Cal Poly has been the site of multiple protests this week.
California State University system faculty picketed across the state in support of a strike , which ended after one day. Then eight pro-Palestine protesters were arrested in front of the university’s Recreation Center on Tuesday.
The campus has been the scene of debate and protest before.
During the Vietnam War, the campus was the site of many events related to the issue dividing the nation.
None of that era’s protests were as turbulent as those at UC Berkeley or as deadly as the Ohio National Guard shooting of students at Kent State University in 1970. But the issue was more than an abstract concept.
The student newspaper, El Mustang or Mustang Daily as it was variously known during the era, carried job recruiting advertising for Boeing, Dow Chemical and the U.S. Army Reserve officer training program.
Six Cal Poly students died in the war, making up a large percentage of the 29 veterans who died from this county.