Press enter after choosing selection

Sit-In At ROTC Building Ends Quietly

Sit-In At ROTC Building Ends Quietly image
Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
May
Year
1970
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

The Ann Arbor News

136th Year, No. 129 Ann Arbor, Michigan,

Saturday, May 9, 1970  ★ ★ ★  22 Pages 10 Cents

Sit-In At ROTC Building Ends Quietly

By Roy Reynolds

(Higher Education Reporter)

The occupation of ROTC quarters in the University’s North Hall which was undertaken by anti-war demonstrators Thursday afternoon ended quietly early this morning with no arrests and no major damage to the building.

The official U-M account of the incident’s conclusion simply states that demonstrators still in the building about 10 p.m. yesterday “voted to leave... a few minutes after the conclusion of President Nixon’s news conference.”

Actually, a more complicated sequence of events occurred.

The number of demonstrators remaining in the building had dwindled to about two dozen, with none of the relatively prominent activists who initiated the occupation in evidence, by mid-afternoon yesterday.

During the afternoon, an effort to improve security measures at the building by having U-M faculty members remain inside throughout the night, in shifts, was developed at a meeting attended by U-M President Robben O. Fleming; Police Chief Walter E. Krasny; law Prof. Robert L. Knauss, who is chairman of the faculty’s Senate Assembly; ROTC spokesmen and several demonstrators.

About 10 p.m., medical Prof. Dorin L. Hinerman, who was in North Hall in accordance with those arrangements, phoned Knauss at home and reported that demonstrators were closing the doors and asking him to leave. Knauss, upon arriving about 10:30 p.m., learned from demonstrators that a rumor of a threatened bombing had spread. Both U-M security services and Ann Arbor police received calls from Knauss informing them of this situation about 10:45 p.m. An inspection of the building by police produced no evidence of a bomb. Police also report that a false fire alarm was received about 11 p.m.

Late in the evening, a meeting took place among Krasny, Fleming, and others. Shortly before 1 a.m., Krasny urged approximately 20 demonstrators remaining in North Hall to leave, and all but five did so.

At that point, Gainsley entered for the purpose of reading aloud the state trespass law, but a scuffle occurred, with three demonstrators declaring they would not leave under any circumstances. The other two of the five persuaded them to leave, police report. Names of those final five occupants were reportedly taken by police, but no formal charges were made.

A general atmosphere of desire to avoid sharp confrontation prevailed among the relatively few demonstrators at North Hall in mid-afternoon yesterday, 24 hours after the occupation began. A large hand-lettered signed in the lobby declared: “Please don’t paint walls or loot this place, to avoid pig hassles. Thank you. Power to the people.”

Fairly extensive scribbling of political slogans did occur on the building’s walls, mostly in crayon and chalk. Some slogans, however, were in black paint. Demonstrators of U-M student age attributed this action to high school students, and a youth who said he is a Huron High student blamed junior high students.

Although newsmen had entered and toured North Hall without interference during the occupation by anti-war demonstrators, they were ordered out by police and U-M officials after the building was cleared of demonstrators.