Police guard the doors of Woody Hall as a crowd gathers outside in protest of the Vietnamese Studies Center on Jan. 30, 1970. Scenes like these were frequent on the SIUC campus during the spring of 1970. Students and faculty protested the studies center, the war in Vietnam and the Kent State killings, all of which led to rioting and demonstrations in early May. On May 12, 1970, President Delyte Morris ordered the closing of SIUC. After 25 years many of those involved still have deep feelings about what happened here in 1970.
-DE File Photo
Remembering the Days of May
Though the days of May usually represent the nearing of the end of school, and the hope of many warm days to come, 25 years ago this month the SIUC campus was a hotbed of political activity and stood as a sign of the social movement of the late 1960s and the early 1970s.
On May 12, 1970, because of riots and demonstrations which disrupted classes and inflicted damage to buildings on campus and to the city, SIUC President Delyte Morris ordered that the school be closed indefinitely.
The student protest at SIUC was part of the nationwide protest against the country's increasing involvement in Vietnam and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.
Also riots erupted on May 4 in response to the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University in Ohio by members of the National Guard during a Vietnam War protest.
But SIUC had a unique point of protest. The Agency for International Development gave SIUC $1 million to set up a Vietnamese Studies Center in Woody Hall to teach Vietnamese culture.
The center was believed then, as well as now, to have had ties with the Central Intelligence Agency.
Some students and faculty believed that through the center, SIUC was becoming involved with the war effort.
With these things at hand, early May brought intense rioting and demonstrating on the campus and in the city, known as the Days of May, which caused Morris to close the school.
Though classes began again in the summer, the University felt the aftershocks of this period long afterward, and some of those who were opposed to each other at the time still feel a tension today.
Effects of this period remain. The presence of Faner Hall, built in 1971 as a riot-proof structure, was in response to the riots of 1970. Many students of the class of 1970 did not have the opportunity to go through graduation because of the closing of the University. The class will be represented in this year's ceremonies.
Created by Kelly Thomas
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