Class of 1970 walks, 40 years later

With May and uncertain futures looming, graduating seniors are looking forward to one sure thing: commencement, the rite of passage that marks their exit from college into the real world.

It’s a milestone that is celebrated each year, and it’s one that was painfully absent from the senior spring of Boston University’s class of 1970.

In the aftermath of the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings, college campuses across the country were in tumult with riots and protests. As unrest reached a pitch at BU, the threat of violence prompted the deans to cancel final exams and call off commencement for their graduating class.

Forty years later, BU is inviting back those alumni for the commencement they never had.

“We do want to keep the focus on this class, the class of 1970, acknowledging what their experience was here,” said Kelly Cunningham, BU’s director of alumni communications and new media. “It was a pretty tumultuous time all across the country, all across the world, and the idea of a commencement, the idea of a convocation, of these moments being cultural milestones and personal milestones &- we are their university, and we want to make sure that they get to experience those milestones.”

As of last Friday, 64 alumni had registered for the event, and Alumni Relations Executive Director Meg Umlas said over 300 guests, including alumni and their friends and families, are expected in total at the ceremony, which will coincide with the class of 2010’s graduation.

“We realized a few months ago that it was the 40th anniversary of this monumental year, the class of ’70 being the only class, at least in our knowledge, not having actual commencement exercises,” Umlas said.

Alumni began by gauging interest with a survey signed by 1970 graduates and BU trustees Kenneth Feld and Sharon Ryan.

Feld, a graduate of the School of Management who is now CEO of Feld Entertainment in Vienna, Va., recalled the commencements of his three daughters at various universities and said he wanted to bring the experience to his peers.

“It was a big deal, and we didn’t have that,” he said. “Over time you sort of forget about it, and then it’s an anniversary, so you see a picture of Kent State and people are talking about it, so we said, “Let’s take a shot and see what the temperature is.'”

Over 200 alumni responded to the survey, Cunningham said, with mostly positive feelings, though some were not so enthusiastic.

“Of course you’re going to have people who are really upset and who, rightfully so, feel that something was taken from them,” she said. “It is such a huge milestone to feel like you’re not allowed to participate in it. I’m sure that that was a blow to them.”

Feld said though sentiments are bound to vary based on “different connections” to the university, the events of spring 1970 should be remembered objectively.

“If you feel so terrible about it then don’t show up. I don’t think it’s rubbing salt in the wound. That’s a little dramatic,” he said. “It’s a fact. It happened.”

The class of 1970 has had the chance to walk across the stage once before, in 1980, when about 100 alumni participated, Umlas said. But she said she hopes that this year will be a more extensive experience, complete with service of remembrance, convocation and formal commencement. Alumni may even choose to stay in Warren Towers.

“They will feel like they are truly a part of the ceremony,” she said. “They will be acknowledged from the stage, they will be acknowledged by the president, they will be asked to rise just like other graduating students.”

Cunningham described the service of remembrance as a “healing exercise.”

“What we’re trying to do here to recognize that any of those bitter feelings are based on something real that these alumni experienced, and that we’re not trying to gloss over their experiences,” she said. “We’re trying to celebrate and acknowledge.”

Feld said the “real goal” of the weekend is to cultivate BU’s alumni network.

“It’s not meant to be controversial, it’s meant to give some people closure. It’s a way to connect,” he said. “You’re reaching out to people who, almost more than any other class, would have no reason for a connection.”

The climate in the spring of 1970 was “hypersensitive,” he said.

“The hate and the discussion daily was beyond anything that I think young people today can even understand,” he said. “There was no relief.”

He recalled May’s days-long occupation of the administration building and said he did not fault the university for canceling his class’s commencement.

“You would have had 20,000 people there. You don’t know what could have happened,” he said. “It was the right decision, and I think when you’re in the heat of the moment you don’t look at every aspect.”

Among the many historic moments of that spring was the special first edition of The Daily Free Press, which reported on the riots and the decisions of the administration.

“A lot of the feedback that we’ve gotten had to do with the FreeP and remembering that there was some pretty extraordinary coverage going on,” Cunningham said.

As The Free Press prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary on May 5, Feld says he hopes alumni will realize that the intervening decades have seen real change at BU.

“I don’t believe [the violence] could happen today, because we know more, we lived through that,” he said. “The administrations at a lot of universities are quite different. We have communications today that we didn’t have then.”

“We’re trying to say, “Hey, BU’s a different place, a friendlier place,'” he said. “There’s an administration and a group of people that listen to the faculty, the students and the community like never before.”

The spring of 1970 was a watershed moment in BU’s history, Cunningham said.

“This was definitely one of the big legendary stories that I heard about from the get-go,” she said. “This historic class &- it’s almost the turning tide in the university’s history.”

Umlas said she hopes alumni who have spent the decades reflecting on their graduation will have new perspective heading into their belated commencement.

“A lot of people that I’ve been communicating with are really, really excited about this opportunity, and they’re very grateful that we’re recognizing them now,” she said. “I think sometimes bitter feelings do sort of fade away, and we hope that absence sort of makes their heart grow fonder.”

Feld agreed that the spring in which his class did not walk was a turning point in BU’s history, one from which the university has learned and grown over the past 40 years.

“The fact that there was one day, one moment in time &- I must say, it was historic. Maybe it’s better, because that’s why people will remember that year,” he said. “There’s 300,000 alums around the world. It’s a pretty large universe. I think if they were aware of what’s happening at BU now, they would probably be pretty proud that they went there.”