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Activism at Ohio Wesleyan University

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File:RobinsonRickey.jpg
On October 23, 1945, Branch Rickey, an OWU grad, officially signed a contract with Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Activism was embedded in the very vision for founding of Ohio Wesleyan University[1] and has played an important role in its history.[2] Alumni of the school have become prominent in engaging in controversial issues of their times on three central issues — the scope of justice, distributive justice based on race, gender and income, and institutions related to preserving social structures.[citation needed]

Early history

On August 5 1846, the first president, Edward Thomson, delivered his inaugural address. He maintained that the college was a product of the liberality of the people of Delaware and that it was fortunate that Ohio Wesleyan was founded in a community divided in religious and political opinions because the friction of a mixed society prevented dogmatism and developed energy; he added that the spirit of the college is the spirit of liberty.[3] In the early days of the college, Thomson was frequently vocal in the national political debates of the times — namely slavery and the expansion of the United States.[4] In 1857, he denounced the argument that southern Christians "should retain their slaves in obedience to state laws forbidding manumission," saying that "the soft and slippered Christianity which disturbs no one, is not the Christianity of Christ."[5]

Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, a women's suffrage movement activist, published several books on women's issues and women's suffrage, Out of Her Sphere and The Woman's Kingdom, and was the chief editor of a women's suffrage newspaper, The New Era, in 1885.[6]

20th century

Branch Rickey, who graduated from Ohio Wesleyan, is regarded as a significant figure in the history of professional baseball for breaking the sport's racial barrier.[7] In 1943, Rickey became president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers.[8] Beginning with the 1946 signing of African American player Jackie Robinson for the Dodgers, Rickey became became renowned for his role in the racial integration of the game. Rickey's feelings on integration were a primary motivating factor in his decision.[7] Another graduate, Mary King, worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the U.S. civil rights movement when she was a young student, and was a member of the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).[9]

In the war years of 1917-1919, the break of relations between the United States and Germany struck a military tone on campus. Individual students were volunteering in the Marines, in the Canadian Forces, or in other forms of service.[10] As America entered World War I the U.S. War Department inaugurated the Students' Army Training Corps, a program designed to use existing colleges and universities as training facilities for new military personnel. On the morning of October 1 1918, about 150,000 college boys on U.S. campuses transformed into student soldiers. This was the induction into the Students' Army Training Corps. In Delaware, on campus, approximately four hundred students were given the oath of allegiance.[11] The men received the regular army training and academic instruction prescribed by the committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department. The mode of student activities changed: campus traditions were put aside, and athletic events were cancelled throughout the fall semester of 1918.[12]

In 1966, students established an Upward Bound program, funded by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, for students from lower-income and poverty areas to prepare for college.[13] The Arts Castle, the Early Childhood Center, the Big Pal/Little Pal Program, the Andrews House, the Office of Community Service and the International Ambassador High School Program are among the many programs founded the since the 1970s to provide services to the larger community in Delaware.

The escalation of the Vietnam War in the early 1960s had a significant impact on Ohio Wesleyan students. A small minority had been concerned with the war for several years, but the bombing of North Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in August 1964 raised campus-wide awareness almost overnight.[citation needed] The Vietnam War, so distant, became a huge presence on campus that affected ideas of community, student power, and free speech, and influenced daily decisions like class choices and social interactions.The first stirrings of protest against the war occurred in late 1964. In December, the Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs voted to send a letter to President Johnson opposing the expansion of the war and advocating withdrawal. Opposing expansion was a fairly moderate position, but calling for withdrawal was much more radical.[citation needed]

Reverend Martin Luther King frequently spoke in the U.S. against the South African government in the 1960s, urging Americans to end trade and investments in that country.[14] Following political activity by South Africa's blacks in 1985, the government declared a state of emergency.[15] By February 1987, student political action had brought Ohio Wesleyan to pledge to fully divest holdings connected to South Africa. [16]

Recent activism

Ohio Wesleyan students make a social and artistic statement on the steps of the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

Recent years have witnessed student activism by student groups on issues of the Iraq war, race, globalization and women's reproductive rights.[17][18][19][20]

In April 2002, about a hundred Ohio Wesleyan students gathered on The Mall in Washington, D.C. in the second day of a weekend of protests for an array of causes, including the Middle East crisis, but also to denounce lending policies of the World Bank.[21] In February 2003 approximately 100 OWU students traveled to New York City to protest U.S. actions in Iraq, with partial funding from the Wesleyan Chaplain's office.[19]

During Ohio Wesleyan University Against the War on October 5 and November 17 2004, more than a hundred students held peace rallies in front of the Delaware city hall.[17]

In 2004, the awarding of the Lilly grant "Vocation: Identity, Intellect, and Life Choices: A Move Toward Wholeness", and the prospect of the participation by Ohio Wesleyan in the Lilly Endowment program on vocation, evoked an intense adverse response from a significant group of faculty members. An open letter signed by more than 40 faculty members questioned the appropriateness of the predominantly Christian focus of the grant.[citation needed]

On March 17 2005 the Student Union on Black Awareness (SUBA) and College Democrats organized a protest on Sandusky Street in Delaware against racial injustice on campus and the country. University president Mark Huddleston also participated in the protest.[18] During his own college years, president Huddleston mediated between protesters and administration, favoring classic liberal education over brick-throwers.[22]

Academic pursuit and activism have found an intersection in the form of an annual event called The Sagan National Colloquim.[23] Established in 1984, the Sagan National Colloquium (SNC) spotlights annually an issue of concern in the liberal arts — the impact of science on society, race and reality, censorship and power, and the role of globalization.[24]

Notes and references

  1. ^ Henry Hubbart(1944). Ohio Wesleyan's First Hundred Years. Delaware, OH: Ohio Wesleyan University. p. 10
  2. ^ "Why OWU". Ohio Wesleyan University. Retrieved 2003-12-05.
  3. ^ Henry Hubbart(1944). Ohio Wesleyan's First Hundred Years. Delaware, OH: Ohio Wesleyan University. p. 22
  4. ^ "Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia". University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved 2005-10-15.
  5. ^ "The Methodist Movement Comes to America and Impacts Slavery". Reve' M. Pete. Retrieved 2003-01-01.
  6. ^ Rakow, Lana (1990). The Revolution in words: Righting Women 1868-1871, page 263. Toronto, Ontario: Routledge. ISBN 0415256895
  7. ^ a b "Rickey's moral conviction to social progress was mightier than dollar". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  8. ^ "Rickey, "Branch" (Wesley Branch)". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  9. ^ "Mary King". Ohio Wesleyan University. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  10. ^ Henry Hubbart(1944). Ohio Wesleyan's First Hundred Years. Delaware, OH: Ohio Wesleyan University. p. 133-135
  11. ^ Henry Hubbart(1944). Ohio Wesleyan's First Hundred Years. Delaware, OH: Ohio Wesleyan University. p. 135
  12. ^ Henry Hubbart(1944). Ohio Wesleyan's First Hundred Years. Delaware, OH: Ohio Wesleyan University. p. 136
  13. ^ "Upward Bound Program". Upward Bound Office. Retrieved 2005-01-01.
  14. ^ "Human Rights and Business: The Apartheid Experience". Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  15. ^ "Policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa". United Nations. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  16. ^ Tony Vellela(1988). New Voices: Student Political Activism in the '80s and '90s. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. p. 20-21, ISBN: 0896083411.
  17. ^ a b "Local Groups". United for Peace and Justice. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  18. ^ a b "Protest pleads for tolerance, diversity". The Transcript. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
  19. ^ a b "My first protest: This is what democracy looks like". The Transcript. Retrieved 2003-02-13.
  20. ^ Thomas Ehrlich(1988). Civic Responsibility and Higher Education. Washington, DC: American Council on Education Oryx Press Series on Higher Education. p. 268, ISBN 1573562890
  21. ^ "Protesters Rally Outside World Bank, IMF Meetings". Islam Online. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  22. ^ "Buffalo Police Then and Now. 1970 Violent Protests at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 2005-02-20.
  23. ^ "Sagan National Colloquium". Ohio Wesleyan University. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  24. ^ "About Sagan National Colloquium". Ohio Wesleyan University. Retrieved 2006-12-07.

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