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

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

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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.

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While battles raged, Iowa was quiet There was big trouble at Columbia Uni- versity, at University of Mexicot at San Francisco State and even at Cornell, but the University of Iowa remained much calmer than its 1967 self. This year there was to be no Dec. 5 demonstration at the Union against Dow Chemical. Instead, this yearis demonstrations cen- tered 0n the Code of Student Life. To some students, the revised Code was just an 18 by 24 piece of white paper thrust on them at registration. To others, it was a direct assault from the administration. The new Code, passed by the administra- tion during the summer, had seven sections that were the meat for student dissent. These sections stated that any student had to show his ID anytime a campus official requested it, provided strict discipline against unauthorized entry of a building and said that anything a student does, on or off campus, could be used as evidence against him. Dissenters Charged that the sections in- fringed upon studentsa rights. The Code was discussed at several HSP-spon- sored rallies 011 the steps of Old Capitol. Jerry Sies, Mike Lally, Charles Derden, Dan Chessman and Ken Wessels became the most vocal dissent- ers at the mid-day rallies which administrators said disrupted University process. Other campus dissent included 3 Nov. 1 protest of Marine re- cruiting on campus. Students played know and lit cigarettes with Marine literature at a sit-in at the Union.