(7 of 7)
Slimmer of Hope. Even campuses where protest had been shunned in the past were stirred by the Cambodian action. Science-oriented Caltech experienced its first antiwar demonstration when about 250 students rallied to hear professors assail the new U.S. involvement. Some students marched into downtown Pasadena, urging residents to protest by mail to the White House. An angrier mood prevailed at the University of Maryland, where some 500 students charged into the campus Air Force ROTC building after the Nixon speech. They burned uniforms, smashed typewriters, threw files out of windows and caused at least $10,000 worth of damage. Several thousand students joined the others in blocking U.S. Highway 1 for 40 minutes. Police finally sought the help of National Guardsmen to break it up. At Kent State University in Ohio, 500 students set fires and damaged automobiles in a rampage along Kent's Main Street. The one-story ROTC building was burned to the ground. Fifteen protesters were arrested at Southern Illinois University after several hundred broke windows and battled cops. ROTC ceremonies were forcibly disrupted at the University of Iowa and Purdue. A rally at Indiana University drew a surprising 1,500 students.
The tone of campus protest has turned sharply more violent since antiwar sentiment was last at its peak on the nation's campuses when the Johnson Administration was in office. Last week's surge of new activity looms as an ominous threat to the possibility of restoring order in the colleges this spring. The only glimmer of hope may be that the academic year will end at most schools within a few weeks.