Tomorrow marks the 30-year anniversary of a speech delivered by Alabama Governor George Wallace at Webster Hall -- a speech that was cut short by student hecklers and then marred by a riot that then-Hanover Police Chief Dennis Cooney told The Dartmouth was "the worst behavior that I have seen in 22 years."
Less than two years later, students forced College President John Sloan Dickey from his office inside Parkhurst Administration Building, and barricaded themselves inside the building to protest the College's Reserve Officer Training Corps program -- and, symbolically, the Vietnam War.
Fast forwarding to the present, the last two years have seen student activism in the form of the Rally Against Injustice, in reaction to incidents of hate speech during the winter of 1996; a Fall 1996 "speak out" protesting the passage of a controversial ballot initiative in California; and the placing of more than 70,000 pennies in front of Parkhurst to show of student support of an Assembly referendum demanding improvements to the College's exercise facilities.
The face of College student activism has certainly changed in the 30 years since the Wallace incident. Dartmouth students have gone from riots and sit-ins to rallies and referendums -- it seems peaceful protest seems to have become more than peaceful, even subdued.
The question is, how and why have students gone from taking over Parkhurst to placing pennies in front of it?
Wallace's visit
Wallace's speech at the College, and the volatile student reaction, "was the beginning of student activism" at the College, English Professor Alan Gaylord said.
Gaylord, who joined the College as a visiting professor in 1966, said the 1960s were a time when students "began to have notions of protest, notions of speaking out."
The visit by Wallace, the former Alabama governor who ardently supported racial segregation, was met with some protest and dissent before he even arrived on campus.
Woody Lee '68, the president of the Afro-American Society at the time, told The Dartmouth that Wallace, who was then running for the Republican presidential nomination, would "get support by avoiding the race issue."
Lee told The Dartmouth the best community reaction would be to show "negative support" and demand Wallace face the issue of race.
The Upper Valley Human Rights Council issued a statement condemning Wallace and his record on race in Alabama and urging people to boycott the talk.
The night of the speech was filled with disruptions. Wallace was greeted in front of Webster Hall by a large group, including several picketers.
Inside, his speech was interrupted many times by shouts from what The Dartmouth called "a generally unreceptive audience of 1400," and by a group of people who broke through police lines and forced their way into the building.
Outside after the speech, the mob of around 500 students greeted Wallace with angry shouts.
Surrounded by security guards, Wallace was escorted to his car. According to The Dartmouth, "the mob battered one car, denting the roof and breaking the radio aerial. They rocked the car as it tried to leave, and Wallace had to be moved to another car, as the one he was in would not start."
In the days following the riot, which made national news and was described by Cooney as "the worst behavior that I have seen in 22 years," College community members condemned the actions of the crowd, and many said they felt ashamed for the College.
Dickey said "a few silly people got the trouble they apparently wanted and few irresponsibles demonstrated that they neither know nor care about democracy."
Gaylord, however, wrote a letter to The Dartmouth which suggested the College should not have apologized, but instead told Wallace "your refusal to allow meaningful answers to your lies provoked loud voices and actions which testify not only to rashness and unreason, but also to a deeper rage which cannot stand to see demagoguery flattered with politeness ... We regret the response; but we deplore the provocation."
Those "heady" days
Many people feel the decline in student activism was inevitable, as its peak was related to the movements of the 1960s and early 1970s.
"In the '60s and '70s, there were genuine issues of national importance," according to History Professor Charles Wood, who has been at the College since 1964. "In Governor Wallace's case, he symbolized one of them. As you look around today, there simply isn't the range of issues that seem to provoke or encourage or facilitate the type of activism you had back then."
He said the lack of striking student protest in the last 10 years was primarily a result of this lack of unifying issues.
"I don't think there have been any that have torn apart campuses to the extent that those did and which reflected ways in which country at large did," he said.
Wood said he thought student activism at the College was simply a part of young people everywhere "striking out against traditional authoritarian ways that made no sense to them."
History Professor Jere Daniell, who went to the College as an undergraduate and joined the faculty in 1964, said he felt it was inevitable that the passionate activism would end.
"Society can't sustain that type of revivalist intensity," he said. "It burns itself out."
The lack of such protests in later years was just because "society wound down from the intensity of the 1960s movements," Daniell said.
Wood, however, said though the issues may not be there, the underlying activism remains.
"Were such issues to reoccur, I suspect student activism would reoccur," he said.
Education Professor Robert Binswanger, another College alumnus, agreed that today's students needed something to rally around.
"Give the youth of America an issue that's worth talking about and I think they will demonstrate," he said.
Binswanger cited the protests against the College's investment in South Africa in the 1980s as a reoccurrence of activism.
The increase in diversity of both the campus and the issues, Gaylord said, is also partly responsible for decreases in student activism.
"We think it's disappeared and then it gets motivated again," he said. "There's so many causes that are recognized that there's not a central thing that gathers everyone around it ... if you keep emphasizing diversity, then, almost by definition, you don't have a single issue for people to focus on."
A new focus
Despite an apparent decline in student activism concerning national and international issues, some people feel protest is alive and well at the College.
Binswanger said he felt protests against the abolition of the education department last spring and against an increase in dining charges this term are examples of important, successful student activism.
"Both those incidents had an impact on the decisions of the administration," he said. "The demonstrations are more mature and effective."
