University of Virginia Library

Cambodia, Kent Issues Spur Student Unrest Here

Pickets, Memorial Service,
Rally Begin General Strike

By Donn Kessler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Photograph By Andy Stickney

Officer Grave Delivers Court Injunction To Students Occupying Maury Hall.

Following a take-over of Maury Hall
Monday night, the first day of a general
student strike took place yesterday in the
form of pickets, a noon memorial service,
a strike rally, and an organization
meeting.

Activities planned by the Student
Strike Committee began early in the
morning with pickets distributing
literature to anyone attempting to enter
Cabell Hall. The pickets tried to persuade
students not to attend classes.

At 11:30 a.m. student demonstrators
began to assemble on the Lawn to take
part in a memorial service for the four students
killed Monday at Kent State University. The
service had been called by Edgar F. Shannon,
President of the University, and Jim Roebuck,
President of the Student Council.

Noon Memorial

At noon, over 900 students and faculty
entered Old Cabell Hall to hear speeches and
sermons from various local and University
officials, including Mr. Shannon.

Mr. Shannon spoke to the packed
auditorium following the invocation and the
singing of various folk songs.

The President stated that the students were
living in "a dark and divided time." His voice
cracking, he added that everyone in the
audience felt "grief for the death of the young
men and women at Kent State University.

"We mourn the loss of their promising lives
and we deplore the irrationality that destroys
institutions and people."

Non-Violence

Mr. Shannon emphasized in his speech the
necessity of non-violence in the student
demonstrations. "We are all on trial in this
troubled hour," he said, "but we can still meet
the future with a clear conscience. We must
respect each other as persons and we must show
what can be accomplished through
non-violence."

Amid scattered cat-calls, Mr. Shannon also
stated that the University must "remain a place
to discuss our own views as to how to achieve
peace. The University can't be an instrument of
political purpose, for that would destroy the
University and it would be overwhelmed by
other pressures."

Mr. Roebuck also spoke to the students and
faculty by saying that he could find "no better
purpose than to leave this auditorium dedicated
to ending the war in Vietnam."

"It has been frustrating to those of us who
have tried to end the war by political means
with McCarthy and Kennedy," Mr. Roebuck
said. He added that it was now necessary to put
pressure on the national administration to have
a declaration of war, if that's what they want."

Lawn Rally

The students and faculty then filed out onto
the Lawn where their numbers grew to over a
thousand. Members of the Student Strike
Committee then spoke to the crowd explaining
to them the activities at Maury Hall and the
activities planned for the next few days.

Members of the Student Strike Committee
issued at the beginning of the rally the six
demands that they had made public in Maury
Hall last night.

Included in those demands were the end to
all political repression by the government, the
unilateral withdrawal of all American forces
from Southeast Asia and the end to all
complicity of all universities with the military
and ROTC.

Also included in the demands were increased
recruitment of blacks and women by the
University, the banning of all outside police
from the Grounds, and the permission of all
University employees to strike.

Jim Ghee, a first-year law student, stated
that "the President has been talking out of the
side of his mouth. He wants to keep academic
freedom and not politicize the Grounds, yet he
politicized the campus by getting a court
"injunction against the people who occupied
Maury Hall."

Mr. Ghee also announced the activities for
the strike in the Law School. Included in these
activities were a 24-hour vigil for peace in front
of Clarke Hall that began last night and a march
tonight on the Judge Advocate General's
School.

John Thomas, a second-year student in the
College, stated that "blacks have been telling
you that this country is sick. Now we hope you
see it. We must change it."

Priest Demands

Following other speeches, Father Stickle of
St. Thomas Catholic Church distributed a
petition demanding that Richard Nixon bring
the expansion of the war into Cambodia to
Congress "where it belonged in the first place."

The rally then broke up with students to
meet later in the afternoon in Newcomb Hall to
settle the schedule for today's activities.

In that meeting, students voted to support
the demands of the Student Strike Committee
made last night in Maury Hall and to add the
demand that the University revoke the
injunction because it abridged first amendment
right of freedom of speech.

Alexander Sedgewick of the history
department then announced that, although the
University had not cancelled today's classes,
many of the teachers he had spoken to were
not going to hold class.

Kevin Mannix then stated, and was
supported by other Council members, that
certain members of Council would move to
declare Council solidarity with the strike at its
meeting and would move to march on Carr's
Hill with the strikers.

Today's activities will include a rally on the
steps of the Rotunda beginning at 11 a.m.
Speaking at the rally will be Jerry Rubin, one
of the "Chicago Seven."

At 2 this afternoon, a rock concert will be
held on the Lawn.

Today's festivities will end with a speech by
William Kunstler, one of the lawyers for the
"Chicago Seven," Mr. Kunstler will speak at 8
p.m. in University Hall. Admission is $1.