Monday, May 2, 2022

Harvard students that protested ROTC during the Vietnam War had their scholarships turned into loans

Harvard Crimson article from 2019:

“We thought if ROTC was eliminated at all college campuses across the country, that would substantially impact the number of officers that the U.S. military could recruit, and it might impact the war,” [one protester] said.

The movement against ROTC — and the Vietnam War more broadly — had been brewing for months. In December 1968, more than than 100 students staged a sit-in at Paine Hall just hours before a Faculty meeting was scheduled to take place.

This demonstration forced the University to cancel the meeting, and resulted in disciplinary action to students involved. Though the Administrative Board voted to ask student protestors to withdraw from the College, the Faculty overruled that decision, instead placing 57 students on academic probation and replacing their scholarship aid with loans.