After the Kent State Shootings: Bowling Green State University's Reaction

70_05_08_Bensch01

Kent State Shootings at Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University 70_05_08_Bensch01

TEI Letters

2017 Mathew Sweet Created the initial version of the article
2017 Mathew Sweet Converted to TEI
Patricia Bensch Ohio May 8, 1970 William T. Jerome
facsimile image
3800 East 365th Street
Willoughby, Ohio 44094

May 8, 1970

Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402


Attention: President William T. Jerome

Dear Sir:

As a taxpayer who supplies the life-line of the university
population, I am appalled at the recent demonstrations on our college
campuses. Violent or non-violent, the college community does not
have the right to deprive any student of the education to which he is
entitled. Bowling GreenBowling Green State University is keeping its doors open with the pretense
that classes are being conducted as usual, when in reality, students
are being stimulated by left-wing professors who are using education
as a subterfuge to encourage their own political ideology.

Administrators are beckoning to the call of the students and
professors, and in so doing violate the trust that the public has vested
in them. The tax dollar, therefore is being prostituted by these
administrators and faculty who are allowed to preach their propaganda.

My daughter is a freshman at your college and I abhor your
recent acquiescence to the student "demands". You have no right to
grant any concessions when you will not be there next term to implement
any of them. Is it fair for a new administration to inherit such a legacy
while you ride out in glory on the wake of student support and enthusiasm?

Please be reminded that these students do not have the physical
and intellectual maturity nor the experience to make the decisions they
are making today. They look instead to the very professors who are
alienating and perverting the democratic ideas of Western Civilization.

I urge you to reopen your doors on Monday to a student body,
eager to learn the subject matter of the courses in which they are enrolled.
I further urge you to "demand" that your faculty do the same. It’s time
the administration runs the college, not the students or the faculty. My
daughter is returning to complete the quarter with the aforementioned,
assumed as fact.

facsimile image

May 8, 1970
Bowling Green State University Page 2

If it does not, I will appeal personally to the Chancellor of the State
Board of Regents
to cancel all monies to Bowling GreenBowling Green State University and any other
state university that cannot expect professors and administrators to
do the job for which they were hired.

My interest is three-fold inasmuch as I speak not only as a
parent, but an educator as well. Other concerned parents and tax-
payers share my views and we anxiously await your constructive action
to support the wishes of those who are shouldering the financial burden.

Yours very truly,

Patricia Bensch

cc: Rep. Joseph P. Tulley
Rep. Charles Kurfess
Sen. Robert Stockdale
facsimile image
June 17, 1970

Mrs. Patricia Bensch
3800 East 365th Street
Willoughby, Ohio 44094


Dear Mrs. Bensch:

This is by way of belated acknowledgment of your letter of May 8,
copies of which you sent to various legislators. I regret this delay in
replying to your letter but as you can imagine, I was virtually swamped
with correspondence regarding the events of May.

I do not know whether the attitude which you expressed in your
letter has changed at all in view of what has transpired since you wrote.
I suspect, however, that certain points you made in your letter still repre-
sent your beliefs.

For example, you wrote of my giving in to "demands" which I would
not be around to implement. I can assure you that any commitments which
I might have made were done in consultation with the Vice Presidents and
representatives of the faculty. I can also assure you that during the May
upheaval I felt no great pressure other than that occasioned by long hours
and by a heavy heart. You see I had resigned in October and so was free
to do whatever seemed in the best interest of the University and of higher
education.

You also asserted that the students are "being stimulated by left-
wing professors who are using education as a subterfuge to encourage their
own political ideology." Possibly this happens in a few courses but stu-
dents have ample opportunity to enjoy the antidote of right-wing professors
whose preachments would delight even the John Birchers! In other words,
in any vital university, all viewpoints must be expressed, provided the
instructors do so in a professional manner. If students, despite their youth,
cannot ultimately perceive the good from the bad, then I hope they will suc-
ceed in closing all of us down for we will have failed them and society.

Your statement that "it's time the administration runs the college,
not the students or the faculty" is reminiscent of the normal school days of
this and other universities. I would be delighted if the president had this

facsimile image
Mrs. Patricia Bensch
Page 2
June 17, 1970

sort of power granted him by the academic community but less than ten years
ago such a president at Bowling GreenBowling Green State University was forced to resign under fire--and
probably rightly. Thus, as suggested above, a university must be responsive
to all kinds of ideas, all kinds of viewpoints, and must even allow students
to learn by making mistakes. Of course, there are obvious limitations to
what is permitted and certainly at Bowling GreenBowling Green State University we have made it clear that
no violence in any form will be tolerated. I think we have been successful
in this important respect.

Again, I want to thank you for writing. I am very mindful of your real
and, in most respects, legitimate concerns. Education, however, is an
explosive and testing experience for the young. This is particularly true in
today’s world where your values and mine have been subject to tremendous
change often by action of our own contemporaries. In brief, I cannot promise
any parent a fail-safe educational experience at Bowling GreenBowling Green State University or at any
comparable institution.

Cordially,

Wm. Travers Jerome III
President

WTJ:da
Dictated but not signed by the President.
xc: The Honorable Charles Kurfess
The Honorable Joseph P. Tulley
Senator Robert Stockdale