The last part of the 1960 decade was very troubling in American higher education. Northwestern too had its problems. Male undergraduate and graduate students feared that their numbers would be called for service, quite possibly death, in the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States, could not speak on a university campus without hearing chants of "Hey, hey, LBJ; how many kids ya kill today?" A distressed President Johson surprised the nation by announcing that he would not seek re-election in 1968, which heightened the chances of the peace candidates--which did not include his hapless vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, who kept painfully loyal. When Humphrey won the Democratic Nomination at Chicago in 1968, he did so without running in a single primary. Soon the anti-war movement became balled up with a movement for political reform. Anti-establishment was the cry on college campuses across the nation.

At Northwestern, black and white students held sit-ins at Rebecca Crown, shouting "free Nelson Mandela." In the political science department, graduate students went on strike for greater say in departmental affairs and a general relaxation of requirements. After the slayings of student protestors at Kent State, Northwestern students tore up the iron fences that ringed the campus and blockaded Sheridan Road for three days. Graduate students in the political science department rented a jack-hammer and tried to dig up the Sheridan Road pavement, so that the university would no longer be separated from the community.

One needs a feeling for the times to understand how the commune came into being. Trying times spark radical action. Concerned that some students had generous financial support while others did not, the graduate students in political science organized themselves into a "commune" to share resources. The basic idea was that all the students would pool their stipends and share the funds while guaranteeing to the faculty that all needs for teaching assistants would be met collectively. They formally organized themselves into a commune in a document dated March 31, 1970 and approved by a vote of 14 to 1.[1] To quote in part:

I. General

A. The Members of the Teaching Commune assume responsibility for the staffing of all lower division (A and B level) discussion sections for the academic year 1970-71.

B. All funds available for "Teaching Assistantships" shall be distributed equally among the Members not receiving other University-related funds. . .

 

The more radical urged the creation of a common bank account in which all members would deposit their stipends, and from which all members could draw as needed. That thought was a bit too far for most members of the commune.

Today's graduate students may wonder about the origin of the "Graduate Commune." Now they know.

1.	"Proposed Contract for a Teaching Commune Among Political Science Graduate Students," March 31, 1970. 2 pages, dittoed. University Archives, Department of Political Science Records, 1940-1984, Box 15, folder 14.