Range, Revolution, and the River: Ohio University during the Volatile 1960s and 1970s

The exhibit depicting Ohio University during the 1960s and 1970s, from which the images below have been chosen, explores three themes:

• Student unrest and activism
• the changing physical campus
• the Hocking River-the floods and the subsequent re-channeling

Please note that the online gallery is a selection from the actual exhibit.

Student Activism

The University's closing in mid-May 1970 came in the midst of national turmoil. These exhibit items reveal a sample of the controversies and the passions of the time as they played out at Ohio University. Documents, photographs, and newspaper clippings chronicle student protest against the war in Vietnam in Fall 1969; protests over rising costs of student fees and tuition during the winter of 1970; student activism concerning the presence of ROTC on campus in Spring 1970; and finally the arrival of the National Guard on Ohio University's campus in mid-May after the violence of the protests began to escalate.

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But there were also other issues that concerned students during the 1960s and 1970s. Student activism on campus was part of a broader national struggle for expanded rights, as students on Ohio University's campus attempted to bring attention to issues concerning African Americans, concerning women, concerning students in general, and even concerning farm workers over half a continent away. The impact of this struggle on campus was most profound for women; first through changes in social expectations, and then through changes in economic and academic policies brought about by Title IX in the early 1970s. But student attention to political, social, and economic issues of the times also resulted in the establishment of the Black Studies Institute, a Cultural Center, negotiated improvements for student workers, and popular support for the United Farm Workers of America.

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The Changing Physical Campus

Along with unprecedented rapid growth of the student body, which increased from 8,000 in 1960 to 19,000 in 1970, came significant changes in the physical appearance of the Ohio University campus. New building projects included construction of the West Green and the South Green, construction of a Space Arts Building (soon named Seigfred Hall) and a Math Building (soon named Morton Hall), construction of Alden Library and the Convocation Center, and the demolition of a half dozen buildings that included old Tupper Hall (now the site for Wolfe Garden between Cutler Hall and Alden Library), the Women's Gymnasium, Boyd Hall, and Howard Hall.

The Hocking River

Overflow of the Hocking River in spring flooded the campus three times during the 1960s. With the University spreading further into the flood plain, there was increased interest in re-channeling the river to alleviate the problem; after much study and some delays the project finally came to fruition between 1969 and 1971. The images here depict scenes flooding on campus and the interest in changing the course of the river. (See also related images of an Athens Flood Protection Project Brochure in the Ohio Memory online scrapbook.)