Groovy man! Profs, alumni chat on 60s

Where have all the flower children gone? This weekend at least, they were at the University. As part of Alumni Weekend festivities, organizers hosted a panel discussion entitled Seminar on the '60s: Watershed or Aberration, drawing nearly 75 alumni from several classes to College Hall. The panel featured President Sheldon Hackney, who teaches a course on the period, History Professor Drew Faust, and Associate Producer of the Woodstock concert John Roberts. Roberts is also a University alumnus, graduating from the College in 1966. Emotions ran high during the two-hour session, as participants recounted their experiences during the controversial period of American history and shared their thoughts on how the decade is currently viewed by historians. Roberts emphasized that many of the questions of freedom and equality raised during the 1960s are still unresolved, as are the moral debates which marked the period. "The debate on the 60s will go on as long as we want it to," Roberts said. "[The fight for equality] is still in the process of being born." He also said that the civil unrest which ocurred throughout the period was not an immediate uprising, as many have argued. Rather it was minority groups who decided that change would take too long if they did not act on their own. And the the recent challenges to the freedom of speech that was fought for during the 1960s, Roberts said, bring the importance of the era into public view again. "Free speech has come full circle," he said. At universities, Roberts argued that complete freedom of speech is a positive learning experience but needs to be monitored from outside the university community -- specifically by the government. Although the speakers tended to agree about most aspects of the civil rights movement, they differed on the beginning and ending dates of the period, especially since Roberts said it has never ended. "['The 1960s'] started in 1954 with the Brown [vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas] decision, and ended with Watergate," Hackney said. "[And] the 60s did end, in disillusionment." Faust said the Vietnam war and its effects on America were partially responsible for this disillusionment at the end of the decade. She said that the war marked America's failure as an international power. The recent conflict in the Persian Gulf reminded the American public of the national sense of depression which followed Vietnam. She added that in both cases there was domestic unrest aimed against the military action. "[People] still don't know what to do with the peace," Faust said. "I'm not sure we've rehabilitated from the ]Gulf[ war." Audience members participated in the discussion and said they enjoyed hearing the panelists' ideas about the period. "The 1960's are over but not done," said Howard Coonley, who graduated from the College in 1966. "For the changes that came out of the 1960's were the wedge but not the hammer."

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