A Chronology of Oxy Unrest
March-April 1912: President John Willis Baer announces the trustees’ decision to convert Oxy into an all-men’s school. Students protest, and the idea is abandoned.
March 22, 1948: The Board of Trustees cancels a rental agreement of Thorne Hall for a March 31 program with poet Langston Hughes, citing the potentially “divisive social and political effect” of his visit. The decision creates friction between Oxy and the American Civil Liberties Union, and 28 students sign a letter to the trustees condemning their action.
1957: President Arthur G. Coons ’20 denies permission to the Student Political Forum to invite a communist to speak on campus.
February 1959: Students object to mandatory attendance at the weekly Assembly.
March 1960: Students stage a “stand-up” while dining to protest the expulsion of nine Negro students from Alabama State College because of their demonstrations against segregation.
December 1965: Students meet with President Gilman to protest termination of speech professor Leland Roloff. Professor Norman Freestone resigns as speech and drama department chair “to buttress this protest.”
1967: Four hundred students protest the College’s lockout policy for women’s dorms— at 2 a.m. The policy is lifted for all women students-with the exception of freshmen— in September 1967.
Oct. 16-20, 1967: Faculty members lead a silent anti-draft vigil in the Quad at noon each day to mark Stop the Draft Week.
Nov. 6-7, 1967: The Occidental chapter of Students for a Democratic Society—founded in November 1966 by sophomores Bill Hawkins and Byron Johnson—organizes its first sit-in against military recruiters in the Quad. A second sit-in occurs April 10, 1968.
May 27, 1968: Faculty and students stage two large protests at the dedication of the Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center; issues are minority education and need for an expanded library. The following day, about 30 members of the Black Student Caucus briefly occupy Gilman’s office to press demands for multiracial education. Protesters disperse before Gilman arrives, leading to a hastily organized conference among administrators and Black and Mexican student representatives.
Nov. 14, 1968: David Totheroh ’69, Denny Zane ’69, Paul Lehman ’70, and Tim Brown ’71 announce that they are turning in their draft cards during a ceremony in the Quad to mark the 4th National Day of Resistance.
Feb. 16, 1969: A bomb is thrown outside the President’s House, causing little damage but coming after three arson attempts on campus.
May 23-24, 1969: An All-College Forum in Thorne Hall addresses open campus and military recruitment issues following the suspension of 42 students involved in the April 30 Placement Center sit-in.
April 24, 1970: Students mount a sit-in in the Coons Administrative Center to increase the Latino student and faculty population.
May 6, 1970: Faculty votes 79-9 to suspend classes for three days in response to shootings of students at Kent State on May 4 and the bombing of Cambodia.
May 11, 1970: Oxy ROTC building set on fire by unknown arsonist.
Feb. 18, 1981: Sophomore Barack Obama ’83 delivers his first public speech at an anti-apartheid rally protesting Oxy’s investments in companies doing business in South Africa.
April 1986: A tent city is set up in the Quad to protest the trustees’ refusal to divest from companies doing business in South Africa.
April 17-19, 1996: Students stage a three-day sit-in in the Coons Administrative Center in support of the "permanent institutionalization of multiculturalism at Occidental."
March 1, 2013: Almost 300 students gather in the Quad to protest the College’s policies on sexual misconduct, placing Oxy at the center of a national debate on Title IX compliance.
Nov. 14, 2013: Students gather outside Lower Herrick for a “Sit Out” in support of increasing diversity and equity on campus. President Veitch has since advocated the hiring of a chief diversity officer at Occidental.
