As the war in Viet Nam escalated, so too did the monthly draft. When it hit 40,000 in December, 1965, Selective Service director General Lewis B. Hershey warned that “marginal” students about 10 percent of university freshmen and sophomores could soon lose their 2-S student deferment and be drafted. To define “marginal,” he brought back the policy from the Korean War, using class rank and a standardized test. The American Council of Educators, and UW Dean of Students Joseph Kauffman, approved.
As do most students; more than 8000 UW men – about three-fourths of the male student body – return the big blue IBM card telling the registrar to go ahead and send their records to their local draft boards.
The strike’s momentum begins to wane on Monday, February 17, with numbers down to about seven hundred, but strikers continue to obstruct streets and disrupt classes. Some shout down Professor George Mosse as he attempts to lecture on European cultural history, but Mosse takes a historian’s view of the incident and is nonplussed. Late in the day, the Black People’s Alliance, WSA, and Third World Liberation Front issue a statement calling on students to return to class and engage their professors and classmates on the underlying issues.[i]
On Tuesday, BPA leader Willie Edwards tells a small rally of about 150 that the strike is officially suspended. Over the seven weekdays of the strike, attendance in classes on and around Bascom Hill has been off by about 10 percent, while the western campus generally had full attendance. That afternoon, about half the guardsmen are sent home, with the rest to follow on Thursday.[ii]
Madison in the Sixties - February 1969, the Black Studies Strike wortfm.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wortfm.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.