Rutgers Celebrates 40th Anniversary of the Student Takeover of a Campus Building
Stuart Nachbar
February 17, 2009
Last week, I stumbled upon a story about the fortieth anniversary of the takeover of Conklin Hall, an administration building on the Rutgers University-Newark campus. I found it unusual for a university community to celebrate such an event-and Newark is a convenient train ride from my home--so I decided to attend the second of a series of five events commemorating the takeover.
The takeover, or as reported by participants, the liberation of Conklin Hall, began on February 24, 1969. Members of the campus-wide Black Organization of Students, with the help of classmates and black students at other New Jersey schools, occupied the campus communications center. They protested the scarcity of black students (black enrollment was only five percent at the time), black faculty, and minority oriented academic and student services programs on campus. The participants occupied the building for 72 hours.
As I listened to each portion of the program: a three-act performance by a student Unity Theatre, a DVD of the history of the takeover, and a short lecture on women in the Sixties protest movement by a visiting Lehman College (NY) professor, I tried to set the context of the takeover, and the reasons for commemoration in the context of times in the nation, and at Rutgers. I knew nothing of the takeover prior to coming to the event, but I had studied contrasts between the antiwar movements of the Sixties and Seventies in completing Defending College Heights, my upcoming novel.
In February of 1969, Richard Nixon had been president for little more than one month. The military draft was still in effect, though there were college student deferments. Anti-war demonstrations at Columbia University had happened ten months prior to the takeover, and the shootings at Kent State were yet to happen for another 14 months. Martin Luther King had been assassinated 10 months prior to the Conklin liberation.
Rutgers-Newark was a largely white institution within a predominantly black city with its last white mayor and a confrontational white police director. Two years earlier, with the mayor's consent, the Governor of New Jersey had called in the National Guard to stop public looting in the streets. Rutgers-Newark was no more diverse than the flagship New Brunswick campus, though it was a co-educational institution. In February 1969, Rutgers in New Brunswick consisted of an all-male Rutgers College and an all-Female Douglass College.
In contrasting the takeover of Conklin Hall against the backdrop of other campus protests, there are some remarkable differences, besides the educational agenda.
First, the takeover was locally organized; there was no chapter of a national organization such as the Students for a Democratic Society or the Student Non Violent Coordinating Council. National activists did not arrive to obscure the campus agenda.
Second, the university administration did not try to "re-capture" the building by force; in fact, they did not want the city police involved and negotiated directly with the students. Compare that resolution with Kent State, where the governor had called in the National Guard.
Third, the university administration addressed all of the demands; they also invited the students to meet at the president's mansion near the Rutgers flagship campus in New Brunswick. They hired minority faculty, initiated a pre-college preparation program and increased the number of black students--the number doubled at first. Coursework in African-American history was also added to the academic offerings on campus. These events did not happen immediately after the demonstrators left Conklin Hall, but they happened because the university president and the campus provost were effective brokers between the students, faculty and state government.
The accomplishments were significant, considering the times. Other campus protests folded campus activism and anti-war activism together. For example, students at Columbia not only protested against the war in Vietnam, they also railed against the university's academic relationships with the military and a decision to acquire black-owned properties adjacent to the campus to construct a gym. The Rutgers-Newark agenda was more focused and more achievable.
Online there are several documentsabout the Conklin Hall takeover. One, a report from the Chancellor of Higher Education to the Legislaturementions that while black enrollment at Rutgers-Newark had actually doubled from the 1967-68 to the 1968-69 school years (from 72 to 148 students, or from less than three percent of the student body to slightly less than five percent), the chancellor was concerned that a very substantial percentage of graduates from urban high schools were inadequately prepared to gain admission to the university. He also believed this problem would get worse before it got better.
That appeared to be a very profound statement for a New Jersey higher education official to make in 1969, as the urban high schools had a larger share of white students than they do today. But that chancellor's statement might have been prophetic; while more colleges offer diversity-focused admissions programs than ever before in this era of No Child Left Behind, the quality of public school education in the cities remains in question.
It took the entire event for me to realize that the Conklin Hall takeover was a turning point in Rutgers history, as well as the history of higher education in the U.S. Since 1969, Rutgers-Newark has almost doubled the size of its undergraduate student body from approximately 3,400 students to nearly 6,700 today, according to the latest U.S. News college guide.
Rutgers-Newark has become a research university that admits less than half of its applicants, while becoming more diverse. Undergraduate enrollment at Rutgers-Newark is 55 percent female and 39 percent black and Hispanic. Eighty seven percent of entering freshman continue into their sophomore year and 56 percent earn their degree within six years. The retention rate is close to the performance of the flagship campus in New Brunswick (89 percent versus 87).
From attending the day's event I could understand that Rutgers-Newark has become a stronger institution for the takeover. And I must believe that the participants who were there--students and administrators--would agree. And I saw why they want the memories promoted and protected. All of these people are in their late fifties, or older. They will have fewer opportunities to come together in the future. They want the later generations to remember what they knew.
The takeover, or as reported by participants, the liberation of Conklin Hall, began on February 24, 1969. Members of the campus-wide Black Organization of Students, with the help of classmates and black students at other New Jersey schools, occupied the campus communications center. They protested the scarcity of black students (black enrollment was only five percent at the time), black faculty, and minority oriented academic and student services programs on campus. The participants occupied the building for 72 hours.
As I listened to each portion of the program: a three-act performance by a student Unity Theatre, a DVD of the history of the takeover, and a short lecture on women in the Sixties protest movement by a visiting Lehman College (NY) professor, I tried to set the context of the takeover, and the reasons for commemoration in the context of times in the nation, and at Rutgers. I knew nothing of the takeover prior to coming to the event, but I had studied contrasts between the antiwar movements of the Sixties and Seventies in completing Defending College Heights, my upcoming novel.
In February of 1969, Richard Nixon had been president for little more than one month. The military draft was still in effect, though there were college student deferments. Anti-war demonstrations at Columbia University had happened ten months prior to the takeover, and the shootings at Kent State were yet to happen for another 14 months. Martin Luther King had been assassinated 10 months prior to the Conklin liberation.
Rutgers-Newark was a largely white institution within a predominantly black city with its last white mayor and a confrontational white police director. Two years earlier, with the mayor's consent, the Governor of New Jersey had called in the National Guard to stop public looting in the streets. Rutgers-Newark was no more diverse than the flagship New Brunswick campus, though it was a co-educational institution. In February 1969, Rutgers in New Brunswick consisted of an all-male Rutgers College and an all-Female Douglass College.
In contrasting the takeover of Conklin Hall against the backdrop of other campus protests, there are some remarkable differences, besides the educational agenda.
First, the takeover was locally organized; there was no chapter of a national organization such as the Students for a Democratic Society or the Student Non Violent Coordinating Council. National activists did not arrive to obscure the campus agenda.
Second, the university administration did not try to "re-capture" the building by force; in fact, they did not want the city police involved and negotiated directly with the students. Compare that resolution with Kent State, where the governor had called in the National Guard.
Third, the university administration addressed all of the demands; they also invited the students to meet at the president's mansion near the Rutgers flagship campus in New Brunswick. They hired minority faculty, initiated a pre-college preparation program and increased the number of black students--the number doubled at first. Coursework in African-American history was also added to the academic offerings on campus. These events did not happen immediately after the demonstrators left Conklin Hall, but they happened because the university president and the campus provost were effective brokers between the students, faculty and state government.
The accomplishments were significant, considering the times. Other campus protests folded campus activism and anti-war activism together. For example, students at Columbia not only protested against the war in Vietnam, they also railed against the university's academic relationships with the military and a decision to acquire black-owned properties adjacent to the campus to construct a gym. The Rutgers-Newark agenda was more focused and more achievable.
Online there are several documentsabout the Conklin Hall takeover. One, a report from the Chancellor of Higher Education to the Legislaturementions that while black enrollment at Rutgers-Newark had actually doubled from the 1967-68 to the 1968-69 school years (from 72 to 148 students, or from less than three percent of the student body to slightly less than five percent), the chancellor was concerned that a very substantial percentage of graduates from urban high schools were inadequately prepared to gain admission to the university. He also believed this problem would get worse before it got better.
That appeared to be a very profound statement for a New Jersey higher education official to make in 1969, as the urban high schools had a larger share of white students than they do today. But that chancellor's statement might have been prophetic; while more colleges offer diversity-focused admissions programs than ever before in this era of No Child Left Behind, the quality of public school education in the cities remains in question.
It took the entire event for me to realize that the Conklin Hall takeover was a turning point in Rutgers history, as well as the history of higher education in the U.S. Since 1969, Rutgers-Newark has almost doubled the size of its undergraduate student body from approximately 3,400 students to nearly 6,700 today, according to the latest U.S. News college guide.
Rutgers-Newark has become a research university that admits less than half of its applicants, while becoming more diverse. Undergraduate enrollment at Rutgers-Newark is 55 percent female and 39 percent black and Hispanic. Eighty seven percent of entering freshman continue into their sophomore year and 56 percent earn their degree within six years. The retention rate is close to the performance of the flagship campus in New Brunswick (89 percent versus 87).
From attending the day's event I could understand that Rutgers-Newark has become a stronger institution for the takeover. And I must believe that the participants who were there--students and administrators--would agree. And I saw why they want the memories promoted and protected. All of these people are in their late fifties, or older. They will have fewer opportunities to come together in the future. They want the later generations to remember what they knew.
Print
Email
