University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

Page 24 text:

20 AWN onwuanunn . . .u .n. .M ! 'tiic Fall. 1968ea110ther one of the silly years and seasons. Election fever and vote- itis hit the Uni- versity as hard as it hit the 1est 0f the country. Htmever. candidates who came to visit found that they couldnt push U of I students onto the hand wagon as quickly as they had expected. Students, Who could vote in Iowa City rather than by absentee ballot in their hometowns for the first time, questioned candidates long and hard about the War the draft national spending, etC- bCfOFC deciding whom to support. Once de- ended some became avid campaigners.

Page 23 text:

So you go to the University. . . One of the most mixed-emotions time in life is to go home for the holidays and have some little old lady who knew you when you were 12 meet you on the street and say, So you go to the University. My! MVP, Your emotions are mixed because you7re not quite sure what the little old lady is thinking-nor is she. She has a collage of stereotypes of the University student. She sees simultaneously the rebellious rioters seeking freedom and the complacent stu- dent snuggled safely and quietly to the Uni- versity7s cloistering bosom. She sees the mass and not the individual. But then the University of Iowa is a university. It is a massive community. But it is a community of 18,359 individuals each of whom views life as a student a little differently. But in common they have a quest for knowledge and concern about such things as the War in Vietnam, poverty, the draft and the Iowa State Legislature. Whether youire studying quietly in Stanley lounge or fighting the registration mobs at the Field House or watching people cross the spiral bridge or walking alone in the seasonis first snow fall, you still know there7s a world around. The close worldelowa City where urban re- newal is an eternal issue; the farther out worlde Iowa where former President Johnson comes to visit; the even farther out world-the nation where 1968 was a political year and the way out worldethe earth where peace is still a goal and astronauts have a picnic taking snapshots from miles out.

Page 25 text:

The political season - - Rockey started it; Nixon ended it It all began on a warm spring day, 1968, when a crowd gathered in front of Old Capitol and kept looking up into the blue afternoon sky. They were looking for Nelson Rockefeller who had just announced the day before that he would seek the Re- publican nomination for President. After the crowd waited about 45 minutes in an unbear- able racket of R-O-CKE F-E-LL-E-R shouted too close to the mike by an over-enthusiastic Young Republican, he came and with him was Happy7 his wife. Students heard Rockefeller defend a draft by lottery system and a de-escalation of the War in Vietnam, and then he swooped away on a bus back to Cedar Rapids. That was just the beginning. Before spring was over, President Johnson had an- nounced that he would not seek re-election; less than a month later Vice President Hubert Humphrey said he would seek the democratic presidential nomination. And amid sad and bloody riots in Chicago, he got it. Not only was the convention to be a sad affair but also the whole election became that way when a spunky? tassel- haired Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated June 6 when things were just beginning to look good for him. A sadder nation watched Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Richard M. Nixon, Rockefeller and George Wallace bat- tle down to the last fightsthe nomination itself. In August, just as summer session was ending, the po- litical rush began even harder. A Nixon-Agnew ticket was written in Miami, and Chicago came up with Hum- phrey-Muskie. Election Day was a long and tiring one for everyonee students included. An Election Command Center was set up in the Union by Union Board members. Three color televisions were set on each of the national networks, and the tallying began. Lots of coffee and popcorn and hamburgers were con- sumed by Daily Iowan and VVSUI news staffs as well as students who had either participated intensely or observed interestedly the goings-on in politics. But no one was to know for sure on Election Day, Nov. 5. Next day it was certain--Richard M, Nixon was 37th President. 2l