Viking_Yearbook_70

"Anchors away, my friends," sang anti-recruitment demonstra– tors as Navy information officers set up shop in room 292, Smith Memorial Center. For one tense February week the campus jittered in conflict. Monday afternoon, demonstrators pushed two recruiters out of the center. The officers were escorted ring-around-the-rosey through the Park Blocks. Tuesday, the two recruiters attempted business in a security– sheltered Placement Office in Old Main. There were no customers. But there were about sixty demonstrators wadded in the pillared foyer outside the office. Wednesday, the Navy did not return to campus. Thursday, the Marines came. Outside room 292, a divided crowd of pro-recruiters and anti-recruiters drew newsmen and photographers as they debated, chanted, and passed threats. Marine Captain Jud Blakely addressed student questions. Though defending his position, Blakely added "I have no answers . .. We're going to have to do better in the next couple of generations. " Vice president Robert Low read a court order restraining sixteen demonstrators. ASPSU members asked the U.S. District Court and State Circuit Court for injunctions against recruiters at PSU. Their request was denied. By midday the crowds were small as recruiters worked. Friday, interest swung to the fifteen students and one assistant professor named in the adminstration 's injunction. Demonstrators gathered at Wolfe's office. They asked the president for a halt to military recruiting on campus. They asked the recruiting order be rescinded. Their requests were denied. A student-faculty poll on PSU's recruiting policy, taken in March, showed the university's majority favored an open campus. Naval recruiters returned in April.