Observer Photo by Andrew Knapp
Susan McElrath, AU archivist, shows images of a student protest in 1970, when students barricaded Ward Circle.

by ROBIN BRAVENDER

White House aide Karl Rove was the target of a protest at American University earlier this month when about 20 students blocked his car as he tried to leave campus after speaking to the school’s College Republicans. The protest sparked comparisons to the widespread protests during the late 1960s and early 1970s and caused discussion about why there seem to be fewer protests today despite discontent with the Iraq war.

At a forum last week, current faculty who attended AU during the Vietnam era discussed how universities, which were once considered hotbeds of political dissent and protests, seem to be less politically active than they were during the 1960s.

Russell Williams, artist in residence at the university, recalled his years as an AU student at a time when “everybody had torn jeans and tie-dye,” and the scent of patchouli was everywhere.

“It was indeed an electric time,” he said through a recorded interview that was played during the discussion.
“In certain seasons, there was more protest than class work.”

One of the most notable protests at AU occurred in the aftermath of the Kent State killings in 1970, when the Ohio National Guard shot four students who were protesting the Vietnam War. AU students barricaded Ward Circle, cloaking the George Washington statue with a banner decrying the deaths.

Panelists said many Americans draw parallels between the Iraq war and the Vietnam War: Both were divisive politically and, after several years, both lost support among Americans. According to a March poll by The Pew Research Center, 46 percent of Americans said that the Iraq war would be another Vietnam.

As the Iraq war enters its fourth year, panelists wondered why student protests are less common than they were during Vietnam.

One student at the forum asked panelists whether AU students were “apathetic and self-interested” because they react more strongly to nonpolitical issues. For example, some students were angered when the AU dormitories scaled back housekeeping services and installed water-saving showerheads in an effort to make students appreciate their resources.

Joy Thomas Moore, a media consultant who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from AU in the early 1970s, said that compared to those during Vietnam, students today are less interested in what’s going on in the world. “If that’s the level of concern, it makes me a little sad,” she said.

“You are different from the students who were here. You are desensitized to what’s going on,” Carl Cook, a 1963 AU graduate, told students, faculty and community members.

Cook, an academic adviser in the School of Public Affairs, said that technology, such as cell phones and iPods, has caused students to become isolated from politics and from their peers. During Vietnam, “people had their eyes open,” he said. “They were looking around. You don’t do that.”

One difference between today and the Vietnam era is military death toll. In the Vietnam War, 58,000 troops were killed, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. In the first four years of the Iraq war, 3,200 American troops lost their lives, according to federal statistics.

The draft may be another factor explaining the differences in student activism, panelists said. Moore said that if the draft were to be reinstated, the Iraq war would likely end much more quickly.

Matt McCoy, a junior in AU’s School of International Service, said “AU does have, comparatively speaking, a fairly large activist community.” McCoy said he does not think that AU’s activist community is large enough.

McCoy was one of more than 80 students who protested against Rove. McCoy dressed up in a mouse costume and wore a nametag that said “Karl Rove.”

McCoy said the Rove protest was not an antiwar rally but was intended to bring attention to Rove “breaking the law daily” and to the widespread “dissatisfaction with the whole Bush administration.”

Another student who took part in the protest against Rove last week asked panelists at the forum for advice about how to channel frustration with the political system.

“We feel disenfranchised,” she said. “We don’t know what to do.”

The student said she and her peers did not know how to confront issues that troubled them, including the Iraq war and the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

It may be this sense of frustration that prevents some students from taking political action, according to panelists. The Vietnam era was focused on a central issue: stopping the war, said AU interim President Neil Kerwin, one panelist. He said that “the dissipation of energy is inevitable” when students try to focus on Iraq, Darfur and global warming. This dilemma is a consequence of learning about the world, he said.

However, Kerwin said most AU students are politically active. He said he agreed with The Princeton Review’s ranking of AU as the most politically active school in the nation but only if you “define ‘political’ in loose terms.”

Most students come to AU with the “intent to learn something that will help them change the world when they leave,” Kerwin said.

Political activity varies among AU students. Some engage in politics by interning on Capitol Hill or by writing letters to lawmakers.

“Many people believe that letter-writing campaigns actually do make a difference,” McCoy said. “There are still things out there that are worth protesting,” he said.

Panelists told students that the most important political action they can take is on Election Day.

“If you don’t vote, then you don’t have much reason to complain,” Kerwin said.