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CRAIG HICKMAN Anti-war activists took on other environmental and social causes as well, including the proposed shipment of deadly nerve gas through Oregon and the imprisonment of Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale. But the war “kind of sucked up all the oxygen in the room,” Weiskopf says. Women, in particular, felt left out of leadership roles in the anti-war movement. “If women came to some of these meetings and wanted to participate, people just didn’t listen to them,” Wyrick says. “It could be blatant. Girls weren’t expected to be standing up and talking, but they were expected to take care of the food.” Women started to speak up and fight for more rights. At PSU, one of their first issues was affordable child care, a key to enabling more women to go to college. They held two student “Baby-Ins”: one with 15 mothers and their children in the president’s office and one with 77 children ages 2 months to 10 years at the president’s house. As a result, the first child care center opened on campus with spots for about 31 children in 1971. Today Portland State serves about 230 children each day in four centers, including the flagship Helen Gordon Child Development Center. “That’s incredibly fast, effective action,” says Ellie Justice, former director of the Helen Gordon Center. “I think part of why it was able to happen so quickly was really about the era. It was an era of action.” Child care was one of the first ways PSU showed early support for non- traditional students, Justice says. Since then, PSU has become the most diverse public university in Oregon. It has resource centers for women, veterans, parents, students with disabilities, and multicultural, pan-African, Pacific Islander, Asian, Asian American, Native American and LGBTQ students. “Having an array of programs to support those students brings them to PSU and helps them succeed here,” she says. Portland State planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the strike on May 11 with a panel discussion of those who were there, but because of coronavirus health and safety restrictions, that event has been delayed until May 2021. Horowitz hopes the discussion will help students reflect on what works and what doesn’t work in activism. There are some similarities between then and now, he says. Both are times of political unrest and rapid social change. Yet the threat of climate change, authoritarian leaders and deepening economic, educational and cultural divides are putting more pressure on today’s students. “The situation today is so much more dire than we thought it was in 1970,” he says. “I think in many ways we are in new territory.” Wyrick says it felt scary for students to step out of their normal routines and go on strike. She hopes to give today’s students courage by telling her story. “Look around you, see what you can do that’s positive,” she says. “People are really going to push back against you. People are going to be hostile. Figure out how to keep going. Be brave.” SUZANNE PARDINGTON EFFROS is a Portland writer and former staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications. 18 CRAIG HICKMAN THE SEVENTH DAY PSU Total Enrollment: 11,354 (1970) 26,021 (2020) | Tuition and fees: $408 (1970), $9,578 (2020) | Term Parking Students and their children occupied the president’s office and house for two “Baby-Ins.” As a result, the first child care center opened on campus in 1971.