The sixties and seventies were some of the most turbulent years in American history. Kent State and the Kent Stater would be profoundly influenced by the events of these decades

The Boomers Arrive
In the early sixties campuses across the country experienced an unprecedented jump in enrollment as the Baby Boomers reached college age. In kind, Kent State saw a dramatic increase.

In 1960, about 7,500 students were enrolled, by the end of the decade the number reached 20,000. This massive influx set off a frenzied building program that transformed the physical appearance of the campus. In 1959 Kent had 24 permanent buildings; by the end of 1969, there were 64.

A New Leader In 1963, Murv Perry from Kansas State University replaced Bill Taylor as head of the School of Journalism. Perry saw the Stater as a symbol of free expression on campus and fought many battles to protect the paper from outside influences.

Changes
In 1967 the Kent Stater moved to Taylor Hall. The new building included a larger photo lab, separate offices for the business operation and an aesthetic that celebrated concrete and glass.

“We were the first staff in Taylor Hall. For us then, that was very palatial. [When I go back now, it doesn’t seem so big].” Max Brown, editor winter quarter 1967.

Bill Taylor in 1968 poses in front of the recently completed Taylor Hall.

That same year the Stater began to print off campus. Production was split between a composition shop in Kent and the printing plant of the PhotoJournalPress in Sandusky.

Social changes were happening too. The anti-war movement grew slowly on the Kent campus. Ron Clark, editor in 1964, recalls what he believes was the first protest demonstration: “Only a handful of people participated. One would never have guessed what would happen less than six years later.”

But by the end of the decade Kent State was engulfed in activism and protest. In the fall of 1968, members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) tried to interrupt the Kent State Army ROTC common hour and were arrested by university police. Their hearings before the campus judicial affairs board were televised by TV-2, “a result of student demands for open proceedings,” the Stater reported.

May 4
On May 4, 1970 Ohio National Guardsmen fired on a group of mostly-student protestors in the Prentice Hall parking lot, killing four, wounding nine, throwing a university and a nation into turmoil.

Within hours of the tragedy, the university was closed. The Stater published its last issue that quarter on Friday, May 1.

The shootings and the subsequent shut down of the university left the spring quarter editor, Bill Armstrong, and his staff covering the biggest story of their lives – with no place to report it. The story of May 4 was never reported in the newspaper even though it was housed just yards from where the bodies fell.

After May 4
Coverage of the shootings never strayed too far from the front pages in the years that followed. Bob Downing was editor of the Stater in winter 1972 and remembers the trials of the “Kent 25,” the calls for a federal grand jury, and the continued estrangement between campus and townspeople.

“The Stater was more of a newspaper than most college newspapers at the time,” said Downing. “Campus was under such a magnifying glass. There was just so much going on.”

By the fifth anniversary of the shooting in 1975, the story of May 4 was still drawing national attention.

“The shootings still were a major focus of discussion throughout the campus; many students who were there that day still could be found on campus,” Editor Bill Miller said. “And, of course, numerous faculty members were still around who witnessed the events.”

Bob McGruder, editor, and Tony May, managing editor of the Winter Quarter 1963 Kent Stater.		Frank Ritzinger, Stater advisor in the Seventies.

Even though enrollment at Kent took a nosedive in the wake of the shootings, the journalism program flourished. By 1974 the School of Journalism had 966 majors, making it the 7th biggest program in the country.

The Kent Stater entered the new decade feisty and with a new look. It had been redesigned into a “new format” that blended the looks of well-known national tabs, Newsday and Chicago Today. By 1972, its circulation was increased to 17,000 copies a day.

The Stater was a voice for the decade editorializing against the Vietnam War, urging students to participate in the Vietnam Moratorium in Washington, D.C. In doing so, it significantly expanded national and international coverage of Kent State University.

Photo source: jmc.kent.edu