Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

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gives up on KSU 1.12, r

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Don Quixote T his is a painful column for me to write, not because it will be an easy target for my critics, but because admitting that I have withered into a tired Don Qutlvote will trouble those few people who have taken nourishment from my idealism and thereby sustained me these past two years. But I write it in tlze name of truth. I still believe it is possible to make poetljv out of life, but I no longer believe it is possible for me to do so at Kent State University or in Kent, Ohio. And tlzat is why I have resigned from my position at the University, effective tlze end of winter quarter. These were the words of Paul Keane, alias Broderick Euclid, upon his decision to leave Kent State. To those who knew him, and to those who knew of him, he was quite a campus character known for his grande-eloquent manner of speech. He was a modern-day Don Quixote, armed with a huge ego and vast concern, battling the windmills of apathy which he found consuming the university community. Of Keane's accomplishments, two stand out as most familiar to the university. Together with Greg Rambo, Keane collected 10,380 signatures on a petition to President Nixon, requesting the reconvening of a Grand Jury to investigate May 4. Keane, Rambo, and President Olds were granted an audience with the President's Civil Rights adviser, Leonard Garment. Although little came out of the meeting, Keane helped to alert the government to the fact that the May 4 issue was still very much alive at Kent and around the country, and that the students would not rest until justice was done. Keane was responsible for the formation of Pop's Snow Squad, a group which shovels sidewalks for Pop Fisher, a 75-year-old crossing guard. Said Keane to Charles Kuralt of CBS News, We're trying to show respect for a 75-year-old man who's got guts enough to stand out there in zero-degree weather three times a day and help little kids across the street.

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Shades In addition to these two note-worthy crusades, Keane published a variety of articles in the Kent Slater under the pen name of Broderick Euclid, campaigning to stop apathy on campus. In one article he called for an organization to be formed with the initials S.E.X. fSociety to End Xenophobiaj. He defined xenophobia as the fear or hatred of foreigners or things that are foreign. In another article. he wrote of a widespread disease on campus of Paul Keane known as Aversion, its victims known as Averts. Aversion, according to Keane, is the inability to look fellow students in the eye when passing and smile. He begged for involvement: with culture, fellow man, noble causes, anything that would drive the campus community out of its apathetic passivity. His outspoken manner evoked mixed reactions from the university, some very critical, some sarcastic and others supportive. His work as a resident student adviser found him trying to break down the barriers and sterility of dorm life by creating the Implosion Padw. He had hauled all of his furniture, books and magazines into a second floor study lounge of Wright Hall, and created a warm cultural atmosphere condusive to meaningful conversation. Keane was a Snow Architect , a Campus Treecologist and a very rare phenomenon at Kent State. He was so rare, in fact, that Kent State wasn't ready for him. Above, Do you realize it's only one month since twenty million viewers saw Kent State students shovelling snow for Pop Fisher on the Walter Cronkite show, and only one faculty member has come up to me and said what good publicity that was for KSU and for students? 6 Right, We got 10,380 signatures in ten days, the largest petition response in the history of Kent State. A clear mandate. And then 40,000 others from around the country.