They protested in the spring, knowing that they could get arrested and kicked out of college.
By then, demonstrations were already spreading across the nation. Columbia University students occupied multiple university buildings, leading to more than 700 arrests when the police cracked down violently.
At Northwestern, the students knew that something needed to change, even though their worried parents begged them not to join the protests. When the administration refused to meet their demands, they occupied the university bursar’s office.
Thirty-eight hours later, administrators agreed to meet their demands, making history and modeling a peaceful resolution to a protest through dialogue.
This was in 1968.
Fifty-six years later, students and the administration did it again.
While nearly 2,900 people were arrested at 57 colleges and universities during pro-Palestinian encampments in the United States this spring, Northwestern managed protests peacefully, and became the first major university in the nation to reach an agreement with its students.
The protesters of 1968 and the university administration both view the agreement reached that year as a significant success. Northwestern Libraries feature a page on their website titled “They Demanded Courageously,” which includes a wealth of archival documents, photographs, audio, a detailed timeline and more dedicated to honoring the bursar’s office takeover.
In contrast, there are mixed feelings about the agreement struck between Northwestern and students who organized a pro-Palestinian encampment on Deering Meadow. Several organizations – the Midwest chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law – have called for Northwestern President Michael Schill to resign. U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina and the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, criticized Northwestern’s agreement with students as “disgraceful” and “egregious,” stating that Schill should be ashamed of “capitulating to the antisemitic rule breakers.”
Two Northwestern alumni, who participated in the bursar’s office occupation in 1968, shared their feelings about this year’s protests and their hopes for the future with the RoundTable.
Protesting in the past
Victor Goode was among the students who took over the university building in Evanston all those years ago. When he saw protests against the Gaza war roiling college campuses in April, he was glad that “the spirit of student activism for important and critical causes was alive.”
“I was very proud that these students basically took what I would consider to be a position of moral consciousness,” Goode said of this year’s protesters.
In 1968, Goode was a sophomore. At that time, racism was widespread on campus.
Fraternities and sororities intentionally refused to recruit Black students. Black women, who often faced hostility from white women, could not ask to live with Black roommates in university housing, because it was seen as undermining integration. Meanwhile, white students could easily request not to live with Black roommates. Additionally, when Black students gathered in communal spaces, it often made white students avoid those areas.
Goode was one of the students who wanted to make a change.
In April 1968, students made several demands of the Northwestern administration. They sought an acknowledgment of institutional racism on campus, increased Black student enrollment, more academic and financial support for students of color, the hiring of Black faculty and administrators and new spaces for Black student activities.
Judge Stanley Louis Hill Sr., now a Cook County circuit court judge, was also a sophomore at Northwestern in 1968. He recalled the stark difference in the college experience for Black students and others during that time.
“We were studying and studying. And then on weekends, when the white kids would be partying, we didn’t have no place to go,” Hill said. “It’s a difficult school, a private school. When you finally get through passing those exams, you want a place where you can hang out and chill. We didn’t have that opportunity.”
At first, Northwestern refused to meet their demands, and more than 100 students decided to stage a dramatic demonstration to get the administration’s attention. They occupied the bursar’s office, where the university stored important documents like accounting records, payroll information and admissions data.
Not everyone wanted to become a political activist. Hill said he was very concerned about getting expelled, but he could not stand by and do nothing, even though “the fear was brutal.”
“My brothers and sisters who were there were compelled to do it, and I felt compelled to go in with them. You can call me a reluctant warrior. I did not want to do that. I wanted to graduate, become part of the Black bourgeoisie, make some money, and live a good life,” Hill said.
The students took a risk, distracted the security, and broke into the Bursar’s Office, successfully occupying it. Goode was part of the negotiating committee. He recalls addressing one of the issues. Someone from the university administration acknowledged that he had made some good points, but said Northwestern could not meet their demands.
Goode perceived it as the administration saying, “You’re right. But that doesn’t matter.”
“I think that was one of the moments that prompted me to decide to go to law school,” Goode said.
However, he added that, even though the negotiations were tense, it was clear they were moving in the right direction.
Still, the students were worried that the police might arrive.
“We were in there; that’s criminal trespass. We were committing crimes. Oh my gosh, I go to Northwestern to get an education, and I’m leaving as a felon. We were worried,” Hill said.
Northwestern did not call the police. The takeover ended in an agreement that forever changed university policies, leading to the creation of the African American Studies Department and an increase in the number of Black students and faculty on campus.
“The world was never the same. America was never the same after the ’60s,” Hill said about the results of the protests.
The 2024 encampment and reactions to it
College activism holds a significant place in the life of Northwestern Professor Martha Biondi. She authored a book titled “The Black Revolution on Campus,” which delves into the protests of the 1960s. She was also one of the students who participated in the blockade of Hamilton Hall at Columbia in 1985, demanding that the university divest from South Africa’s apartheid state.
In May of this year, she wrote an op-ed in The Daily Northwestern, where she referred to the agreement reached between the university and protesters on the pro-Palestinian encampment as “a remarkable achievement.” She drew parallels with the peaceful resolution of the bursar’s takeover, particularly emphasizing the decision by Schill and Provost Kathleen Hagerty not to give in to pressure for “crackdowns, arrests and punitive acts.”
Biondi, however, also sees differences between protesting now and then on a global scale. One distinction lies in how college administrations in the United States perceive students and communicate with them.
“Administrators seem much more like puppets of the Board of Trustees” nowadays, Biondi said. “Every pronouncement they make is vetted, I’m sure, by a team of lawyers and public relations specialists. … They’re just not willing to talk to their students one-on-one the way they were in the past, and they’re much quicker to bring in police.”
At Northwestern, on the first day of the pro-Palestinian encampment, the university police department briefly tried to disperse protesters and remove tents, but their attempt failed, officers retreated and more students eventually joined the protest.
Hill is pleased that the university administration avoided escalating the situation with the police and sees no reason for law enforcement involvement.
“We did what we did in a non-violent way [in 1968]. We did not go in and tear up the Bursar’s Office, nor did the people who were out at Deering Meadow tear up the library or anything else,” Hill said. “All they did was encamp and say, ‘Look. Look at us. Do not ignore us.’ I don’t think they did anything inappropriate.”
He called Deering Meadow “a perfect spot” for students to express their point of view. In his opinion, the situation would be different if they blocked Sheridan Road, or people’s ability to go to their classes.
Schill faced accusations that he tolerated antisemitism on campus and was summoned to Congress in May to face questions from Republicans who accused him of failing to ensure the safety of Jewish students.
Several Republicans criticized Schill for not taking sufficient disciplinary action against protesters. They noted that no students had been suspended or expelled, and no faculty members were fired. One student and three faculty members were charged with misdemeanors in July, though, for “obstructing a police officer during the protests on Deering Meadow earlier this year,” according to student reporter Luis Castañeda.
Neither Hill nor Goode view Schill’s or the protesters’ actions as antisemitic, although they both acknowledge the reality of antisemitism in America.
Goode has been closely following Palestine for decades and is deeply disappointed that supporting a homeland for Palestinians is often characterized by critics as antisemitic or seen as support for terrorism.
“That’s where we are now. When you take a position for Palestinian human rights, you’re immediately labeled a terrorist sympathizer or a terrorist supporter,” said Goode.
He is particularly concerned because, as he states, Congress has passed many laws against the support of terrorism since 9/11, and these accusations can potentially carry “very serious consequences.”
During protests at Northwestern, there have been several examples of antisemitic actions. One of them was a poster found near Deering Meadow showing Schill, who is Jewish, with devil horns – a trope rooted in Medieval times meant to demonize Jews.
On Capitol Hill, Schill declined to comment on specific statements and actions by students and faculty, a stance Biondi supports. But she added that many other problems remain unaddressed, and saying that all protesters are “driven by hate” is a “false” and “dishonest portrayal,” she said.
“I really strongly regret that our President, President Schill, did not push back against this characterization,” Biondi said. “I think he knows it’s not true. I think he knows that it actually wasn’t the truth at the encampment at Northwestern. Yes, there have been examples, sadly, of antisemitism. But there are many more examples of anti-Islam, anti-Palestinian racism and sentiment. Those don’t get talked about.”
The future of college protests
One part of the agreement that Northwestern reached with students was the ending of protests on June 1. The fate of demonstrations in the fall remains unclear. For now, Northwestern is investigating several students accused of antisemitism, as Schill said at the congressional hearing in May.
Goode believes that it will be much harder for students to express their views openly in the fall, and he anticipates that universities will use the summer to tighten rules for protests.
Biondi also said thinks there will be stricter regulations regarding student demonstrations, suggesting the possibility of campuses implementing “a heightened security regime.” Despite this potential challenge, she remains confident that such measures will not stop students from voicing their opinions.
“They are going to let their voices be heard whatever the institutions are trying to silence now. I think they feel like they refused to be silenced,” Biondi said.
The bursar’s takeover is also just one among many other protests that have occurred on the Northwestern campus.
Students protested the Vietnam War, and in 1970, medical students organized a sit-in opposing compulsory service for medical school students in the army. Northwestern joined a national college demonstration in 1985, demanding divestment from South Africa. In 1995, students rallied for the establishment of the Asian American Studies program, which opened in 1999. Additionally, students advocated for divestment from Sudan, fossil fuel and coal companies, firearms funding and more.
Years after most of these demonstrations, students were characterized as being on the right side of history, which Northwestern now openly acknowledges in how it honors the bursar’s takeover.
It’s unclear if the pro-Palestinian encampment of 2024 will join that list, but Goode said he’s optimistic about it: “I think history will be very kind to the encampment demonstrators.”
Sofia Sorochinskaia is a rising junior studying journalism at Northwestern University. She reported and wrote this story for a class on local politics.
‘The world was never the same’: Northwestern protests in 1968 and 2024 is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.