Front page of the Daily Sentinel-Tribune for May 5, 1970

Kent Slayings Echo Throughout Nation

The echo of Monday's National Guard rifle fire at Kent State University reverberated at hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation today.

The president of Ohio State University shut down the Big Ten campus today and ordered students to go home until further notice.

OSU President Novice Fawcett announced late Wednesday the school would be closed indefinitely after Gov. James A. Rhodes recommended that any state university having student unrest stop functioning.

The head of the Ohio Highway Patrol has said the recent disturbances at Ohio State University were "well pre-planned" and resulted in injuries to 97 officers.

Patrol Superintendent Robert E. Chiaramonte said the number of injured was the highest than at any time in the history of the patrol.

No other state university in Ohio closed down indefinitely, but classes were cancelled for today and Friday at the University of Akron and Miami University as students, faculty and administrators sought out each other to discuss the shootings at Kent State and general anti-military sentiments.

Rhodes, in his statement, said each university would he responsible for any decision to close and he recommended that "all state universities in Ohio experiencing unrest he shut down immediately."

About 1,500 students participated in an all-night candlelight vigil in front of the administration building at the University of Toledo. The vigil was to continue through Monday. The University, acting on requests from students, agreed to remove ammunition kept at the campus armory and to remove Army trucks. A peace march to the war memorial downtown was planned by students.

About 100 students slept in the University of Cincinnati administration building, accompanied by a few faculty members. Wednesday night. They agreed to vacate the building early today.

Fires damaged Hays and Denney halls at Ohio State Wednesday and students picketed buildings. Guardsmen cleared students from the area of the OSU administration building Wednesday.

After the governor's statement, a 500-student group called the Strike Committee at Antioch College in Yellow Springs offered to take in and give sanctuary to any Ohio college students "evicted from their campuses."

The offer was also extended to national guard troops "who are unwilling to follow the orders of their commanders in repressing the students of Ohio."

A group of 80 students from Wilmington College was on its way on foot to Columbus, a 60-mile trip. The students carried with them a petition to the governor expressing concern over the Kent State University situation.

Police and National Guardsmen pumped tear gas through a dormitory at the University of Wisconsin in Madison Wednesday to flush out demonstrators. Police used tear gas several times to disperse bands of protesters after a rally by 2,000 students. Twenty persons were arrested and a curfew was imposed at the University of Kentucky in Lexington after the second day of demonstrations by 1,000 students.

Illinois Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie mobilized 5,000 National Guardsmen around the state following disturbances at the University of Illinois.

About 1,500 faculty members from the University of Massachusetts, and Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire colleges signed a petition calling for the impeachment of President Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. The group charged Nixon with "perjury against his oath to uphold his constitutional duties with the initiation of the Invasion of Cambodia" and accused Agnew of "crossing state lines with intent of inciting riots."

Several schools in the Deep South added their voices to the protest. About 200 students took over the Navy ROTC Building at the University of Virginia after a speech by "Chicago Seven" lawyer William Kunstler and defendant Jerry Rubin.