Campuses in Struggle

The leaders of the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) were students in the early 1960s, and by mid-decade were either junior faculty or were studying for their doctoral degrees. In 1965 the campus came alive with the issue of the Vietnam War. To understand the varied but always raw ways the war shaped relationships between students, faculty, and administrations, this chapter looks at the distinct experiences of the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, and Harvard University. What emerges are three ways student power was enacted and then responded to. This reflects the identity and institutional character of the three institutions but also crucially how senior faculty understood the threat and opportunity of the student rebellion. At Michigan professors relived traumas of the 1950s. At Chicago professors seized on the chance to reaffirm their authority. While at Harvard professors found common cause with the rebels.