Then and Now: Anti-War Protests on College Campuses

Recent months on campus have seen rallies, lectures and fundraisers in solidarity with Palestine. Students have taken it upon themselves to express their support for a people under oppression when nearly all levels of government, down to our very own administration, hesitate to. There have been speeches given, tears cried, poems read and actions taken, but this is not nearly the first time we have seen this.

Back in the spring of 1970, 54 years ago, on April 30, colleges across the nation erupted when President Nixon announced an escalation of the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia. The invasion was justified as a necessary response to North Vietnamese aggression and branded as an offensive to save lives. This never happened though, and students knew it wouldn’t. About 400 colleges across the nation experienced strikes, causing over 200 to suspend classes in reaction to Nixon’s announcement. Students at the time were facing the draft, and the anti-war sentiment of the 60s had not faded one bit.

It reached a boiling point on May 4. In what is known as the Kent State massacre, the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students and wounded nine at Kent State University, after opening fire on a crowd of student protestors and observers. The National Guard was called in by the university president days earlier as anti-military sentiments were stirring and protests were actively threatened with tear gas. None of the protestors on May 4 thought those soldiers would fire real bullets at them, until they began striking the ground next to them. They brought the war in Southeast Asia to the colleges of the U.S.

That night in 1970 at SUNY New Paltz, about 150 students met at the Hasbrouck Dining Hall, now Peregrine Dining Hall, to discuss and plan action following the events at Kent State. They were soon kicked out due to a bomb scare and marched over to the Main Quad, ringing fire alarms in various dorm halls to call more students to action, eventually gathering over 1,000 students. They occupied the Main Building, which then housed the administration, and stayed there for nearly a week. Over 500 students slept in the building that night, including in the president’s office.

Inside, they called other colleges to learn about the actions being taken elsewhere and coordinate with them. The building was open for work the next day, but students served as obstacles and would continue to do so.

The next day, a rally was held with over 1,000 students and faculty present, and the sit-in was extended to the Humanities building and the Jacobson Faculty Tower. By the morning of May 6, students were calling for a halt to “business as usual” and locked all academic buildings, before agreeing to open them for classes that afternoon at a rally held by 2,000. The president spoke at this rally, sympathizing with students. He never would go as far as to call in police or military to control the strike.

All throughout these rallies there was coordination, discipline and peace. There was no widespread vandalism or violence.

On May 7, the college faculty held a special meeting where they urged no police or military presence, expressing support for the student strike and releasing a letter to Nixon condemning his expansion of the war. Not all faculty supported the students however, with one history professor writing a letter to The Oracle editors calling them “New Paltz Nazis.”

The Oracle released issues almost every day to report on the strike and actions being taken at colleges across America. They even helped to get 500 students to the May 9 March in Washington, which saw over 100,000 people protest the Cambodian invasion and Kent State shootings. There were seminars being advertised on campus about revolutions, American foreign policy and protesting, among other topics, as well as calls to boycott Coca-Cola. By May 12, there were 140 students participating in a hunger strike in solidarity, and a student referendum garnered 3,259 voters, deciding 7-3 to cancel classes.

In the end, no arrests were made regarding the incident at Kent State. All eight accused troops at Kent State were found not guilty. Officer actions were condemned, but that never brought justice to the victims. The following years saw the erasure of this event and protests from commemoration on campuses and in the mainstream. Protests continue to disrupt.

We, the students at New Paltz in 2024, have been witness to a brutal military campaign, which has forced the people of Gaza into dangerous levels of famine and has destroyed buildings and communities. This is a genocide, and the U.S. continues to support it. Just this week, Congress granted $26 billion to Israel, with $9 billion dedicated to humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which itself is dictated by Israel.

On our campus, students have protested, organized and made legitimate efforts to support the people in Gaza. As so, there have been incredible similarities to the actions students took nearly 54 years ago, when U.S. military imperialism was again in action. The anti-war movement will always need anti-imperialists.There have been peaceful protests, just as there were then, and just like then, student action has been widespread. But now, much of the action has shifted to social media. There’s no need to call other universities and churn out newspapers daily when everything is before our eyes on every screen.

Last week, at the encampment at Columbia University, NYPD arrested over 100 protestors who opposed the Israeli military action in Gaza and demanded the school divest from companies tied to Israel or companies that support its war effort. An email sent out by the university president stated her decision to authorize the police involvement, despite the non-violent presence of the encampment. Mayor Eric Adams and others have weaponized the term of antisemitism to justify these actions.

History has shown that this will continue to happen, regardless of where or when, whether in New York City or in New Paltz. The systems in power will continue to delegitimatize student movements, but these efforts will always have impact. In this moment, we still have the power to force change, just like we did over 50 years ago.