The Draft
In the spring of 1955, Lewis B. Hershey,director of the Selective Service System, longerbe granted automatic deferments from the draft.Instead, eligibility to serve in the militarywould be determined by class rank withinindividual colleges and by a national draft examgiven to all male undergraduates.
Using fact sheets about the war, the SDSnational office initiated a brief and largelyunsuccessful movement against the national exam.
But the group's efforts to force universitiesto withhold class rankings from the military weremuch more effective. In February, a studentcommittee at Harvard containing several SDSmembers moved to block the release of class data,while spontaneous demonstrations and sit-ins brokeout in schools across the country.
At the University of Chicago, SDS membersgathered 800 signatures on a petition opposed theranking. After the administration ignored it, theSDS chapter at Chicago sponsored a sit-in, and onMay 11, 1966, 400 students enteress the mainadministration building and remained there forfive days.
Though the faculty and administration neveragreed to theirdemands, the University of Chicagoprotest inspired imitators. Anti-rankingdemonstrations occurred at almost a quarter of UScolleges in the 1967-1968 academic year.
The Aftermath of Columbia
The 1968 protest at Columbia University markedthe first instance of massive police violenceagainst campus activists(please see sidebar,this page).
In the wake of the Columbia strike, SDSorganizers grew bolder. And college students,seeing their administrations' willingness to useviolence against them, joined activist groups insteadily increasing numbers.
During the late '60s, SDS sponsored numerousactivities campuses: passing out information,heckling pro-war speakers, protesting recruitersfrom companies involved in the Vietnam conflictand organizing acts of civil disobedience.
Despite the group's popularity, many studentsstood against SDS. Even at college with largechapters, more students criticized the activiststhan praised them. At Harvard, which had some 300active SDS members, the group came under constantfire.
The 1970 edition of the American Council onEducation report contained a survey showing that44.9 percent of male undergraduates who entereduniversities in 1967 felt that administrators weretoo lax on protesters. Of men who entereduniversities in 1969--the year after the Columbiastrike--60.8 percent felt administrators were toollenient.
Still, students were protesting more often. AndSDS members no longer had to radicalize enteringfirst-years.
In 1969, more than 44 percent of male collegefirst-years had protested against military policy,racial policy or their schools' administrativepolicy while in high school. And almost 16 percent said there was "a very good chance" theywould participate in a protests while in college.
So in the spring of 1969, when Harvard studentsbegan to organize, SDS would be ready.