THE troubled and troublesome college Class of 1968 tends to have a
sober, even tragic view of life. They were high school seniors in the
year that John Kennedy, a politician who gained their trust and
inspired their ambitions, was shot to death in Dallas. They were
college seniors in the year that Martin Luther King, the Negro leader
who tapped their idealism and drew them into social protest, was
murdered in Memphis. Throughout all of their college careers, the war
in Viet Nam has tormented their conscience, forced them to come to
personal decisions relating self and society, country and humanity,
life and death. With the lifting of most of the graduate-school
deferments, the men of ’68 face the war and those existential issues as
an immediate, wrenching reality. Such pressures, direct and indirect, have had a profound impact on the
630,000 seniors who will pick up diplomas this spring. While
many—perhaps a majority—are the familiar breed who spent their years
at college in pursuit of an education or a profession without fretting
too much over the meaning of either, even the quiet ones have been
affected more than they show. Those who are in the really new mold
sometimes show it by a defiance in dress: beards beneath the
mortarboards, microskirts or faded Levis under the academic gowns. More
often, and far more significantly, it emerges in a growing skepticism
and concern about the accepted values and traditions of American
society. Some of these graduates will become draft dodgers. Many smoke
pot. Fewer than ever remain virginal. Yet it is also true that the
cutting edge of this class includes the most conscience-stricken,
moralistic and, perhaps, the most promising graduates in U.S. academic
history. Children’s Crusade. Worldwide, this has been the year of student power.
Taking to the streets to engage in bloody combat with police, students
triggered a crisis for the Fifth Republic in France, contributed to the
liberalization of Czechoslovakia, challenged the authoritarianism of
Spain, and assailed the sluggish social institutions of West Germany.
At home, the spontaneous “children’s crusade” of college kids was
largely responsible for making Senator Eugene McCarthy into a serious
candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Class of ’68 has also harassed military recruiters and Dow Chemical
interviewers, picketed induction centers, held massive—and sometimes
unruly—rallies to protest the war. It has eyed its own campuses
critically and loudly cried out for a more relevant education. It has
demonstrated in support of fired professors and striking janitors,
thrown itself in front of campus bulldozers, demanded everything from
black-culture courses to total freedom from parietal rules. These disruptive power tactics have been led by a relatively small group
of radicals who hate all authority. Yet many campus-wide protests have
involved moderate and even conservative students with little or no use
for the doctrinaire polemics of Students for a Democratic Society. Many
students reluctant to march or picket have nevertheless been stirred to
face the issues raised. The jolting, dramatic atmosphere created by
defiant demonstrators, television cameras and, frequently, charging
police have left only the most aloof students untouched.
