The Mississippi River Festival (photo courtesy of SIUE)
College Life Was Pretty Wild in the 1970s
by
John J. Dunphy
(Originally published in the 2–21–10 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)
As a member of the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville’s Academy of Fellows as well as a member of the School of Education’s Executive Advisory Board, I visit the campus of my alma mater fairly regularly. While I am delighted with SIUE’s increasing enrollment and burgeoning academic reputation, I can’t help but noticing that it’s decidedly less colorful than it was back in the 1970s when I was a student.
I entered SIUE in the fall of 1972 when Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic candidate, was trying to unseat President Richard Nixon. It was the first presidential election in which 18-year-olds could vote, and the campus was a hotbed of political activism.
Jane Fonda spoke in the University Center’s Meridian Ballroom that October. The Vietnam War was winding down, but her denunciation of that conflict was as impassioned as ever. Such a controversial celebrity’s presence ensured a packed house that day — not all of whom were admirers.
One of Fonda’s hecklers in the audience was Norman Weber, the former mayor Collinsville, who yelled taunts like, “Hanoi Jane!” and “Try her for treason!” Fonda ignored him for as long as she could but finally shouted, “That man doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so why don’t you shut up!” The crowd roared in agreement, with several people giving clenched-fist salutes.
SIUE was an exciting — and controversial — place in the 1970s. Advocates of the legalization of marijuana periodically held “smoke-ins” and several hundred students would gather outside to light up joints. Campus security was unwilling and unprepared to arrest that many people, so officers just patrolled the perimeter of the smoke-in and observed the event. Such supervision was quite unnecessary, of course. The participants were mellowed-out beyond belief and utterly incapable of creating any kind of disturbance.
The Alestle, the campus newspaper, rejected any kind of censorship, so news articles, columns and even letters to the editor were often peppered with obscenities. Students freely vented their frustration with university policies and even members of the faculty. I recall one letter-writer lambasting professors “who try to make the best-seller list by requiring students taking their classes to purchase the books they’ve written.”
SIUE had a chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In an effort to increase its popular base, the chapter posted signs around campus that invited “chicks and non-vets” to join. Members occasionally held bake sales on the first floor of the Peck Building to raise funds. I always found it amusing that such hardcore radicals chose to finance their organization by selling cupcakes and brownies.
By 1974 the campus was less political but no less lively. Streaking became the rage during the spring and summer of that year as students shed their clothes and then ran across campus. I recall one student — probably a business major — who evidently rented out her naked body as advertising space by having the name of a local business painted on her back. She was a drop-dead gorgeous woman, however, and none of us looked at her body when she was naked.
There was a tourism slogan years ago that claimed, “Las Vegas Is For Lovers.” So was SIUE in the 1970s. There were couches in the lounge areas of most buildings, presumably for students to catch a catnap between classes. Seeing couples stretched out on these couches was so common that no gave it a second thought. Other couples preferred the great outdoors for spending quality time together. Spotting the first horizontal couple was regarded as a sure sign that spring had finally returned after a hard winter.
The Mississippi River Festival was in full swing during my student years. While the festival featured a variety of performers, rock groups as the Eagles, Jefferson Airplane and the Band, with surprise guest Bob Dylan, attracted thousands of young people. The Who concert in 1971, when I was still in high school, drew a record audience of 20,000. The pot smoke was so thick that a fog-shrouded London had nothing on the MRF that night.
SIUE is a quiet, sedate place these days, which is surely more conducive to the fostering of serious scholarship. Still, this aging Baby Boomer feels fortunate to have attended the university when extracurricular activities included the sowing and reaping of ample harvests of wild oats.
John J. Dunphy’s books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.