College Hall Occupation Oral History Project
Abstract
Student demonstration. Includes interviews and papers.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1986
Creator
- Smith College. (Organization)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Some of the oral histories in this collection have restrictions on access. Please see the notes attached to an individual interview for information about restrictions that apply to it.
Biographical / Historical
The College Hall Occupation Oral History Project was the work of two students enrolled in History 367b, Problems in American History: Autobiography, Biography, and Oral History in Twentieth Century America as taught by Maurice Isserman in spring 1986. The sixteen cassette tapes and two papers were given to the College Archives in the summer and fall of 1986 by the coordinators of the project, Donna Kenny '87 and Maureen Dooley Lawrence '87.
- Feb. 20, Thursday
- Student/faculty rally and sit-in encouraging total divestment prior to the spring meeting of the Board of Trustees.
- Feb. 22, Saturday
- Trustees choose not to adopt the divestment proposal set forth by the Senate Ethical Investment Committee.
- Feb. 24, Monday
- "Round-the-clock" sit-in outside the President's office by approximately 200 students and faculty to protest the Trustees' decision.
- Approximately 90 students spend the night in College Hall.
- Feb. 25, Tuesday
- Approximately 150 students join the overnighters and 5:30 a.m. The protesters form human chains to block all entrances to College Hall. Employees are denied entrance to the building.
- President Dunn refuses to have the protesters arrested.
- Feb. 26, Wednesday
- Protesters hold a press conference announcing their position and reading statements of support for the occupation.
- All-college meeting to discuss South Africa and the occupation of College Hall. Protesters send a group of "presidential delegates" to read a statement expressing their conviction that the takeover of College Hall was their only recourse.
- Feb. 27, Thursday
- Protesters agree to negotiate with President Dunn. A small group of protesters begins a hunger strike.
- Feb. 28, Friday
- Negotiations continue. Protesters hold a rally and announce the hunger strike to the public.
- Mar. 1, Saturday
- An agreement is reached between President Dunn, the Board of Trustees, and the protesters.
- Mar. 2, Sunday
- Occupation ends with a press conference and victory rally. Mar. 6, Thursday Required teach-in on South African-related issues and on relations between the Board of Trustees and the campus community.
Extent
0.229 linear feet (1 container)
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
As a preservation measure, researchers must use digital copies of audiovisual materials in this collection. Please consult with Special Collections staff or email specialcollections@smith.edu to request the creation of and access to digital copies.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source unknown.
Processing Information
Processed by Maida Goodwin and Karen Eberhard.
Processing Information
Please note that prior to 2018, folder inventories were not always updated when new material was added to the collection. As a result, folder inventories may not be complete and folder numbers may be incorrect.
Subject
- Smith College. -- Strikes, 1986 (Organization)
- Kenny, Donna. (Person)
- Lawrence, Maureen Dooley. (Person)
- Isserman, Maurice (Person)
- Smith College. -- Students -- correspondence (Organization)
- Smith College. (Organization)
- Title
- Finding aid to the College Hall Occupation Oral History Project.
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Author
- Maida Goodwin and Karen Eberhart
- Date
- 2003
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2005-09-23: manosca25 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02-5c.xsl (sy2003-10-15).
- 2020-06-04: Finding aid brought up to standard as part of Description QC project
Repository Details
Part of the Smith College Archives Repository
