Remembering the past 49 years

By Linda Prendez and Carrie Porche Jones, On Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, November 11, 1998

The establishment of California State College Long Beach in 1949 was undoubtedly part of the post-war economic boom.

Just four years earlier, Americans had dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II, the most bloody conflict in history.

A yearning for normalcy fostered conformity within society. Families strived for an Ozzie and Harriet-style American Dream, and many citizens fell trap to Cold War sentiments, underlaid with paranoia. George Orwell's anti-utopian novel "1984" was published, horrific descriptions of "Big Brother" further fueling the need for American solidarity and preservation of democracy.

The Daily Forty-Niner published its first issue on Nov. 11, 1949, barely large enough to report on a few events happening on campus. Through the 1950s, the paper increased in size and frequency of publication, but did not necessarily expand its realm of news coverage. Social events, students elections, sororities and fraternities often highlighted the front page.

Hydrogen bombs, more powerful than those used in Japan, were being tested for the first time. Sen. Joseph McCarthy had begun his anti-Communist witch hunts, but the Long Beach campus still seemed sheltered from the real world.

One anonymous critic wrote a letter to the editor on Oct. 13, 1954, complaining, "Your paper often seems dull to me, the reasons - well, I hope you'll see. The same old things are too much in style. Let's try some new ones for a while."

By the mid-1960s, students were making news, reacting to national and world events that overshadowed the clean-cut American image. In Berlin, a great wall had divided Germany, Cuba had been invaded unsuccessfully by U.S.-trained forces and U.S. troops had entered the Vietnam War.

At home, there were riots, African Americans fought for civil rights that mainstream Americans took for granted, and artists and musicians had begun to question the benevolent facade of government.

Student consciousness was geared toward social and political justice. They protested for every imaginable issue. In February 1968, art students circulated a petition questioning the censorship of art student Bill Spater, whose nude sculptures offended administrators. The issues eventually led to an ACLU-sponsored lawsuit against the university.

Chancellor Glenn Dumke authorized the Associated Students Senate to cancel Spater's show. Forty-three students protesting the cancellation were arrested by Long Beach Police. Ironically, in 1968, the A.S.I. voted 35-5 to request Dumke's resignation.

Students protested the draft, the war and police brutality. In that same year, the first dialogues on campus racism were heard, and the Black Student Union and United Mexican-American Students demanded funds for the Educational Opportunities Program.

Even professors were making controversial news. In March 1969, Professor Peter Silverman dressed as an Arab, rented a camel and rode it across campus in a peaceful protest. Later that year, Don Robertson and Marion Steel excited both students and administrators.

In true flower-power fashion, the two sociology professors burned incense, placed bean bags on the stage of a lecture hall and invited two nude students into the mystic lighting and music. One professor was caught with marijuana. Needless to say, the radicals were terminated and, of course, students protested.

By the 1970s several prominent political and social leaders had been assassinated. Americans had withdrawn from Vietnam in 1972. The civil rights movement was successful, but students remained fairly radical, testing other institutions and social norms. Ronald Reagan was governor of California.

The conservative Reagan viewed the California State campuses as being a hot bed for radicals. His solution to cooling down the students was the shutdown of the campuses.

CSULB prepared for the shutdown by giving students the opportunity to work in the community for credit or take the grade at that point. Campuses quieted down and students began to settle into a "me generation" with flagrant lifestyles and a lack of interest in politics. Speakers such as Cal Worthington spoke on campus and students turned more to drugs and good times.

John Travolta moved from a classroom in the Bronx to the disco floor in "Saturday Night Fever." He and Donna Summer influenced dress codes and the dance style of the 1970s. Protection of the environment and conservation of energy became issues of concern to the world. On Oct. 16, 1975, about 6,000 CSULB students gathered at the Speaker's Platform to hear political activist Tom Hayden call for an end to the government's "frontier philosophy that industrialized America but half ruined it's ecology."

In January 1971, a television character named Archie Bunker poked fun at bigotry, class, racial and sexist stereotyping. This show turned television away from idealism to reality. The introduction of VCRs gave TV addicts more free time to pursue other interests.

Women brought feminism to the forefront with Ms. magazine and Betty Friedan's book, "The Feminine Mystique." Date rape and violence against women were finally being recognized as social problems. Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.

The most frightening legacy of the 1980s was the spread of AIDS. Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed the on-campus AIDS test bill, but the campus moved ahead with testing a booth in the University Student Union. Panel discussions, an AIDS Prevention week and seminars to educate students were part of the university effort to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Former CSULB president Stephen Horn was politely asked to resign. During his tenure, the controversial Horn had bumped heads with faculty over parking, tenure and other issues.

There were statewide student protests against planned student fee hikes and tuition. Horn and the Students Association advocated sending 30,000 postcards to Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. in protest.

Drug use increased across the country. The Daily Forty-Niner explored the problem with a special section in the paper.

President Ronald Reagan ordered mandatory drug testing on all campuses, and Nancy Reagan pitched her Dare to Say No to Drugs program. The athletic department began drug testing on athletes.

Pro-life advocates and pro-choice demonstrators clashed across the nation and on the CSULB campus.

The last decade of the century began with the end of the Cold War, but not the end of blood shed. People are still starving and killing each other for forgotten reasons. Students worry about making money and making the most of their own lives.