In the spring of 1970, campus unrest was endemic in the United States. Across
the country, college students protested. They protested the war in Vietnam; they
protested the sometimes-harsh response to their criticism of the country; they
protested their lack of voice in the government.
At Virginia Tech, the protests were mainly small, quiet affairs: sit-ins and
teach-ins. In late spring, though, the protests began to get more daring and
confrontational.
The administration (under the leadership of President T. Marshall Hahn, Jr.) and
parts of the student body had been at odds for some time. Some of the students
wanted more direct participation in the University's governance, through
participation on the various councils and commissions (most notably the
University Council). The administration had denied these requests, and in general
had taken a hard line toward any disruption of university-sanctioned
activity.
In April, a student had been chastised for wearing an American flag as the seat
of his pants. In response, some students called for a number of changes in the
University's policies, and distributed a flier around
campus urging student unrest. This unrest was to culminate in a disruption of the
Corps of Cadets drill.
In mid-April, the student radicals made good their pledge; they disrupted the
ROTC drill on the Drillfield, and forced the Cadets to stop.
The administration took swift action. The ringleaders (those they were able to
identify) were suspended and a court injunction obtained to prevent them from
repeating the act. This succeeded in calming the campus, but only for a short
time.
In early May, four students were
killed by National Guardsmen during a demonstration at Kent State University
in Ohio. Outrage at this act rippled across the country, touching off more
protesting.
On the Virginia Tech campus, students were quick to react to the news of the
killings. The SGA urged the University to allow
students more freedom in pursuing their consciences in protest. More radical
elements of the student body, frustrated in their attempts to gain more
representation in the administration and angered by the Kent State incident,
chose a more extreme path. On May 12, a large body of students seized Williams
Hall.
The administration's response was again swift. The State Police were quickly
called in to manage the large crowd of students outside the building as well as
deal with the protesters inside.
At 6 a.m. on May 13, the State Police forced entry into Williams and began
rounding up the students inside. The first few were dragged out of the building;
the rest left peacefully. The protesters were herded into tractor trailors and
taken to Montgomery County jail.
The administration released a statement on the
incident to the media. Dr. Hahn was soon deluged with an outpouring of support
for his actions. Many people, wearied by the constant protesting and criticism of
the country, welcomed Dr. Hahn's quick, uncompromising actions. Thousands of
letters and telegrams poured into Blacksburg.
The students involved in the seizure, suspended and given twenty-four hours to
remove their belongings from campus, tried to get a court injunction against the
suspension, but failed. Their statement, issued after
their release from jail, tries to explain their intent and to refute some of the
administration's claims, particularly the finding of materials for a
firebomb.
In the end, the administration triumphed. Many students
found the protestors' methods distasteful, and not representative of the student
body. Several more protests occurred at Tech, but none were violent. The campus
soon settled back into the quiet pastoral life it had known.