Mark V. Holmes ’80 recalls that “the [1980] springtime protest season was about divestment in South Africa.”
“Some people tried to make an issue of it, but it was just registration,” says David S. Cohen ’80, a self-described conservative, now living in Connecticut. “The Communist agitators around the square were the ones making it a big deal.”
“I don’t remember any on-campus protests about the draft, but I do remember going to a largish demonstration at Government Center,” says Eleanor J. Barnes ’80, who says she used to hang out with the “Trotskyite crowd.”
Cohen says members of the Class of 1980 specifically had other things on their minds.
“We were seniors and people were more worried about getting a job,” he says. “It wouldn’t affect us anyhow.”
—Staff writer Sam Teller can be reached at steller@fas.harvard.edu.