut your hair and be the “Silent Majority” when it suits you, but my skin color does not change.” In those days, you felt the white police force had it in for students and especially blacks. A couple years later during a football celebration on High Street, I passed a student yelling “Pig” to a police officer, and then I heard what sounded like the crunching of teeth with a night stick. I just didn’t want to look back at that point. We were encouraged to keep moving.