77-A    Resolution on the Kent State University Health, Physical Education and

Recreation Facility

 

Background

 

A Health, Physical Education and Recreation Facility is to be built in the general area of the National Guard attack and shooting of students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, which resulted in the death of four and the wounding of nine students. This tragedy is a major turning point in the history of the American people regarding our involvement in the Vietnam War.

 

The planned construction of the HPER Facility would drastically alter the site of these events by covering most of the playing field where the guards-men kneeled and aimed their guns, change the contour of the rest of the playing field, and alter (with construction or landscape) the places where Jeff Miller, Dean Kahler, and James Russell fell and where many students dodged bullets. The facility would make it impossible to reconstruct the sequence of events of that day.

 

On July 29, 1977, Judge Lambrose of the Federal Court in Cleveland, Ohio, temporarily granted an injunction to stop construction of the HPER Facility allowing negotiations between the May 4th Coalition and Kent State officials to continue regarding a proper course of action while awaiting a decision from the Department of the Interior concerning the historical value of Blanket Hill. Funds exist within the Department of the Interior which could be appropriated to Kent State for moving the HPER facility to another location—costs too great for Kent State to assume alone.

 

Be it Resolved That As The 1977 LSM-USA Legislative Assembly

 

1) We call upon the Department of the Interior to declare Blanket Hill a “National Historical Site,” and appropriate the necessary funds to relocate the HPER Facility. (The Department of the Interior shall be informed by a telephone call, a copy of this resolution, and a cover letter. Kent State will chair a voluntary committee to write these, to be approved by the National Council, before the close of the 1977 LSM-USA Legislative Assembly.)

 

2) We call upon the Board of Trustees of Kent State to postpone construction of the facility, and seek an alternative site. (This request shall be made by sending a copy of this resolution to the Chairman of the Board, Mr. George Janik, with a cover letter written by the above committee and approved by the National Council, before the close of the 1977 LSM-USA Legislative Assembly.)

 

3) All concerned representatives to the 1977 LSM-USA Legislative Assembly are urged to contact their own federal legislators, seeking them to refer their concerns to Ohio Senators, John Glenn, and Howard Matzenbaum, along with the Department of the Interior as soon as possible.

 

 

1

Actions Taken

 

+          A Committee, chaired by Becky Houk (Kent State University, Kent, OH), drafted cover letters during the 1977 National Conference that were sent, along with the resolution, to the Right Honorable Cecil D. Andrus, Secretary of the Interior, and to George Janik, Chairperson of the Kent State University Board of Trustees. Copies of these letters are available in the LSM-USA national office.

 

+          A follow-up article to update students on the situation appeared in the Winter ’78 issue of the LSM-USA NEWSLETTER.

 

+          The September 26, 1977 issue of THE DIAMONDBACK, the University of Maryland student newspaper, contained both a front page article on Kent State and a letter to the editor by Robert K Schmitt (MALSM president 1977-78) stating LSM-USA’s stand on the issue.