Introduction

The Rise of Student Radicalism at the University of Virginia

Even the all-male, conservative bastion of the University of Virginia could not be protected from the tide of change that swept the United States in the 1960s. Americans everywhere began to question the necessity of our commitment in Vietnam and the government's concern for the young men it shipped there. No group questioned the established government quite as intensely as the youth. College students across America felt disregarded by Nixon's military commitments in Vietnam, and they began raising a skeptical eye and a clenched fist to the tight regulations that governed them at American universities.

The tide of social change in America faced the tradition of statesmanship and "gentlemanly" behavior at the University. So, through much of the mid-1960s, small pockets of radical students, usually relegated to groups such as Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Social Action led the University of Virginia anti-Vietnam demonstrations. Ignored at best, ridiculed at worst, these devoted students weaved their way through the bureaucracy of paperwork to stage their anti-war demonstrations on Grounds. They also became a part of a national movement, carpooling to Washington, D.C. for large-scale protests.

University officials feared this radical segment threatened the stability and tranquility of the University, and the politics of silencing their protests prove most interesting. President Edgar Shannon receives an incredible amount of pressure from state officials, taxpayers and administrators to control dissenters with a tight rule. He proclaims a "no tolerance" statement, threatening to withhold diplomas from students involved in non-licensed demonstrations. But because of this University's strong tie to the ideal of student self-governance, Shannon faced the awkward challenge of not appearing to be a controlling leader.

In the mid-1960s, when these radical student protests begin to gain more attention, Student Council can still be classified as a moderate to conservative organization, aligned with the administration. Shannon allowed Student Council to be the regulators of demonstrations, and he felt confident they would limit the attention and frequency of their protests. All groups wishing to host a protest or a political speaker were required by Student Council to fill out extensive paperwork detailing the purpose and the scope of their activities. In addition to the intrusiveness of the questions, the request needed to be filled out 96 hours in advance, curbing the spontaneity that characterizes political protests.

As the mid-1960s crept into the late 1960s, student activism spread into the mainstream arena. Students involved in social protests widened their scope and included much more than anti-war messages in their platforms. They channeled the energy from their general discontent to challenge the state of race relations at the University. They questioned the low number of African American students present and placed lofty expectations on the president and the Admissions office to make changes in this respect. Despite the radicalism of their requests and ideas, these men made their demands clad in the standard coat and tie. These were still "Virginia Gentlemen" demonstrations.

With this shift of social protest to a more mainstream population, Shannon faced the challenge of maintaining authority as Student Council began to lean left of center. They endorsed the demands made by the Virginia Council for Human Relations regarding more minority representation at UVA. In addition to attaching their name to the demands, they appealed to Shannon for a response. The years of 1968 through the eruption in May of 1970 proved particularly challenging for Shannon and other administrators as they tried to keep their finger on the pulse of student unrest without further agitating students' disillusionment.

The events of May of 1970 shook the nation in an unforgettable way. President Nixon, who had recently pledged a gradual drawback from the War in Vietnam, announced that he was sending more troops to Cambodia. This sent shock waves of protest through college campuses. Four students were shot and killed at Kent State by National Guardsmen who tried to contain their protests over Nixon's recent decision. Students were also killed at Jackson State University. This marked a shift in the tone of protests. It stopped being just about the war and became more about how the American government treated its young men and women. Any student who previously sat on the fence between student dissent and military loyalty, stepped to the side of the leftists to join in the cry of outrage about the treatment of college students in America.

The ROTC program took much of the brunt of the student outrage. Protesters associated the training of young men for military life with the killings in Vietnam. Demonstrators stormed Maury Hall, the Navy ROTC building, on two separate occasions by angry mobs. The first broke up after rumors that students staging the sit-in would be arrested. Their evacuation did follow some intense defacing throughout the building.

Student Council petitioned for classes to be canceled during the mass protests. Shannon refused to concede to this request, although he urged professors to cooperate with students. This University, however, was one of the only on the Eastern seaboard to remain open throughout this tense period in May of 1970.

Other activities throughout the week included rallies on the Lawn, lectures and liberation classes. Radical leftist Jerry Rubin and ACLU lawyer William Kunstler spoke to a crowd of 10,000 students and community members in University Hall. Their address evoked some strong emotions, particularly Kunstler's (the more moderate of the two), and thousands of students marched back to Maury Hall for another occupation of the ROTC building. After that occupation dissipated, a smaller crowd marched to the President Shannon's home on Carr's Hill to wage further demands.

While Shannon felt immense pressure to maintain the state's standards for order and respect for government, the student's deep anguish made those expectations harder for Shannon to maintain. He felt the pain of the students and he witnessed their disillusionment. In a speech that will forever mark the career of President Shannon, he said that he, too, urged Nixon to end the war and the disillusionment of the young people in America. This one word of empathy made Shannon the students' president again. Newspaper clippings show students speaking on Shannon's behalf when disapproving state legislators threaten to remove him from the post as president. Shannon is pulled between the interests of two distinct groups, and he makes all of his tormented decisions with conviction.

The arrival of a caravan of state police cars later that week further agitated the already tedious order at the University. After, the governor declared the Virginia State Riot Act which outlawed the congregation of more than two students in one particular place at a time. Shannon knew this evoked a sense of paranoia in the students, and he did his best to minimize the intrusiveness of the officers' presence by stationing familiar professors around Grounds.

The inevitable occurred when students staging a "honk for peace" protest along Emmett Street broke the face-off between their crowd and the state police barricade. State police chased the scattering students, many of whom retreated to the Lawn for refuge. Not even the sanctuary of the Lawn could protect these students. The police made many arrests throughout the next several hours, pulling students from their Lawn rooms and hauling them away to the Mayflower moving van stationed nearby.

Also prominent during this week of demonstrations was a Student Council Referendum ballot to vote on social issues under consideration at the time. Issues making the ballot included whether or not they should continue to protest the war, demands for the student body to be comprised of about 20 percent African Americans and the demand for the College of Arts and Sciences to be coeducated. The broad spectrum of issues placed before the student body proves that May Days offered students the chance to evaluate issues not only relating to their country but also to their immediate community at the University.

Student protests dissipated largely because the end of the semester pushed students in many different directions. The general disillusionment of the student body caused the University to taper commencement services that June. Many of the students received alternative arrangements for final exams with their professors. Professor Shannon endorsed the full cooperation and sympathy of professors as students struggled through this intense period of alienation and disgust. The following semesters brought little anti-war protest. Again, students maintaining that movement resided in the small pockets of radical student groups.

Amanda Locke