West Virginia University: Symbol of Unity in a Sectionalized State

Chapter 14: An Era of Radical Change: Close Encounters with a New Kind of Student

Chapter 14 1967-1977 An Era of Radical Change : Close Encounters with a New Kind of Student IN THE F I RST YEAR OF the Harlow presidency, Jennings Randolph, senior U.S. senator repre­ senting the thirty-fifth state, paid glowing tribute to college students in West Virginia in­ stitutions whom he saw as wholesome young people who thought clearly and knew why they were in residence. Into the Congressional Record he inserted an editorial from the University's student newspaper entitled, "How long are we going to allow leftist infiltration to mock 'This Is My Own, My Native land?' " as evidence of their Americanism, conservatism, and erudition. The University city's like-minded evening newspaper, the Morgantown Post, on November 6, 1967, ap­ plauded the senator's praise of diligent young scholars, joined in a salute to the students, yet grudgingly and circumspectly withheld total approbation with the modifying phrase, "or at least a part of them." Within a matter of months, the outgoing West Virginia Board of Governors sought to prepare the incoming West Virginia Board of Regents for "an era of radical change" when it captured the current campus mood with its valedictory statement of June 29, 1969 : "Students have already acquired substantial 307 308 AN ERA OF RADICAL CHANGE freedom and responsibility; they undoubtedly will achieve more." University administrators and governing boards seemingly were aware that students outside West Virginia, who had been shaping the educational policies of their institutions from Columbia University in the east to the University of California at Berkeley in the west, inevitably would influence their counterparts in West Virginia in ways foreign to Senator Randolph and older residents. The WVU educational hierarchy cautiously moved to accommodate its institutional family of parents, alumni, faculty, students, and friends from within and without the Mountain State to a more modern world of alien­ ation, where the younger generation might on the one hand become activists in an attempt to rectify or modify the inequities of the entire world, or, on the other hand, withdraw from life's participation through the use of mari­ juana, LSD, heroin, or other mind-blowing drugs. As best they could, ad­ ministrators readied themselves for the onslaught of the student of the late sixties who entertained new modes of conduct, behavior, language, dress, and hair style, and remained skeptical of all authority, whether religious, parental, or educational . To provide parents, alumni, and friends a vision of the wide diversity of students found on university campuses in the late sixties, the new West Virginia University Magazine in its 1969 summer issue splashed in full color on its cover an assemblage of mods, hippies, playboys, activists, and squares. Explaining that the posed photograph made no attempt to show the propor­ tion of such groups to the mainstream of the student body, the editors also made certain in their notes to readers that readers not necessarily assume that the models' true personalities or interests were revealed by the clothing or the hair styles they wore. The response to the cover was understandably mixed . In the fall issue of 1969, one reader was pleased to know that the colorful and realistic por­ trayal of students on the front cover meant that money appropriated for the University was not totally confined to a perpetuation of nineteenth-century ideals. Another was certain the cover would shake up "some of the old grads" but recognized that the student portrayal honestly reflected changes taking , place all over the country, even including West Virginia. A third, who believed that "the lack of acceptance by people of people who are different" was the country's current weakness, was convinced that the cover was de­ signed as "a plea for the acceptance of such differences." But there were others of an opposite opinion who asked that their free subscriptions to the magazine be canceled and informed the University of the withdrawal of their support. One "old grad" wanted to know if. in placing the hippies in the forefront and the clean-cuts in the background of the posed photograph, the University was signaling its preferences for certain kinds 1967-1977 309 of students, and disdain of others. If the intent was "to arouse the Establish­ ment from its apathy," suggested another subscriber, the magazine had achieved success because one of its alumni was quickly rushing to the medicine cabinet for the aid of a Rolaid after witnessing the...