Ohio University is closed on May 15: how the Kent State shootings affected life at OU

By Heather Skeeles
THE POST

On May 4, 1970, the manager of Koons Music Store on Court Street posted up-to-date reports on the Kent State shootings as soon as they appeared on the AP wire. The store was urged by other local businesses to stop posting the bulletins because it might incite student riots at OU, but the store managers continued to post the updates so students could read them from outside of the store window.

"The Sky Has Fallen" -Post Weather, May 15, 1970

Perhaps it rained on May 15, 1970. Maybe it was sunny. The Post staff was not concerned with the weather that day.

At 3:10 a.m., Ohio University President Claude R. Sowle officially announced that the school was closed. Students were given until 5.p.m. the next day to gather their things and leave campus. There was a National Guardsman at every parking meter on Court Street. The smell of tear gas still hung in the air and wafted from the trees.

In the late 1960s and early '70s, a surge of anti-Vietnam and anti-authority sentiment had taken hold of the country. One of the outlets was college campuses. President Sowle's announcement followed a month of protests, rioting, bombs and campus fires. Ohio University held out longer than many other colleges, but after the Kent State shootings on May 4, the threat of violence quickly escalated, forcing the school to close.

Tragedy at Kent State

On May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen fired on a crowd of students, killing four and injuring nine. The effects of the Kent State shootings reverberated through the nation, shocking and enraging students. For Ohio University students, the political movement had become personal. Students had been killed.

Although anti-war sentiment had been prevalent at Kent State for several months, an announcement by President Nixon on Thursday, April 30, 1970 that several thousand ground troops had entered Cambodia incited student protest. Following this announcement, students planned anti-war rallies and protests, and set fire to the ROTC building on Saturday night. By Monday, May 4, the Ohio National Guard had been called in, and relations between the students and guardsmen were tense. The campus was under martial law.

Monday at noon, 500 students gathered for an anti-war rally. The National Guardsmen warned the students to disperse, and then tried to break up the rally with tear gas. But students ignored the warning and moved to the other side of a small hill. At approximately 12:30, the National Guardsmen fired into the crowd of students.

Valaria McCabe, currently an assistant director for student services in the OU College of Education, was a freshman at Kent State in 1970. At 12 noon on May 4, she was on the eighth floor of her dormitory, watching the rally with binoculars. She heard shots, but at first didn't realize what was happening. She thought the students were setting off firecrackers. But her dorm was across the street from the Health Center, and soon she saw blood-covered students being carried in on stretchers.

Kent State was shut down at 1:20 p.m., and McCabe left for OU immediately with several friends. McCabe had no idea students had been killed, and she thought she would be returning to school in a week. "We just wanted to get out of town," she said.

On the way down to Ohio University, McCabe and her friends heard that four students had been killed, including Allison Krause, who was in class with Valaria and whom she had seen the day before. "We flipped out," she said. She and her friends drove to OU going between 75 and 80 mph, and with each mile Valaria said they felt the tension from Kent State drain away. When they finally reached Athens, McCabe breathed a sigh of relief when she saw College Gate. But she would not be able to relax for long. A banner on College Gate read "Rally Tonight, 7 p.m." She realized then that OU was not safe from the violence that had erupted at Kent.

Ohio University Reacts

Meanwhile, Valaria's boyfriend and future husband, Doug McCabe, was a freshman at Ohio University. He learned of the shootings at Kent State from bulletins set up on College Green and in Koons Music Store with the latest Associated Press wire reports. He had talked to Valaria the night before on the phone, and warned her not to go to the noon rally. But McCabe did not know if she had taken his advice. He tried to reach her on the phone, but the entire system at Kent State had been turned off. He had no way of reaching her and did not know if she had been involved.

But he found out a few hours later when McCabe arrived at OU and found him on College Green. "She just came strolling across the green," McCabe said with a laugh. "It was a pretty nice reunion."

Tom Hodson, OU assistant to the president for special projects and an attorney with the firm of Eslocker, Hodson and Oremus, was also on an OU student in 1970. Hodson was assistant editor of The Post in 1970, and he immediately ran to the newsroom after hearing about the shootings in class. "That's it," he thought at the time. Hodson said he knew it was inevitable that the university would close.

A rally was held that evening on the Memorial Auditorium portico to protest the Kent State shootings. Both Doug and Valaria McCabe attended the rally. At the rally, a male student stood up and shouted, "The revolution is here!" Valaria, who did not want to see a repeat of Kent State at OU, stood up and told the crowd about her experience at Kent State, advocating peaceful rather than violent action.

"They will shoot you," she told the crowd.

Tension Builds

But the situation grew more violent rather than more peaceful as the week went on. OU was not the only university experiencing problems. By May 13, Ohio University was the only state-funded university still open in Ohio. However, President Sowle was determined to keep OU open.

Valaria McCabe only stayed in Athens for a week because she did not feel safe at OU. "Students weren't going to classes," she said. "Things were not going to settle down."

Most of the student protests were directed against the Vietnam War, Hodson said. Although college-aged males could be drafted at 18, students could not vote until they were 21. In addition to political unrest, students were frustrated with college fee hikes and what they felt were unreasonable rules set by university authorities, McCabe said.

Doug McCabe, curator of manuscripts for Alden Library Archives and Special Collections, remained at OU, but did not actively participate in the riots on Court Street. On May 13, the night of the first riot, McCabe went to Wray House on New South Green, even though it was still under construction, because it was the farthest dorm from campus. Even though McCabe was trying to escape, he could still hear noise from the riots from where he was camping out.

Because McCabe was against the war, he did attend talks, rallies and marches during the day, and went to some classes when he felt like it. Most OU students did not support the war, but did not participate in violent protests, he said. It was only a small group of students who advocated violence, and the rest of the students were simply onlookers at the nightly riots, McCabe said.

Despite the nightly rallies, 99 percent of classes were still continuing as usual, said Art Marinelli Jr., a current business law professor who taught at OU in 1970.

"In the daytime, you would not think anything was amiss," Marinelli said. "But the difference between day and night was unbelievable."

Marinelli was a faculty marshal, and had the responsibility of helping the police arrest students. When Marinelli was assisting on Court Street, he had to dodge tear gas canisters, bottles, and bricks hurled by students. Many female students who were not on the front lines carried water-soaked rags for the students who had been tear-gassed.

"Students would go within three to four feet a police officer, and throw a brick," Marinelli said. "The policemen showed unbelievable restraint-I still don't know how they didn't shoot."

By May 13, the university and law enforcement began to lose control over campus, Marinelli said. Local policemen were overworked. President Sowle repeatedly asked Governor Jim Rhodes for help, but the governor refused to send the National Guard because of the criticism he was receiving for Kent State. Police and faculty members were working night and day to keep things under control. In addition to the booking duty of faculty and student marshals, faculty and students were also responsible for 24-hour patrols in every dormitory and classroom building.

Whenever the Athens Police Department got involved with student action, there was a sense of confrontation, Hodson said. But if the National Guard had been sent in at President Sowle's request, there would have been a much greater possibility of a repeat of the violence at Kent State, he said.

Lack of sleep on the part of students, faculty, university administrators and policemen increased the tense situation at OU, and further incited the riots, McCabe said. Faculty members were asked to camp out in buildings to protect them, and police constantly had to respond to dumpster fires, he said. McCabe said that if the university had closed campus for even one day, some of this tension may have been relieved and OU would not have had to close a month early.

Marinelli said he recalls the spring of 1970 as a very frightening, frustrating, and sad time. He said there was a definite possibility for violence at OU after the Kent State shootings, and Ohio University is lucky that no one was seriously hurt. "It is an absolute miracle we did not have any deaths," Marinelli said.

School is Closed

"President Claude R. Sowle announced today that Ohio University is to be closed today effective immediately until the beginning of summer quarter. Next week all students will receive by mail information concerning options that will be available to them with respect to grades and credit for their academic work. All University personnel, faculty, staff, and non-academic workers are asked to report as usual on Friday," -The Post, Friday, May 15, 1970

This statement was released at 3:10 a.m. on May 15, officially closing the university.

President Sowle could not have kept the school open any longer, Marinelli said. Local police could not endure another day of fighting, and the danger of violence was too great to keep school open any longer.

"There was no question, no option," he said. "The school had to close."

On May 15, the morning school was closed, Marinelli was stopped by one of the many National Guardsmen lined up on College Green and was asked to show his OU identification. Marinelli did not have his university I.D. with him, so he was escorted off campus.

McCabe said he remembers walking across College Green that morning and seeing a National Guardsman at every parking meter on Court Street. "I got halfway across College Green, and I was bawling from the tear gas," he said.

After the incidents of May 1970, it took at least 10 years for OU to recover from the drop in reputation and enrollment caused by the riots, Marinelli said.

"Those were the 'dark days' which hurt our recruitment and reputation," Marinelli said. "It took a long time to come back."

When Hodson heard the announcement that school was closed, he said he had a feeling of emptiness. Even though it was Hodson's senior year, there was no graduation ceremony that year. Because of the permanent association of his senior year with feelings of anger, resentment, and fear, Hodson said he will never forget the spring of 1970.

"All of a sudden my life had changed completely," Hodson said. "We only had a short period of time to pack our things and go home."