College students across the country were outraged when Richard Nixon called for an increase of the draft in the spring of 1970. Knowing that many of them and their classmates would be enlisted in the Vietnam War, students began protesting across campuses nationwide. Kent State University, in Kent Ohio, experienced mass protests during this time, of over 2,000 people. When ROTC building on campus was set on fire, Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes called for 900 National Guardsmen to intervene.
On May 4, 1970, 28 guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of students, killing four and wounding nine. After these killings the country responded with uproar. After the shootings the campus remained closed for six weeks. During this time some students stood strong with their mascot, Flash the golden eagle, while others protested and refused to return to campus. During this time 500 college campuses and high schools across the nation closed or were disrupted by protests, including Endicott College.
When discussing this time in her 1985 book Endicott and I, Endicott’s co-founder Eleanor Tupper wrote that the college “began to see in our students a sullen, unfriendly attitude toward figures of authority on campus.”
With tensions rising around Endicott’s campus, the events on May 5, 1970 matched what other college students were doing around the country. According to Tupper, 350 students met that night, and plotted to strike on campus “to attain their rights.” After examining the college policy towards campus disruption, students decided that a peaceful picketing strike would work best.
According to the records of that night, students agreed upon a few rules while protesting:
“No loitering; walk in orderly fashion; if signs are carried on sticks- do not lift up ends of sticks; no person should be prevented from attending classes or from going about his own way. BE PEACEFUL!”
Students also discussed what needed to happen in order to end this strike at this first meeting. According to the minutes of this meeting, obtained from Endicott College’s archives department, they were:
Civil Liberties (right to dissent without punishment)
Student Government (including 50/50 vote with faculty, freedom of press, free bus, cars for all seniors, cigarette machines, more freedom for Social Committee, motorcycles on campus)
Unlimited Cuts (more responsibility for students)
More Liberal Dorm Rules (including parietals, no curfews, no roomcheck)
Health (full-time doctor, psychiatrist on campus)
Student Faculty Board (higher wages for faculty)
Library (more and better books, faculty-students working together)
Counseling (full-time transfer counselor for all students)
Annual financial report (to show all expenditures)
Equal Admissions (for all races, colors, and creeds)
Although these were the initial demands for students, according to Tupper, things changed and eventually the main priority of the students became to gain “sexual freedom and student power over matters already functioning in accordance with the law and the approval of our accrediting association.”
During this time many professors were faced with a difficult decision: support their students, or support their administration.
“Faculty were on both sides of it, some saw it as a good thing, others didn’t think it was such a good thing”, said Robert Chambers, professor of business, who has worked at Endicott for over four decades.
At the time Chambers was teaching retailing (now known as business), and was very supportive of student run activities. As an advisor for the class of 1972, Chambers said that Endicott had “pretty strong class relationships”, and students were generally positive about things on campus. Although he admits to not being in favor of the protests during the time, now he says, “It was good that they did it, it showed a political awareness.” At the time, he says, he felt that the protests were going too far, and students prolonged the protests after they had made their point clear.
In May 1970, The Beverly Times newspaper wrote several articles about the strikes happening on school campuses along the North Shore following the Kent State shootings. One article quoted Endicott’s strike leader, Maura Miles, who was 19 at the time of the strike, saying, “today’s activities will be a silent strike. Everything we do will be in silent protest to what happened to the Kent students.” Although Miles admitted that some students were returning back to class on the third day of the protest, she said a majority of students were still in solidarity. She also told the newspaper that negotiations with the school administration would begin that weekend.
“Strike leaders said this morning that they realized that negotiations would be lengthy and they did not want to boycott classes if negotiations were underway,” the reporter wrote. The article also mentioned that strike leaders claimed there could be possible strikes in the future if their demands were not properly met.
During this time other colleges along the North Shore were protesting as well. North Shore Community College, Salem State University, and Bradford Junior College were just three of 139 colleges striking nationwide.
Salem State’s campus saw protests because students wanted to see changes in the faculty. According to The Beverly Times, strikers wanted four professors’ contracts renewed, the chairman of the foreign language department to step down, and the faculty members of the foreign language department to sign a document that there would be no discrimination against students. Some students felt that the Foreign Language Department discriminated against French Canadian students because they did not speak with a Parisian accent in French classes. This fear of discrimination was magnified by the Kent State Shootings, causing students to take action.
On North Shore Community College’s campus, students protested in solidarity with those at Kent State against the Vietnam War. As written in The Beverly Times, students commenced their striking after three days and a meeting with administration. After the protests students held workshops for several weeks to ensure that their ideas and feelings were heard throughout the campus, the changes they wanted would be implemented.
Back on Endicott’s campus negotiations were taking a little bit longer. “Strike leaders had claimed that the administration had refused to sign a statement guaranteeing amnesty to strikers and assuring that negotiations on student grievances would begin.” Dan Campbell wrote in a Beverly Times article, titled Endicott in Stalemate; NSCC Students in Class.
Following more negotiations, and a student vote, students agreed that they would would stop their strike if the administration agreed to further negotiate their demands within 60 hours.
“Student concerns will be thoroughly considered by the appropriate college committee and the students will be given a response to their requests.” Dorothy Dente, spokesperson for the college at the time, told the Beverly Times.
Melvin Manson, professor of psychology, with a dual discipline in sociology, who joined the Endicott faculty the semester after the controversial protests hit campus, recalled that some professors felt that the administration should have listened to the students concerns more. A few professors left the school because of how the administration handled the protests, he said. Manson said this is how he and “six or seven of us” got positions at the school.
Talking about the semester after the protests on campus Manson said, “I had some students who were socially aware and some were not.” He talked about how in his classes there were open discussions about social issues, which he believes might have helped stop any possible future protests.
Chambers said that students talked about the changes of policy after the protesting, and that it was a time when people were unsure how a college campus should act politically so students were uncertain how to effectively make changes they wanted to see on campus. However, this did not seem to last long as he said that there were discussions about how to avoid strikes, and that students often met with administration to ensure that there was open communication on campus
He also said “It really did not affect the college too much, except some of the staff left,” said Chambers.
Endicott was a two year college, at the time, and as a new cohort entered, “within 2 years everything disappears,” he said.
Manson and Chambers agreed that these protests didn’t have a lasting affect on campus. Indeed a majority of students, faculty, and staff on campus to this day don’t know it happened. A group of 25 students were asked about these events on campus. 17 students knew about the Kent State Shootings’ and 13 of those knew its effect on colleges across the country. Only 2 students knew about protests on Endicott’s campus. These two students said that they learned of the campus protests from reading Tupper’s novel Endicott and I.