28. Reform, Rebellion, and Reaction, 1960

Quiz for Analyzing Historical Evidence: Student Protest

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 28.6

1. Why did Edward Schwartz, a leader in the National Student Association in the 1960s, argue that students should create the rules and policies that govern student behavior and experience on campus?

Students would inevitably create more progressive rules.

University administrators were universally incompetent.

The students were the ones who were subject to the rules.

Most administrators were foreign-born and non-citizens.

Question 28.7

2. For the students who supported “student power” on college campuses in the 1960s, students having more influence in university decision-making would make American universities more

intellectual.

well-respected.

militant.

democratic.

Question 28.8

3. Why did conservative students who criticized student protestors, like those involved with Counterthrust at Wayne State University in the 1960s, argue that the protestors’ attack on private business was wrong-headed?

Businesses were the largest taxpayers, and tax revenue was what allowed public universities to exist in the first place.

They supported the Cold War fight against communism, and argued that any attack on private business was unpatriotic.

Most of the student protestors would probably go to work for private businesses after they got their degrees.

Student protestors wouldn’t be able to print their newspapers and leaflets if it weren’t for private printing businesses.

Question 28.9

4. How did members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) believe Columbia University had mistreated local residents of Harlem, New York in the 1960s?

The university refused to hire African Americans from the neighborhood for campus jobs, forcing them to travel long distances to find work.

They had unjustly evicted black residents in order to expand the university, where there was already insufficient housing in New York City.

Although there were many qualified high school students living in Harlem, Columbia had never admitted a single one to the university.

They had opened on-campus businesses, such as groceries and laundromats, which took customers away from small local shops.

Question 28.10

5. What do these documents suggest about the kinds of issues student protest organizations focused on during the 1960s?

Student protest organizations tended to confine their actions to issues that directly affected the campus community, such as curriculum, tuition costs, and the content of student newspapers.

These organizations were more likely to be taken seriously by their administration if they framed their grievances in terms of major international issues, like the Vietnam War.

The National Student Association would likely be more effective than the Students for a Democratic Society because the Association was concerned with more realistic issues.