Students and Politics
In the 1960s to the mid 1970s, students at St Ed's voiced their political values. When looking at the Hilltopper, one can see the social climate on campus start to change and become influenced by politics, pushing students towards counter culture, and others pushing towards the right wing side.
Political cartoon about the Vietnam war in The Hilltopper.
Student claims his hair length and style shouldn't be dictated by St. Edward's.
In an illustration published in the school paper in 1970, the depiction is an angry Nixon cartoon head next to a character named “Billy the Bullet” who was encouraging people to take up arms and kill communists. The cartoon reflects the student sentiment of being anti-war and shows the initial fracture between mainstream ideals and a growing counter culture movement that took the form of new fashion styles, activism, and unique student life at St. Edward’s.[7] An example of this can be seen in an article written about the strict guidelines set by the athletic department stating a male athlete’s hair may not be beyond a certain length and that facial hair options were limited or not allowed. At the time of the articles publication in 1970, there was a stereotype that only draft dodging hippies would grow out their hair. But for the students affected by this policy, it was about the right to choose for themselves. When an athlete was interviewed, he makes that point directly, even acknowledging that his family and girlfriend don’t necessarily like his new hair style, but it should be up to him on whether or not he can wear it a certain way, and not up to the school.[8] Students also felt a lack of choice when it came to the academic environment.
In contrast to the left, the university had right winged students. Just like how counterculutred students or left wing students asserted their politics, so did the right wing. Both right and left students would debate over issues on the news article. In the Hilltopper Mike Ritter, states that “These visions of the right are product of communist-liberal factions in this nations who are bent on the gradual destruction of the United States.” [9] Ritter also continues saying the difference between the left and right, was economics. People on campus were able to be more outspoken about their values, rights, and ideas, by saying what they believed in on the campus newspaper during the 1970s.
Hilltopper News article in 1970
written by a professor from California
who compares students to slaves
St. Edward's student in 1970 writes
a letter in the Hilltopper to the editor
saying the school is too academically
lenient
A reporter discusses the US monitoring
the growing conflict in Afghanistan.
In an article written by a professor at California State and published in The Hilltopper, the professor compares students to slaves, and teachers and administrators as their masters. This idea about students having control over their social, academic, and personal lives is very apparent throughout the late 1960s’ and throughout the 1970s’.[10]
This change wouldn’t remain permanent, however. In a letter to the editor written in 1981 by a graduating senior, the student claims that too much attention is being payed to extra curricular activities, and that teachers have become far too lenient with students. She goes on to say that the school should be more focused on academics, and seems to advocate for a more controlled campus, which is an extreme contrast from a decade earlier, where students were looking to have a less controlled environment.[11] Moving into the Eighties, there was a clear shift in political sentiment. In an article on a guest speaker, a reporter discusses the possibility of foreign intervention in the developing conflict in Afghanistan. Compared to the sixties and attitudes about Vietnam, the Afghan conflict was painted as a humanitarian crisis. In prior decades, when war was mocked by many through cartoons and protest, this change of attitude amongst students illustrates a clear shift in values on campus and highlights how unique student culture was in the late sixties and the 1970s.[12]