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War Protest Keeps New England College Campuses In Ferment

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

War protest kept New England college campuses in ferment today and at Amherst, Mass., college demonstrators planned a "massive withdrawal" of funds from local banks in a drive to "stop war dollars."

Dr. Gerald Gruman, associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, said while church bells toll 200 members of the university strike steering committee will lead students to the business district shortly before noon.

He said the presidents of the town's three banks- First National Bank of Amherst, Amherst Savings Bank and Hampshire National Bank- had been advised of the plans and had promised to cooperate.

"We don't have to wait for November to elect a Congress to end the war," the committee said in a statement.

"To end war we can show that students have economic power to stop war dollars. Help us show this power to change the present war-recession economy into a peace and prosperity economy for all Americans."

Dr. Gruman said the Amherst College strike committee approved of the plan and would join the UMass protesters. This committee said it urged "others throughout the country to join with us in attempting to alter contemporary American society."

"We figure for every dollar withdrawn about $5 will be removed from war resources," Dr. Gruman said.

Elsewhere, students broadened their activities against the Southeast Asia war but managed to avoid violence.

Close to 300 demonstrators were arrested Monday at Worcester, Mass., after a sit-in blocked off approaches to a Selective Service.

And in Cambridge, Mass., where pickets ringed the administration building at Harvard University, Ernest R. May, dean of the college moved to invoke college discipline against the offenders.

No violence attended the Worcester arrests. On the contrary, demonstrators sang folk songs while waiting to be loaded aboard buses to be taken to the Worcester County jail.

Police said the demonstrators surged into the building and blocked off Selective Service offices. They were warned they were trespassing and were subject to arrest. When they did not move, officers began clearing the corridor.

Police said 287 persons, one of them a juvenile, were booked on charges of trespass. After booking at the jail, they were transferred to a special double session District Court for arraignment. There the cases were continued for later hearings.

Most of those arrested were students from Worcester area colleges, including Holy Cross, Worcester Polytechnic, Assumption, Clark and Worcester State.

At Waterville, Maine, Dr. Donald R. McNeil, chancellor of the University of Maine system, told the Waterville Rotary Club that current crisis calls for cool heads and understanding.

"We are going to preserve the university," he said, "but we have to do it with a great deal of flexibility... There are principles we will not sacrifice, but we can't be too rigid."

Some areas reported an abatement of antiwar activity Monday. Students at Southeastern Massachusetts University in Dartmouth and Bristol Community College at Fall River ended week-long strikes.

Attendance at both schools was reported near normal Monday.

But at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, faculty and student groups voted for a week's suspension of classes in October to give students time to work in political campaigns.

Voting at a special meeting, the Brown faculty also decided to establish a committee to study the sources of research financing at the University and the "moral implications" of the school's research programs.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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In May of 1970 the United States and South Vietnam invaded Cambodia. The same month four students were killed by Ohio National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest at Kent State University. These two events sparked massive protests on college and university campuses across the United States. Students and teachers at the University of Massachusetts organized a "'massive withdrawal' of funds from local banks in a drive to 'stop war dollars.'" A spokesman for the protesters, Dr. Gerald Gruman told the associated press that, "We figure for every dollar withdrawn about $5 will be removed from war resources." Elsewhere in New England, students held sit-ins at Selective Service Centers. Students and teachers on other campuses voted to suspend classes so that students could help with political campaigns. These were all parts of a nationwide "strike" to end the war that occurred on college campuses.

 

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"War Protest Keeps New England College Campuses in Ferment" article in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

publisher   Greenfield Recorder
date   May 12, 1970
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
width   5.25"
height   6.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L06.044


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See Also...

"UM Students Protest Move Into Cambodia" article in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

"Students Trying to Convert Congressmen" article in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

"Communication Trouble" editorial in The Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper


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