Running head: STUDENT AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS IN THE 1960S

University Unrest: The Role of Student Affairs Professionals in the 1960s

Ashley Trewartha
Loyola University Chicago

STUDENT AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS IN THE 1960S

University Unrest: The Role of Student Affairs Professionals in the 1960s

On December 6, 2014, students and community members around the University of
California-Berkeley organized a demonstration against police brutality and racial injustice as a
result of the failed indictments of the police officers who killed Mike Brown and Eric Garner
(Ho, Sernoffsky, & Williams, 2014). Photographs of the protests show protesters meeting with
police officers armed with batons and tear gas. The scene is eerily reminiscent of a similar scene
fifty years prior. In Fall of 1964, protests erupted on the University of California-Berkeley
campus as a result of the administration denying public space for political activity (Horowitz,
1986). Dubbed the Free Speech Movement, demonstrations proceeded for months and included
a 700-student occupation of a campus administration building, a 600-student siege of a police car
after the arrest of a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) leader, and a strike that closed campus
(Horowitz, 1986; Lipset & Altbach, 1966). The Free Speech Movement, which ultimately
resulted in a number of campus reforms, showed the Berkeley administration, the mass media,
and campuses around the country the potential for student action (Lipset & Altbach, 1966). The
past fifty years are marked with social movements and college campuses have had their fair
share of involvement. What will historians fifty years from now say about the current movement
still in the making? What will be said of the role of student affairs?
The 1960s is highly regarded as a tumultuous time for higher education and political
protests on campus and throughout the country. Campus culture in the 1960s dramatically
shifted the roles of student affairs professionals and has left a mark on the profession that is still
apparent today (Gaston-Gayles, Wolf-Wendel, Nemeth Tuttle, Twombly, & Ward, 2004;
Horowitz, 1986). Student activism is not left to history books; rather, as protests at the
University of California-Berkeley in December of 2014 demonstrate, student activism is alive

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and well today. By understanding the many roles of student affairs professionals during the
1960s, student affairs professionals fifty years later can be better equipped to navigate balancing
roles as professionals upholding institutions and as educators for social justice.
My first semester as a graduate student began around the same time that a young Black
male named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. My first semester comes to
a close at the same time that a large campus protest erupted after two grand juries failed to indict
two White police officers for the deaths of two unarmed Black men. During my undergraduate
career at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonan institution well known for its liberal
protestscivic engagement and actions for change were encouraged. As an undergraduate
student, I would be protesting, I would be speaking out, and I would be pushing administrators to
address the issue on campus. As a graduate student and Loyola University Chicago graduate
assistant, my role is no longer as a student. In transitioning to my role as a professional, I have
found it difficult to balance my personal perspective on social justice issues and my commitment
to the values of the institution for which I work. I entered the student affairs profession to be a
social justice educator. As a professional, I am also expected to support the values of the
institution. How do I incorporate my own passion for social change into my work without
compromising my responsibility to the institution for which I work? By examining the roles of
student affairs professionals during a particularly challenging time within higher education, the
1960s, I hope to learn how to incorporate my own passion for social change into my work
without compromising my responsibility to the institution for which I work.
Articles Reviewed
The roles of professionals during student movements on campus were complex to say the
least. All three articles that discussed student protests emphasized the multiple roles that student

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affairs professionals played in supporting students while upholding the institutions mission and
the institutions image. Similarly, all three articles explored the reasons behind why student
affairs professionals often felt conflicted in their campus roles. Administrators, professionals,
and educators were forced to work diligently to avoid decisions and actions that could result in
negative media attention which could affect sources of money for the university. At the same
time, student affairs professionals had to figure out how to support students, advocate for their
needs, and educate them on how to convey their needs to administrators effectively.
Lipset and Altbachs (1966) article, Student Politics and Higher Education in the United
States provided a historical account of the campus protests in the early 1960s. They explored
factors of college campuses that may have contributed to student activism by comparing protests
at different institutions. They found that the majority of students who engaged in campus
protests had parents who were well-educated, middle-class, and liberal (Lipset & Altbach,
1966). Large institutions were most prone to large scale protests because of the sheer number of
students (Horowitz, 1986; Lipset & Altbach, 1966). While only a relatively small percentage of
students engaged in protests, a small percentage at a large university is still very large.
Additionally, faculty at large public institutions were more likely to contribute to campus
protests because faculty members were often dissatisfied by the lack of academic freedom and
large administrative responsibilities laid out by the institution (Horowitz, 1986; Lipset &
Altbach, 1966). By exploring what institutional and population factors contributed to campus
activism, Lipset and Altbach (1966) paint a clearer picture of what student affairs professionals
faced on campuses with campus protests.

STUDENT AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS IN THE 1960S

To understand the roles that student affairs professionals played on college campuses, it
is crucial to explore what was happening on college campuses and who was participating in
campus movements. Horowitzs (1986) article, The 1960s and the Transformation of Campus
Cultures explores campus life and culture in the 1960s to orient readers to the context in which
college and university protests occurred. Written like a historical narrative, Horowitz (1986)
described how campuses in the 1960s drastically shifted by first exploring student life in the
1900s. Horowitz specifically addressed the types of movements that happened on campus, who
led and organized campus protests, and how they shifted campus life from the way it functioned
decades earlier. The 1960s and the changing diversity of students in higher education eliminated
hegemonic campus life and a shared experience of all students, a change that is still present on
todays campuses. By understanding the larger affect of 1960s student activism, readers can
compare the roles of student affairs professionals then and now.
Finally, Gaston-Gayles and colleagues (2004) explored the multiple roles of student
affairs professionals during civil rights era campus protests in From Disciplinarian to Change
Agent: How the Civil Rights Era Changed the Role of Student Affairs Professionals. They
conducted interviews with 18 student affairs professionals on a variety of college campuses
around the country to gain insight into the roles that professionals played during times of student
protests (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). Researchers found five prominent types of roles that
professionals played: educator, advocate, mediator, initiator, and change agent (Gaston-Gayles et
al., 2004). Rarely did a professional serve only one of these roles at any given time. Rather,
most professionals interviewed held multiple roles in serving students and serving the university.
The article presented themes across interviews and identified strategies used by student affairs
professionals in navigating multiple roles on campus (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). Navigating

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multiple roles is still a relevant challenge for the student affairs profession, and the insight gained
from student affairs professionals in the 1960s can inform how professionals navigate their
varying roles today.
Common Themes
Student affairs professionals were often pulled in multiple directions, expected to serve
students and serve the institution. Sometimes these two roles work together in harmony, but
during campus protests in the 1960s, these two roles were more likely to conflict with one
another. Two of the themes across all three articles address two of the major roles of student
affairs professionals. Professionals responsibilities in upholding the mission and values of
institutions of higher education became particularly salient to professionals in the midst of
campus protests, particularly those centered around studentand perhaps staff and faculty
dissatisfaction with the university and its administration. The first theme explores the
responsibility of professionals in helping create a positive university image amongst negative and
exaggerated media coverage (Horowitz, 1986; Lipset & Altbach, 1966). A similarly related
theme across all three articles is the role of student affairs professionals in educating for change.
Professionals often found themselves in the role of helping students find productive and more
effective means to expressing their demands to campus administration (Gaston-Gayles et al.,
2004). The final theme brings both of these roles together to explore how student affairs
professionals navigated and balanced meeting the needs of both the administration and the
students and the challenges that came with those often conflicting roles.
Media and the Threat to the University Image
The television was the window to the world and its cameras were watching college
campuses. The mass media representation of student activism arguably made the roles of student

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affairs professionals much more difficult. A universitys image means everything; national
attention can bring students, faculty, staff, and a lot of money. In the 1960s, national attention
also brought the National Guard. The media rarely depicted 1960s college life accurately, but it
influenced the nations perception of campus protests nonetheless. Regardless of what was
actually happening on college campuses across the country, the media was able to make the
nation believe that there was something horrifically wrong with college campuses. . . . If the
press, the educational community, and the public believe that there has been a student revolution
in the United States, then there has indeed been one (Lipset & Altbach, 1966, p. 321).
Media representation of student activism on college campuses largely exaggerated the
scope of campus protests. The media exaggerated the number of students involved in protests.
The media gave the impression that a large proportion, if not the great majority, of [United
States] students were in revolt against the war (Lipset & Altbach, 1966, p. 323). The reality,
however, was that in 1969, at the height of protest, only 28 percent of the college population
had taken part in a demonstration of any kind during their four years (Horowitz, 1986, p. 12).
In addition to exaggerating the number of students involved in protests, the media also
exaggerated the degree of radical protests and placed more attention on civil disobedience over
other forms of protest (Horowitz, 1986; Lipset & Altbach, 1966). The mass media focused on
the inherently attention-worthy acts of civil disobedience (Lipset & Altbach, 1966, p. 323).
Knowing the airtime that acts of civil disobedience would get, protesters used more disruptive
tactics to get attention (Lipset & Altbach, 1966). The medias portrayal of university unrest and
the use of acts of civil disobedience to gain media attention created a lot of work for student
affairs professionals.

STUDENT AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS IN THE 1960S

Because the media represented college and university campuses in such a negative light
and because protesters often used more radical tactics to gain media and institutional attention,
student affairs professionals were tasked with trying to control campus unrest. Gaston-Gayles
and colleagues (2004) found a common narrative in their interviews with professionals during
the 1960s: student affairs administrators were looked upon by the administration to help
manage student unrest and bring peace to the institution (p. 268). It was often made clear that
the reason to curb student unrest was because of the negative effect it was having on the
universitys image. To a degree, that was accurate. Lipset and Altbach (1966) noted a series of
protests that coincided with Berkeleys Family Day and Berkeleys Charter Day, both of which
drew important guests. Family Day is inherently the day on which radical political
demonstrations are most embarrassing to the university (p. 323). Berkeleys Charter Day guests
included the Ambassador to the United Nations (Lipset & Altbach, 1966). Both these events
were likely planned intentionally to embarrass the university in hopes that administrators would
give in to their requests. Instances like these gave greater responsibility to student affairs
professionals to maintain the image of the university. Philip Hubbard, who served as Dean of
Academic Affairs and Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Iowa, noted that the
president looked to student affairs to keep things under control so that the students did not
embarrass the university or college and did not offend the trustees (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004,
p. 269). Though student affairs professionals were tasked with preventing students from
engaging in activities that harm the universitys image, professionals responsibilities in serving
students also remained a large undertaking.

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Advocate and Educate

The primary role of student affairs professionals is service to the students: advocating for
students, helping students learn how to navigate campus, providing opportunities for students to
gain crucial skills, and ensuring that students have the resources and support they need to
graduate. The student was, and still is, at the center of the profession and remained at the center
of the profession even when responsibility to the student clashed with the responsibility to the
university. Interviews with professionals working in the 1960s depicted a shared sentiment that
student affairs administrators, while needing to maintain some sort of order at the institution,
should not abandon the more lofty goals of helping students to learn and grow (Gaston-Gayles
et al., 2004, p. 270). Interviews conducted with student affairs professionals provided a variety
of ways in which professionals taught students (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). Professionals
helped students navigate campus administrators and taught students effective ways to bring their
concerns to administrators. Harris Shelton, a Dean of Men at Florida State University, summed
up the sentiments student affairs educators shared: each of us as educators had a personal stake,
a personal role in the battle for human rights (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004, p. 276).
While student affairs professionals sought to educate students, the literature discusses the
large role that faculty members played in campus protests. Specifically, faculty at very large
public institutions, who were dissatisfied with the lack of academic freedom, played active roles
in campus protests against administration (Horowitz, 1986; Lipset & Altbach, 1966). In fact,
Lipset and Altbach (1966) speculated that the exacerbation of social relations among faculty,
students and administration, inherent in the successful pursuit of academic eminence has
contributed to making possible the considerable political unrest and attacks against the university
from within (p. 325). One tactic used to educate students was a teach-in (Lipset & Altbach,

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1966). In this regard, faculty took an active role in campus activism, whereas student affairs
professionals, because of their additional responsibilities to the administration, offered guidance,
relaying of messages, and support for students engaged in campus activism.
Caught in the Middle
On any given day, a student affairs professional has many roles. Student affairs
professionals support students and advocate for student needs. Student affairs professionals also
create learning opportunities and guide students through educational and developmental
processes. The word student is central to the work of the profession; it is in the title after all.
At the same time, student affairs professionals also represent the university, which means
enforcing university policy and upholding its mission and values. Student affairs professionals
arguably cannot serve students if they do not hold positions within universities. Thus,
professionals, in times of campus turmoil and student dissatisfaction, must carefully navigate
their role in serving students and their need to protect their jobs.
The role that graduate students played in campus protests sheds light on the importance
of carefully navigating professional roles on campuses. Interestingly, multiple articles discussed
the challenges graduate students faced feeling judged and scrutinized in their studies and their
work (Horowitz, 1986; Lipset & Altbach, 1966). Graduate students, on the lower rungs of the
institutional hierarchy, worked for the university but were also students and often identified
more with the oppressed than the oppressors (Horowitz, 1986, p. 14). They were wellpositioned, particularly those who interacted with undergraduate students to prick the
conscience and awaken the political consciousness of their undergraduate charges (Horowitz,
1986, p. 14). Lipset and Altbach (1966) noted similar findings, stating that graduate students
would communicate the sense of grievance . . . to [undergraduate students] who, less involved

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in scholarship and careerist activities, [were] freer to act (p. 330). This tactic used by graduate
students illustrates the risk that student affairs professionals, graduate students, and other
university employees took when engaging in campus protests and activities, particularly when it
meant speaking out or going against high-level administrators.
The narrative of student affairs professionals throughout a university system paralleled
that of the graduate student. One of the most difficult tasks for student affairs administrators
was that of supporting the legitimate needs of students while not compromising the mission of
the institution (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004, p. 271). University presidents expected student
affairs professionals to convey the views of the institution to students and hold students
accountable when they broke campus policies (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). For those who
viewed supporting students as integral to their role, student affairs professionals sought ways to
balance both roles. For all, students expected student affairs professionals to advocate for them
while presidents expected them to uphold the university (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). Student
affairs professionals listened and supported students, relayed their concerns to administrators,
and helped students navigate how to most effectively convey their message to the institution
(Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). Because professionals saw themselves as change agents, they saw
many of the demands of students as valid and worth advocating for.
Rather than using the active roles that faculty utilized, student affairs professionals
provided support for students, listened to their needs, and provided feedback that would help
students more effectively reach the administration. Professionals provided honest feedback and
translated the views of the administration to students. For these reasons, students were more
likely to trust student affairs professionals than they were to trust high-level administrators,
university presidents, and university boards (Gaston-Gayles et al., 2004). In order to be trusted

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by the institution, student affairs professionals had to uphold university policies and the
institutions mission and values. Student affairs professionals noted the difficulty in balancing
these multiple roles, roles that are still very present in the profession today.
The Next Fifty Years
Fifty years ago, students at the University of California-Berkeley protested for greater
free speech rights (Horowitz, 1986). Fifty years ago, the student affairs profession witnessed a
dramatic shift as a result of campus unrest and student activism in the 1960s. Fifty years ago,
student affairs professionals wore multiple hats, advocating for students, educating students, and
upholding the university and its mission. Fifty years later, students at the University of
California-Berkeley protest against police brutality and racial injustice. Fifty years later, student
affairs professionals continue to wear multiple hats and continue to balance their service to their
students and to their institutions.
The 1960s was a tumultuous time for college campuses and student affairs professionals.
As educators, student affairs professionals are able to capitalize on their relationships with
students to create space for educational and developmental opportunities. As educators, student
affairs professionals must be willing to educate each other too about student needs. The multiple
roles of student affairs professionals emphasize the importance of advocating for students and
teaching students how to ensure that their voice is heard and that the institution is listening. One
of the most notable lessons from the 1960s that student affairs professional and administrators
should use to guide their work was eloquently stated by Gaston-Gayles and colleagues (2004):
. . . The relationship between students and institutions ought to be one that empowers
students, treats them like adults, and transcends concerns about institutional image . . . .
We learned during the civil rights era that the more open and student-oriented campuses

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were less likely to experience crises. As such, the student affairs mission must not be to
only maintain order, but also to educate students. (p. 278)
As professionals of the institution and advocates of students, student affairs can bridge the gap
between these multiple groups within higher education. When all stakeholders are willing to
listen and work together, real, meaningful, and mutually beneficial education can happen.

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References
Gaston-Gayles, J. L., Wolf-Wendel, L. E., Tuttle, K. N., Twombly, S. B., & Ward, K. (2004).
From disciplinarian to change agent: How the civil rights era changed the roles of student
affairs professionals. NASPA Journal, 42(3), 263-282.
Ho, V., Sernoffsky, E., & Williams, K. (2014, December 9). Berkeley protest swells to more
than 1,000, closes I-80. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved from
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Five-held-in-latest-Berkeley-protest5942600.php#photo-7246693
Horowitz, H. L. (1986). The 1960s and the transformation of campus cultures. History of
Education Quarterly, 26(1), 1-38.
Lipset, S. M., & Altbach, P. G. (1966). Student politics and higher education in the United
States. Comparative Education Review, 10(2), 320-349.