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The 1970 Spring Strike

Overview

The 1970 Spring Strike was the most intensively covered episode in the entire Spectator corpus — documented across four successive daily issues from May 5–8, 1970. Triggered by the Kent State shootings on May 4 and Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, students from both Hamilton and Kirkland Colleges voted by an “overwhelming and enthusiastic majority” to boycott classes, forming a Strike Referendum Committee and launching a coordinated program of workshops and national activism that earned Hamilton recognition from the National Student Mobilization Committee.

Key Points

• Trigger: Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, and Nixon’s announced invasion of Cambodia
• Initial assembly: Approximately 800 people from Hamilton and Kirkland packed the Hamilton Chapel the night of May 4 and voted by an “overwhelming and enthusiastic majority” to boycott classes
• Strike Referendum Committee (SRC): A five-member SRC was elected on the spot — Kenneth Seidberg ‘70, Mark Kahn ‘70, Bruce Nichols ‘70, Leonard Green ‘71, and Ted Leinwand ‘73
• Administrative responses: Associate Dean DePuy expressed “personal disgust” at the Cambodia expansion and requested a morning meeting with the SRC; Kirkland President Babbitt offered “unqualified support” to protesting students while cautioning “we think, then we go do, but in that order”
• Student Senate support: Student Senate President Steve Baker ‘71 urged Senate support for the strike
• Seven workshops emerged from the strike, producing nationally significant work:
• The Campus Complicity Workshop pioneered the use of stockholder proxy votes as an anti-war protest tool; Hamilton was credited by the National Student Mobilization Committee as the originator of this tactic
• Other workshops coordinated with CNY churches for peace rallies and organized a mass demonstration at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, NY
• A school of draft counselors was established at Hamilton
• A coordinated national refusal of induction by college seniors was proposed
• Fundraising: $500 was raised in under 24 hours
• Faculty teach-ins were held covering dissent, conscientious objection, and academic life during protest
• Spectator editorial: Editor-in-Chief Ronald J. Bruck called on the Hamilton faculty to “put its trust in the integrity of the student body”
• Faculty divergence: The two colleges responded differently:
• Hamilton’s faculty maintained normal class schedules but allowed students to request pass/credit based on work completed to date; paper deadlines were extended to June 15
• Kirkland’s faculty offered “unqualified support,” suspended formal class schedules for the remainder of the academic year, and made individual arrangements for course completion available through the start of fall term
• The contrast between Hamilton’s and Kirkland’s faculty responses illustrates the different institutional cultures of the two coordinate colleges under pressure

Open Questions

• What was the full outcome of the strike in terms of student disciplinary proceedings, if any?
• How did the draft counselor school function, and did any students use its services?
• Did the stockholder proxy vote tactic attributed to Hamilton actually spread to other institutions, and is there further documentation of the National Student Mobilization Committee’s credit?
• How did the Spectator’s editorial position evolve across the four daily issues?

Sources

Related Topics

• Student Activism and Social Movements
• Vietnam Moratorium (1969)
• Coeducation and Kirkland College
• College Administration and Presidential Leadership

Related Entities

• Hamilton College