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Transcript from "Turbulent Times"

That was 1968, and then we came to the end of the 60's, and there was great unrest, and the war continued to be a catalyst in that, but also as you mentioned, the in loco parentis philosophy. Talk to us a little bit about what you remember as challenges for the leadership at the time, because truly you were caught between. You mentioned 1967 letters to parents ?

Yeah.

But by 68, we were having sit-in's…

Yeah, we had a sit-in about the regulations right after I came back off the World Campus Afloat. The women got a little casket and put the Georgia Belle, that was the rule book, in that casket and marched around the campus with it on their shoulders, and it may have been that weekend, it was a subsequent weekend maybe, I am not sure, where they took over the academic building for about two or three days. Dean Tate and I stayed there the whole time. There were men and women students and some of the faculty. It was never unpleasant. We ate peanut butter sandwiches with them and so on, but they wanted the rules gone, and that, in effect, brought it about, because shortly after that, the rules were changed and letters went to the parents, but we were not the last to set the rules aside. We were certainly not the first, but neither were we the last. I know Auburn, for example, kept the regulations and some parents sent their daughters there rather than to the University of Georgia, because we did stop the regulations, and they were not just for women, men could not go with their shirt tails out. I remember Dean Tate chasing them around. Even the teachers go with their shirttails out now, but that was, there was a dress code that the guys had to abide by as well, do you remember that?

I remember wearing a raincoat over my gym suit.

Over your gym shorts, yeah.

I also remember thinking, "I just cannot stay out as late as we can stay out now, and I got to go home. So…

Some of the rules were not all bad. Uh…then a woman student had to come home, had to come back to the dorm. Now they don't have any excuse, and I have had them tell me that.

Me too.

And so, but we probably kept some of the more unnecessary ones longer than we should have, although there were some changes made all along, so it was a difficult period. It was a difficult period on all campuses. Uh, the Vietnam War came shortly after that, and that was another difficult period. Three students were killed at Kent State and a lot of campuses closed down in honor of that, to honor the students who had given their lives, because President Davison didn't want to do that here, they took over academic building again, the students did. And it was a little tougher group to deal with for some reason, and we finally had to get the National Guard. President Davison made the decision that it was getting too rough and took them out of the building, but this campus was nothing compared with most campuses. There were not any major problems, no buildings, no fires set, nothing destroyed, no one was hurt, and so we got by better than most campuses.

We were blessed to have you and Dean Tate.

Well, I remember some of the parades they had when they marched to the president's home, and I remember Dean Tate walked with them and sat with them out there, so those things did help.

I want to talk about Dean Tate. I am sure you have some stories about him that we will all want to hear, but um… I know…