Protest and Conflict

At the close of the rushing season, a group of male students marched around the campus singing and gathering numbers before deciding to march to Metzger Hall.  The Carlisle police intercepted and attempted to disperse them.  When they arrested one student, thirty other students declared that if the police arrested the one, they would have to arrest them, too.  The police arrested all thirty-one students and held them in the Cumberland County Prison.  When Dean Ernest Vuilleumier failed to gain the students' release, Mr.

Harry A. Blackmun, Supreme Court Justice from 1970-1994, was invited by the Dickinson Law School to speak about his experiences. Justice Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion in the Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, was picketed by a handful of anti-abortion protesters outside of the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, where he gave an address to the general public.

After the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in a trial concerning an attack on Rodney King, the Dickinson Student Senate provided financial support for a letter-writing campaign to United States Attorney General Thomas Barr. Approximately 400-500 postcards were sent to the Attorney General.

A five-page newsletter titled "Stop the Violence" was mailed and posted around campus. The letter, written by an anonymous party, alleged that campus Greek organizations engage in "ritualized violence" and called for all such activity to stop. Student reactions to the letter were varied, and a confidential discussion session was proposed by faculty members.

At 1:01pm on Tuesday, March 2, 1971, the Carlisle police received a bomb threat on the Holland Union Building (HUB).  The HUB was evacuated at 1:20pm and searched for two hours.  No bomb was recovered.

Members of Dickinsonians Advocating Resourcefulness with the Environment (DARE) joined community protestors in a march to oppose business development on the site of the Seven Gables Forest.

On the evening of Monday, September 14, 1970, approximately 100 students met to plan further action in their protest of a tree felling project on N. College Street.  They divided themselves into three groups: the Senate Community Services Committee would investigate the possibility of planting more trees, a second group would make posters, and a third group would investigate legal avenues to halt the tree cutting.

A meeting was held in Dean Gillespie's office with representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Professors Priscilla and Kenneth Laws, interested students, the college lawyer Boyd Landis, and members of the construction company that was attempting to remove trees on College Street.  The company and PennDOT provided the reasoning for their tree-cutting campaign and the history of its approval.  The College and Student Senate, concerned about increased traffic on the road, determined to look into installing a traffic light at the intersection of North College St

At approximately 8:30am on Monday, September 14, 1970, a group of students gathered around a tree due to be cut by a construction crew that had been making its way down College Street, removing trees in preparation for a street-widening and drain-installing project.  Students parked their cars next to other endangered trees.  As they stood around the tree, they talked with members of the construction crew and with security and police officers.  A meeting was arranged for that afternoon to clarify the issues.

Four Dickinson freshmen took a walk into town at 1am on Sunday, September 6, and were assaulted on the first and second blocks of W High Street by a group of Carlisle youths.  One student received a chipped tooth from a blow to the mouth and another required stitches for cuts to his face resulting from broken eyeglasses.  The other two students received only cuts and bruises.  In response, the College urged students to refrain from late night trips into downtown Carlisle.

On June 9, 1933, The Dickinsonian published an open letter to the trustees authored by Hazelle M. Allen, Metzger Council President, and Bertha E. Lynch, Women's Student Government Association President.  The letter requested a reduction in the Metzger annual room and board fee, which was $450 and had been so since 1929.  It also requested improved meals at Metzger and continued opportunities to serve as waitresses.

The faculty decided at their Monday night meeting that the best response to the Women's Student Government Association (WSGA) petition requesting an explanation of the demerit system would be to have faculty members sit with small groups of students and explain the system.  The faculty also created a committee to investigate the systems for dealing with absences in use at other colleges.

The Women's Student Government Association (WSGA) presented a petition to President Karl Waugh requesting an in-depth explanation of the demerit system in an upcoming chapel period.  The students were angry about ambiguity in the giving of demerits for cutting class.

In celebration of the 10-6 football victory over Penn State, the Dickinson student body organized an impromptu parade from the Old Gymnasium to Conway Hall and then on to Metzger Hall at 12:05am Monday morning. The College Band led the procession. The Carlisle Police attempted to disband the parade using tear gas. After the students sang and cheered on the Metzger lawn, they dispersed back toward campus. The Carlisle Police arrested five students who were later released on the agreement that, in return, the remaining students, who had regrouped in front of Old West, would go to bed.

The Board of Trustees denied College recognition to two Jewish fraternities, Sigma Tau Phi and Phi Epsilon Pi, on the premise that the ratio of fraternity to non-fraternity Jewish students would be too high.  It was widely assumed that the denial of official recognition to the fraternities was due to antisemitism, particularly on the part of President Filler.

Empowered by President Mervin Filler's public disdain for the freshman rules, freshmen men staged an anti-rules demonstration outside Bosler Hall in which they wore colorful ties, unbuttoned their coats, and put their hands in their pockets but retained their dinks.  Violence was averted by promises from Dean Montgomery Sellers and the Tribunal president, Tom Watkins, that the freshmen's demands for changes to the rules would be considered.