CHAPTER 1

CAMPUS OPINION IN MAY 1970

This account has summarized the development of contemporary American campus unrest from its beginnings in the civil rights movement in 1960 to the introduction of the Berkeley invention in 1964 and its elaboration in the Columbia disruption of 1968, and finally to the tragic events at Kent State, Jackson State, and the University of Wisconsin in the spring and summer of 1970. The overall trend of the past decade has clearly been toward more widespread and more violent protest. Issues that in the first half of the decade preoccupied only a. few students had become, by 1970, the concern of the great majority of students. Tactics once considered outrageous and immoral by almost all students were justified and encouraged by some, and tolerated by many more. The university, once regarded as a bastion of academic freedom, was increasingly viewed by radical students as an instrument of a repressive and immoral society. And the confidence of an influential minority of American students in the ability of existing social and political institutions to effect meaningful change had diminished.

Describing the trends of the last decade still leaves the question: what are the attitudes and opinions of American college students today? How deep and how widespread were the effects of the rising tide of student protest?

On the whole, American students are not as politically radical as some press reports might suggest. Only three years ago, in the spring of 1967, a Gallup Poll of college students found that 49 percent classified themselves as "hawks" on the war in Vietnam. Since that time, there has been a dramatic shift of students' attitudes toward the war. A Gallup Poll published in December 1969 found that only 20 percent of the students classified themselves as "hawks" while 69 percent classified themselves as "doves." At that same time, 50 percent --as compared to 64 percent of the adult public --approved of the way president Nixon was handling the situation in Vietnam. In 1965, one poll reported that only 6 percent of American students favored immediate withdrawal from vietnam. In May 1970, a special Harris survey, commissioned by the American Council on Education and conducted after the Cambodian incursion and the events at Kent State and Jackson State, found that 54 percent favored an end to the fighting in Vietnam and bringing American troops home as soon as possible.

Student opinions on other controversial issues have not been particularly radical either. The special Harris Survey found that only 25 percent felt that ROTC should be completely removed from campus, while 37 percent felt that it should be permitted on campus and receive academic credit. The Same survey reported that 72 percent believed that companies doing defense business should be allowed to recruit on campus; 70 percent agreed that "school authorities are right" to call in police when students occupy a building or threaten violence; and, even after the tragic killings at Kent State, 42 percent of the students felt that "the National Guard has acted responsibly in most cases" when it has been called onto college campuses.

Although these survey data indicate the persistence of liberal, and even conservative, attitudes among college students, other data indicate growing student radicalism. In 1968, the Harris organization found that 4 percent of American students identified themselves as "radical or far left;" by 1970, 11 percent identified themselves in this way.

Although only a small percentage of students identify themselves as "radicals," a large proportion of students have come to hold radical opinions. The 1970 special Harris survey revealed that 76 percent believed that "basic changes in the system" will be necessary to improve the quality of life in America and 44 percent thought that social progress in America was more likely to come about through "radical pressure from outside the system" than the actions of major established institutions.

The growth of political radicalism among students has been accompanied by an extension of student protest and a greater willingness on the part of some students to engage in --or at least condone --disruptive and violent protests. On the basis of student responses, the special Harris survey reported that, in May, 1970 80% of the respondents I schools "experienced protests or demonstrations. At these schools, 75 percent of the students favored the goals of the protests and 58 percent actually participated in the protests.

Most surveys indicate that the majority of students are not tactical extremists. For example, the special Harris survey found that 68 percent still do not accept violence as an effective means of change. But tactical extremism has become acceptable to some students. The same Harris survey revealed that 56 percent of the students disagree with the statement that "since colleges and universities are intended as a place for serious intellectual study and learning, they are too important to our society to be continually disrupted by protests and demonstrations." This September, a group of researchers at the University of California reported that a survey of predominantly white, middle- class graduating college seniors revealed that 80 percent believed confrontations, ranging from non- violent mass demonstrations to violent acts, are necessary to achieve social change.

In short, the last decade has witnessed growing disenchantment and alienation among many American college students. More than three-quarters today believe that "basic changes in the system" are needed; many argue that their earlier efforts to "work within the system" have proved unsuccessful; a large number accept disruptive tactics; and a tiny but important minority have adopted violent tactics --without clear repudiation by all their teachers and fellow students. Thus, in countless individual instances, what began as an idealistic and hopeful commitment to social change has disintegrated. This is a bleak picture, but an accurate one.