University of Missouri - Savitar Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

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The students said yes. The faculty said yes. The administration chain of command said yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. The chancellor said yes. Yes, even he said yes. Honest. And formulated a proposal. A modest proposal. Very modest: Members of the opposite sex may be guests in student rooms between noon and 5 p.m. any Saturday or Sunday, and between 8 and 11 p.m. on Fri- day and Saturdayf' And the Curators said no. On Dec. 12, 1969, after a hundred visions and revisions, they said more than no-they said no-no. So we learned that the nine persons who measure our academic and social freedom with coffee spoons had lifted and dropped our question in our empty cup, unwilling to disturb the cloistered universe. And we wondered, Do we dare?',-dare make decisions which a minute would reverse. ' On the weekend of Jan. 9-11, members of 23 fraternities dared. The universe was disturbed. Likewise the administration. So much that 20 fraternities were suspended and eventually placed on disciplinary pro- bation for the remainder of the Winter Semester. The most disturbed person of all, however, was Judge Billings, Board of Curators Grundy-in-Residence, who saw an irrefutable connection between intervisitation and illicit sex andlor illegal drugs. We should be so lucky. Spurred on by Greek courage and undaunted in the face of Greek tragedy, Independents dared ascend the dorm stairs. Not so many as expected, but still a sizable number of sex fiends high on who-knows- what stormed the cloister walls on February 16. Intervisitation crept rampant through University housing that Friday night, as did ever-vigilant house mothers and PA's with the in- sidious intent of taking names of miscreants to be handed over to the Dean of Students for prosecution. Since that time, the issue has been called dead, and Schwada has commented that he probably wou1dn't act on inter- visitation again for another four to six months. And so we wait, as we have waited before and as we will wait again. This year, next year, the years following. Indubitably. Indefinitely. The incidental issue- intervisitation-is it dead? Perhaps. The fundamental issue, however, the once and future issue of student self-determin- ation, of student rights, lives on. In spite of every determination, of student rights, lives on. In spite of everything.

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I t was Thursday night, Feb. 12. 'l'he last directly-re1atedinter- visitation demonstration had ended when several demonstra- tors were beaten by fellow students. In a house on College Avenue, some of the Committee of Con- cerned Students leaders fsome of them victims of the violence earlier in the eveningj met to discuss the future of intervisita- tion and campus activism in general. Present at the meeting were former SDSers and long- time student activists Paul Showalter and Steve Fuchs. It was there, through the night and into the morning, that the take-over of Read Hall was planned. Read Hall was chosen because, as the home of Dean of Students Jack Matthews, it was a symbol of the University's power to coerce students into behaving themselves. These CCSers planned a liberation which was later to be termed abortive. The next night, the great majority unaware of the plans concerning Read Hall, rallied in front of the Brady Commons while Fuchs, using a bullhorn, ex- horted them to be unafraid in the face of University repression? While Fuchs harangued, the silhouette of Barbara Papish, also a long-time activist, could be seen approaching the rally at what might be termed a run. She burst into the crowd, grabbed the bullhorn and screamed Read Hall is liberated. The students need your aid. Unfortunately for Barbara, she was so out of breath and screaming so loudly she could not be understood. Fuchs had to relay her message to the crowd. Meanwhile, Matthews and the ubiquitous campus police had arrived. With Fuchs fwho later received a one year probated sentence for unlawful assemblyj in the lead, the crowd began moving toward Read Hall. The dean was left at the rally site reading the Chancellor's state- ment to a rapidly diminishing group. The rest is common knowledge. Five demonstrators were re- moved from school for being inside Read Hall at the wrong time. Many others reportedly escaped by posing as staff mem- bers of this book and the Man- eater. And, there was that beautiful scene with Matthews and Fuchs, up against the wall, as it were, one exhorting the crowd to enter the building, and the other begging them to leave while the crowd stood in the middle of a blizzard, freezing. Few students were willing to enter the building, but almost all were willing to enter the warmth and comfort of the Statler Unionf' It was then, in that tense first Friday night, that the issue changed dramatically. It was no longer simply intervisitation. It was self determination. The support of the wide-majority of dormitory residents had dissi- pated, and only the more activist element of the University campus remained to push on. That Fri- day it was tense, educational and dramatic. Bread, peanut butter, jelly and other food was brought into the Student Union's Bengal Lair as students prepared to spend the night. University Legal Counsel Jackson Wright, Matthews, Cam- pus Police Chief Harvey Cottle, Union Director A. C. Stotler and even Chancellor John Schwada -5- .... prepared to enforce the mid--night closing hour. CCS leaders Stan Kreis, Mike Evers flater suspended for the Read Hall incidentj MSA Leg- . islative Vice President Rick Goodman and others moved around campus trying to gather support. They met with Wright and Cottle to try and determine what the police would do if the students stayed past midnight. Assistant Forestry Professor Glen Goff, accompanied by Jean Coleman, also a CCSer, and Goodman, met with the Chancel- lor in an attempt to get his permission to keep the union open later than midnight. Schwada told the three it was not within his jurisdiction and he would take no action. About 11 p.m. the crowd began to swell, numbering from 300-400. Some were determined to stay, others were undecided and some merely looked on. The leader- ship was determined to stay, but worried about discriminations against students in the Lair. Stu- dents were repeatedly warned by their own members that they probably would be suspended if caught inside the Union after midnight. As midnight approached ten- sion mounted, and Goff, after speaking with some student leaders, decided to appeal to the students to leave at 11:55. Wou1dn't it be something if we all left at five minutes to midnight and the cops walked into an empty building? Galen Chadwick, one of the prime student speakers for the group, responded that people who left would be moral cowards. Onto the scene came William - Murphy, professor of law, who