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Campus "Unrest" demonstrations and consequences, 1970-1971

New Evidence on Campus Unrest, 1969-70 Page 1

Reprinted from the Winter 1971 issue of the Educational Record, published by the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C.

NEW EVIDENCE ON CAMPUS UNREST,
1969-70

Alexander W. Astin

What caused campus protest this past academic year? What percentage of the demonstrations were directed against institutional policies, what percentage inspired by off-campus issues? What types of institutions experienced unrest? Were different types of protest associated with different types of institutions? An intensive study of student newspapers provides the basis for answers to these questions.

CAMPUS UNREST during the 1969-70 academic year was marked by several qualitative changes from previous academic years. For the first time, spontaneous protests were triggered simultaneously on many campuses by a specific governmental action-the Cambodian invasion- and by events on particular campuses-Kent State and Jackson State. Moreover, earlier in the year hundreds of colleges for the first time participated simultaneously in planned, peaceful demonstrations-Earth Day and war moratoriums.

The frequency and extent of campus unrest during 1969-70  has been revealed through an intensive study of student newspapers. During the academic year, the American Council on Education's Office of Research subscribed to the student papers of some 300 institutions that had been participating in the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. With part-time student help, the staff attempted to scan every article in every issue to identify reports of any campus unrest. Student newspapers were used, for one reason, because all previous "surveys" of campus unrest including that by Bayer and Astin in 1969,^1 had been inadequate since they had relied totally on secondary

^1 A.E. Bayer and A.W. Astin, "Violence and Disruption on the U.S. Campus, 1968-1969," Educational Record, Fall 1969,pp.337-50.

sources, i.e., the wire services or city newspapers, or because they had depended upon individual respondents at each institution who had been asked to complete a questionnaire. Daily newspapers and wire services, of course, are unlikely to report every incident of unrest. In the case of questionnaires sent to college officials, each respondent is being asked, in essence, to remember every detail of every protest incident that occurred during the year. Student newspapers, on the other hand, are likely to carry reports of all protest incidents significant on campus.

Complete issues of student newspapers for 1969-70 were received from 223 institutions. To obtain estimates for the entire population of 2,429 institutions, the data from these 223 institutions were differently weighted according to the ACE institutional stratification design.^2 Since the sample of institutions that participated in the Cooperative Institutional Research Program was selected to over represent the larger and the more selective institutions,^3 newspaper data from two-year

^2 J. A. Creager, General Purpose Sampling in the Domain of Higher Education (Washington : Office of Research, American Council on Education, 1968). 

^3 A. W.  Astin, R.F. Panos, and J. A. Creager, National Norms for Entering College Freshmen-- Fall 1966 (Washington: Office of Research, American Council on Education,1967).

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Reprinted from the Winter 1971 issue of the Educational Record, published by the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C. NEW EVIDENCE ON CAMPUS UNREST, 1969-70 Alexander W. Astin What caused campus protest this past academic year? What percentage of the demonstrations were directed against institutional policies, what percentage inspired by off-campus issues? What types of institutions experienced unrest? Were different types of protest associated with different types of institutions? An intensive study of student newspapers provides the basis for answers to these questions. CAMPUS UNREST during the 1969-70 academic year was marked by several qualitative changes from previous academic years. For the first time, spontaneous protests were triggered simultaneously on many campuses by a specific governmental action-the Cambodian invasion- and by events on particular campuses-Kent State and Jackson State. Moreover, earlier in the year hundreds of colleges for the first time participated simultaneously in planned, peaceful demonstrations-Earth Day and war moratoriums. The frequency and extent of campus unrest during 1969-70 has been revealed through an intensive study of student newspapers. During the academic year, the American Council on Education's Office of Research subscribed to the student papers of some 300 institutions that had been participating in the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. With part-time student help, the staff attempted to scan every article in every issue to identify reports of any campus unrest. Student newspapers were used, for one reason, because all previous "surveys" of campus unrest including that by Bayer and Astin in 1969,^1 had been inadequate since they had relied totally on secondary ^1 A.E. Bayer and A.W. Astin, "Violence and Disruption on the U.S. Campus, 1968-1969," Educational Record, Fall 1969,pp.337-50. sources, i.e., the wire services or city newspapers, or because they had depended upon individual respondents at each institution who had been asked to complete a questionnaire. Daily newspapers and wire services, of course, are unlikely to report every incident of unrest. In the case of questionnaires sent to college officials, each respondent is being asked, in essence, to remember every detail of every protest incident that occurred during the year. Student newspapers, on the other hand, are likely to carry reports of all protest incidents significant on campus. Complete issues of student newspapers for 1969-70 were received from 223 institutions. To obtain estimates for the entire population of 2,429 institutions, the data from these 223 institutions were differently weighted according to the ACE institutional stratification design.^2 Since the sample of institutions that participated in the Cooperative Institutional Research Program was selected to over represent the larger and the more selective institutions,^3 newspaper data from two-year ^2 J. A. Creager, General Purpose Sampling in the Domain of Higher Education (Washington : Office of Research, American Council on Education, 1968). ^3 A. W. Astin, R.F. Panos, and J. A. Creager, National Norms for Entering College Freshmen-- Fall 1966 (Washington: Office of Research, American Council on Education,1967).