What does it take to get Dartmouth students riled up? There was much talk and little action in the wake of recent Hanover Police initiatives and the closing of the beloved swim docks on the Connecticut River. In the past, however, activism rather than apathy was the norm.
In 1879 the New York Observer reported on "Rowdyism at Dartmouth College" due to faculty members refusing to allow public reading at weekly church services. Two seniors were expelled over their "uproarious demonstration" at morning prayers and two snitches suspected of ratting them out were "taken to a pump and given a soaking."
Following a series of alcohol-related incidents in 1952, the Dartmouth administration set forth strict regulations on Hanover's drug of choice. The new rules sparked a massive uproar amongst the student body. A mob 2,000-strong rioted outside the Dean's residence and bombarded him with firecrackers when he came outside to address them.
In the fall of 1966 (what up 66F) campus organizations began to coalesce in protest of the increasing American involvement in Vietnam, ushering in the most contentious era in campus history. As troop levels grew, so did student discontent.
In May 1968 nearly 100 student members of that vanguard of 1960s radicalism, Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, fasted in protest against the presence of ROTC on campus, drinking only a glass of juice or milk each day. Restlessness was brewing in Hanover, and anxious, late night meetings birthed the wild new idea of hunger strikes.
Student rage spilled over again in May 1969 when Dartmouth faculty voted to end ROTC not as immediately as SDS would have it but merely as soon as possible and no later than 1973. SDS agitated for the immediate removal of all military presence on campus, arguing that ROTC constituted College support for war in Vietnam and that the moral issue involved superseded all other considerations.
A cohort of SDS faithful gathered on the Green in the afternoon of May 6. Forming into a phalanx of protest, the students charged Parkhurst Hall and ordered all personnel out. Deans Thaddeus Seymour and Al Dickerson had to be literally forced out of their offices, though former College President John Sloan Dickey left peacefully after arguing with students outside his office. The activists nailed the mighty oaken doors of Parkhurst shut and draped banners bearing anti-ROTC slogans and messages from its windows. A scarlet flag emblazoned with Che Guevara's bearded face flapped from the president's office. The siege was on.
Hundreds milled outside. The crowd was a mix of supporters and unsympathetic faculty members and more conservative students. Rain gently drizzled on the Hanover plain as the SDS students struggled with their sound equipment. A counter-rally staged by Students Behind Dartmouth, or SBD, showed support for the school by dressing in coat and tie, singing Dartmouth songs and practicing football cheers. A third group, Students Against Pineapple Pancakes (SAPP), gathered nearby, apparently in satire. One senior, Jim Coplan '69, moved between the camps preaching non-violence. Standing atop a mailbox, he led SBD in the national anthem and "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" while wearing a white band of protest around his bicep.
At 3:00 a.m. New Hampshire state troopers descended on Parkhurst, ending the 12 hours of occupation. A forest of peace signs greeted them when they finally dragged the protestors out. Forty-five demonstrators would receive 30 days in the Grafton County jail 29 of them Dartmouth undergraduates.
The Parkhurst takeover briefly made national news as word of the incident spread. Unrest rocked the campuses of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, University of Chicago, Howard University and the City College of New York that same week, part of what the media had begun calling the "student spring offensive" against the war in Vietnam.
One year later, the campus was shaken again, but this time it was by administrative rather than student action. On May 5, 1970, in a precedent-shattering move, former College President John Kemeny suspended college operations for a week. The decision came five days after President Richard Nixon broadcast his intention to invade North Vietnamese strongholds in Cambodia. Kemeny did so because of a "deep feeling of concern" on the part of Dartmouth students and faculty members regarding "feelings ignited by the deaths of four students at Kent State," which had occurred at a rally the day before. Dartmouth's suspension of regular activities was part of a nationwide strike that affected nearly 4 million students.
Nearly 100 workshops and seminars "devoted to all sides and aspects of these national problems" were mounted as the school struggled to make sense of the national zeitgeist and turmoil of the day. Many students worked to maintain regular operations of the College. Some studied, and others rallied on the Green. And some just went home and enjoyed their spontaneous spring break.
