40
centralight spring '14
Freedom Hall
"Central Hall is still occupied today
while other students continue
to picket classroom buildings in
an eff ort to gain support for a
strike called by Student Senate
Monday night. Except for the
second fl oor offi ces, CMU's oldest
building, renamed 'Freedom Hall'
by protestors, has been occupied
by students protesting the war in
Southeast Asia and the shootings
at Kent State since Monday night.
A spokesman for the students
occupying Central Hall said, 'We
want to stay at least until our
demands are met.' Among the
student demands are a student
vote on the abolishment of
ROTC, the abolishment of military
recruiters and complete amnesty
for all those involved in the strike."
– Central Michigan Life, May 8, 1970
For fi ve days, from May 6 to May 13, 1970, students occupied Central Hall,
CMU's fi rst gymnasium, in protest of the Vietnam War. Then President William
Boyd (p. 9) eventually negotiated with the students to reach a peaceful end.
Boyd was a diplomat who was sympathetic to student causes, once donating
hundreds of dollars of his own money toward the cost of chartering a bus for
students to attend a rally in Washington, D.C. Central Hall was demolished
in 1974. Ronan and Grawn Hall now stand at the building's original site.
•
Do you remember
PHOTO COURTESY OF CLARKE HISTORICAL LIBRARY
1970
