University of Maine - Prism Yearbook (Orono, ME)

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September 1970 - June 1971 CAMPUS SENTIMENT The 1970-71 academic year at UMO left many with a feeling of helplessness. Students returned for the fall semester expecting to encounter active political movements. Many hoped to participate in anti-war demonstrations, curriculum reform activ- ities. etc., which gave people a chance to do some- thing they felt was worthwhile. But the fall semester was a letdown. Everyone waited for someone to do something. Hey! There’s a war going on man. There’s poverty, rac- ism. We can’t allow the country to follow its present path. We’ve got to get out there and show Tricky Dicky the way it should be.” No one did. The campus remained quiet throughout the year. The first disappointment came over the sum- mer. when the trustees decided there would be no fall recess for political campaigning. And this was by no means the last disappointment. Not even one anti-war rally was a success as they all had been the year before. The first demonstration in the fall was sched- uled for October 15. It was to be a “commu- nications day,” focusing on the social implications of a wartime economy and related problems, i.c., the effect of intlation on fixed family incomes and the resulting lack of funds for domestic programs. The rally was cancelled because of bomb threats. A rock concert was held instead. UMO students did not even participate in the October 31 national moratorium. We don't have the support and organization to pull off a success- ful rally, said Coalition for Peace coordinator Kevin Vickers, and no plans were made. A third national moratorium was scheduled for November 15. The day passed. The Maine Campus did not even report it. The sentiment of the spring before was still there, but no one rekindled the fire. Everyone felt helpless. Support and organization, apparently 6

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key ingredients, were non-existent at UMO. But why did everyone feel so helpless? Was it that they were giving up? Had they resigned themselves to the theory that we must work through the system? Was it because more forceful and charismatic leaders were needed? Students seemed to agree on one thing. They weren’t apathetic in the total sense of the word; they were just physically apathetic. They simply did not feel like going out and protesting against the political ills of the times. Demonstrating was nothing new. the novelty had worn off. and be- sides. nothing ever seemed to come of it. Unfor- tunately. this is probably the most serious weak- ness inherent in “student power. Students have the power to make changes, especially since the lowering of the voting age. but they lack the tena- city to make it effective. Politically, the year can best be described as a nine-month period of expectancy-with no result- ing birth of feeling or activism. At the beginning of March, the Maine Campus asked students what they expected to happen in the spring. Reporters said that most students were just waiting for some- thing to happen One student said: “There’s a lot of suppressed anger and I'm afraid that it's going to break nation-wide into a revolution. Another student: ‘This campus has just been so quiet all year and now that spring is coming students arc getting restless. They’re going to go out and raise hell this spring. They’re not going to sit back and wait the rest of the year for someone else to get something done. But he was wrong. Apparently, everyone was quite prepared to “sit back and wait”— indefinitely. There were still legitimate areas for protest in 1970-71. There was still the war and all its attend- ant political maladies, there was the question of whether or not the draft would be eliminated, the SST. My Lai. and closer to home, there was still the lack of any overwhelming academic reform which had been approved in referendum the year before. But the only thing to produce vehement student protest throughout the winter was sub- zero temperatures and copius amounts of snow. On the national issues, it seemed people were waiting for a national political disaster to occur as a catalyst for student protest. There was none. And on the local issues, apparantly students tired of reading about academic reform, or the lack of it just as they tired of reading about the Justice Department visit and its implications. A newspaper often provides the stimulous for public concern, but the Maine Campus was covering top- ics the student body refused to concern itself with. Dan Rather. White House correspondent for CBS News, spoke of Richard Nixon’s repetition of the slogan the lift of a driving dream : If I hear that comment once more. I think I'll jump off the Tallahatchee Bridge. This appears to be the way students fell about academic reform. They were sick of hearing about what sparked student unrest the year before. And there seemed to be no new issues for the student body as a whole to protest against, or perhaps they did not want to look for any. ACADEMIC REFORM The student senate administration in September decided that academic reform would be the first priority of the year. Students had already ex- pressed their dissatisfaction with curriculum re- quirements and the grading system. Change had to come about. “If nothing comes through, it will be the stu- dents’ fault. Senate President Chic Chalmers said. But the academic reform movement was pla- gued with obstacles. It wasn’t until the end of Oc- tober that the Council of Colleges approved a stu- dent motion calling for the initiation of a Task Force on Academic Review. On November 19. the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences rejected a proposed amendment to their by-laws which would have set aside fifty seats for student observers during faculty meet- ings. Less than a month later, the faculty opened up its meetings to eighteen students, one from 7