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César Chávez at Wikipedia

Student Activism from 1972-74

by Max Nagano

Protest on Wilshire Blvd.

The years of 1972-74 at UCLA were notable for radical student activism. From international events such as the Vietnam War to Nixon's controversial leadership to the Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence, students had much to protest.

Groups such as SDS were constantly attacking school policy and "revolution" began to supersede the "liberal protest" of years past.

The protests that occurred during May 1972 are notable for their inclusion of future NBA legend Bill Walton, demonstrating the pervasiveness of dissatisfaction amongst a wide variety of students at UCLA.

This anti-establishment mood of the student body during 1972-74 surfaces when looking at yearbooks from those particular years. Being that they were virtually incoherent and filled with student artwork and jokes, one can easily tell the staff was not willing, or perhaps capable, to conform to the standards set down before them. "Drug haze" comes to mind.

UCLA saw an array of prestigious speakers during these years, perhaps most importantly Cesar Chavez on multiple occasions in 1972. On October 11, 1972, Chavez spoke at Janss Steps to speak against Prop. 22, which might have diminished the rights of farm workers had it passed. Other speakers included Jane Fonda, Elie Wiesel, Tom Bradley, Mrs. Medgar Evers, and many others. Controversial "racial theorists" Arthur Jensen and William Shockley were met with much opposition from an indignant student body ready to make their voices heard.

Summarily, the last years of highly visible and influential student radicalism came around 1972-74, a phenomenon UCLA got to experience. The tension and disillusionment from the Vietnam War made for a particularly pessimistic and distrustful form of activism.

Read on . . .

Protests from May 9 - 11, 1972

SDS and Young's "Wave of Repression"

Dr. Louis Jolyon and the Nueropsychiatric Institute

Response to Watergate