Portland State Magazine Spring 2010

The mood gets ugly Doug Weiskopf '71, one of about 25 students involved in pro– tests throughout the year, recalls chat at first, as students helped dismantle the makeshift fortifications, ''there was a spirit of good will and humor. We were even joking with the cops." Bur when police decided to remove rhe tent, Weiskopf says, everything changed. "The mood of the crowd got very sullen. A guy shouted out 'f_ __ you.' It was kind of like an electric charge went off. Everyone rook hard lines." Weiskopf along with what he estimates as several hun– dred students sat down in front of the tent and linked arms. The Tactical Operations Platoon-a newly formed police unit assigned to riot control-marched up in wedge forma– tion. "We thought chat they would arrest us," says Weiskopf. Instead, "they came right over the top of us and just started playing the xylophone on our heads." Still, Weiskopf believes the protests helped wind down the Vietnam War. President Richard Nixon "lose che country when he lost Kent Scace and PSU-these vehement protests in Middle America," says Weiskopf "Thar's why Portland State was important. They couldn't write us off as 'elite' schools like Berkeley and Columbia. We were middle America." Part of the silent majority Looking back, the lace 1960s and early 1970s seem co have been uniformly cataclysmic, but Dave Shafer '72, MBA '78 offers a different view. "PSU as a whole," he says, "was pretty apathetic." "I don't think anybody was all char in favor of the war, but most students were in college to avoid the draft and not to 10 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2010 gee involved (in anti-war activities). You wanted co cake your classes and gee your degree." "I was not in favor of the war or the administration," says Shafer, "bur I was not charged up enough to get involved." The day of the incident, Shafer, who worked midnight to 8 a.m. before attending classes, was on his way home when he saw the Tactical Operations Platoon lined up near what is now Shattuck Hall. Bur eager co catch a few hours of sleep before his next work shift, Shafer continued on his way and only learned about the incident lacer. Putting it all together Dory Hylton was a student at Columbia University in New York in 1970. However, she researched the PSU protest for her dissertation completed in 1993 at University of Oregon. Hylton interviewed some 130 people more than a dozen years after the events. Yet for many, the day was still vividly fresh. "Wherever I went," says Hylton, "ifI brought up the subject, people would tell me they remembered-it was in the cultural memory." For many, the police action and its conse– quences-or lack of-was the most searing recollection. In 1970, the Portland State community, like the nation as a whole, was conflicted about the Vietnam war. Hylron's interviews found chat many who disagreed with the student strike were sympathetic to the issues-opposition co the war and anguish over the Kent Scace killings. Bue seeing police strike unarmed prate tors shocked many of the onlookers. Even students opposed co the strike, who had clashed with protesrors as recently as chat morning, says