This document provides an overview of the political climate and student activism at Cal Poly between 1968-1972. It discusses how Cal Poly fostered liberal ideals through organizations promoting social equality and opposition to the Vietnam War, but did not experience the radical protests that occurred at other universities. Key factors that helped moderate unrest included Cal Poly's learn-by-doing educational model and President Robert Kennedy's efforts to openly communicate with students and address their concerns to maintain peace on campus.
3. Journal Staff:
Jack San Filippo, Editor-In-Chief
James Papp, Advisory Editor & Copyeditor
Eva Ulz, Publisher
Aimee Armour-Avant, Designer
Editorial Board:
Tom Brown
Jessica Holada
Victoria Kastner
David Middlecamp
Loren Nicholson
Anne Petersen
Reviewers:
Madeleine Aitchison
John Ashbaugh
Tom Brown
Joseph Carotenuti
Roger Castle
Randal Cruikshanks
Marilyn Darnell
Jennifer Freilach
Shirley Gibson
Donna Gillette
Matt Gross
Jessica Holada
Doug Jensen
Pete Kelley
Dan Krieger
Cindy Lambert
Kelly Marshall
Wendy Myren
James Papp
Anne Petersen
Bill Pierotti
Cacey Portwood
Richard Potts
Stacey Salinas
Josh Severn
Nicole Todaro
Graphic Artist:
Terry Farris-San Filippo
4. Contents
Some Examples of the Character of Julia Morgan
Walter Steilberg 11
Cal Poly: Liberal, Not Radical
Jennifer Freilach 17
When San Luis Obispo Last Hosted a President—
And Heard a Milestone Message
John B. Ashbaugh 27
The Disambiguation of El Buchón
Philip C. Tillman 37
President R. E. Jack
Marilyn L. Darnell 47
Saving San Luis Obispo County’s Identity with Preservation Efforts
Cindy Lambert 55
Keepers of the Adobe
Jack San Filippo 71
E. D. Bray: Architect and Builder of the Central Coast
Jean Martin, MA, with Pauline Bray Martin 83
Rereading and Restoring Two Central Coast Landmarks:
The Jack House (1878) and the Morro Bay Power Plant (1953—55)
James Papp 95
Uncovering Chinatown: The Manila Hub of San Luis Obispo
Stacey Anne Baterina Salinas 109
Naomi Shibata's Bend with the Wind:
The Life, Family, and Writings of
Grace Eto Shibata
Dan Krieger 116
Marilyn Darnell's Anything but Dull: The
Personal Letters of R. E. Jack
James Papp 121
Articles
Book
Reviews
5. “I will place plainclothes police sharpshooters on the roofs of the buildings looking
down into the crowds. We expect the governor will have to penetrate on foot to get
into the staff dining room where the plenary session is scheduled to be held.”1
These
were not the words of police at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969; they
were from Governor Ronald Reagan’s chief security officer to campus police chief
George Cockriel at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as the
campus prepared for a visit from the governor during a California State University
Board of Trustees meeting. It is hard to imagine this quaint, rural school needing
riot protection, but with a wave of collegiate protests sweeping the nation, the
governor’s office feared that rebellion would spread to Cal Poly and wanted to take
aggressive measures. In contrast, campus president Robert E. Kennedy actively
pursued close relations with students to maintain a relationship with mutual respect.
He hoped that listening to student demands would help prevent campus violence.
Cal Poly’s brief liberal nature is often overlooked because it was not radical.
Mustang Daily and San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune articles from 1968 to 1972
make it apparent that organizations were present on campus that promoted social
equality as well as an active role in government policies. For the first time, Cal Poly
students adopted a position against the federal government and protested for
change in its policies. But movements against racial discrimination, napalm manu-
facture, the Vietnam War, and Governor Reagan’s agenda did not explode into
radical riots. Instead, various factors, including Cal Poly’s emphasis on “learn by
doing” education, moderated political unrest, but chief among these was the
approach of campus president Robert E. Kennedy.
In the 1960s and ’70s, liberalism and radicalism were often used interchange-
ably, but there is a distinction between the terms. John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty
1. Robert E. Kennedy, Learn by Doing: Memoirs of a University President: A Personal Journey with the
Seventh President of California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo: California Polytechnic State
University, 2001): 292.
Cal Poly: Liberal, Not Radical
Jennifer Freilach
6. 18 La Vista 2015
bases liberal theory in claims of human progress. He writes that liberties may be
restricted only to prevent the harm of another.2
The fight for equality of minorities
in the 1960s fits within Mill’s definition of liberalism, because equality does not
infringe upon another individual’s rights, it advances them. Sandor Halebsky’s
concept of radicalism differs greatly from Mill’s concept of liberalism. Halebsky
explains that radicalism, “appeals to those with frustrated ambitions” or who are
“socially insecure,” and extreme radicalism is brought about by impatient and
“simplistic emotional reaction to personal frustrations and solitude.”3
Liberalism and
radicalism were linked throughout the 1960s to bring about change, but not all
change for equality was brought about by impatient emotional reactions. Mill’s
insider theory of liberalism suggests political beliefs that are well thought out and
believed to be for the greater good, whereas Halebsky’s academic analysis of
radicalism indicates an impulsive movement for personal power. Cal Poly did not
produce radical movements as UC Berkeley did, but that does not mean Cal Poly
did not foster liberal political ideals.
Cal Poly is considered a politically conservative campus by today’s standards,
but it has not always followed traditional beliefs. Cal Poly’s conservative nature was
not immune to an intermixture of students from around the country and the
counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s. With the presence of war and a detested draft,
young people began to question their leaders in Washington. Student organizations
invited famous political activists and gave them a platform to spread their political
agendas. Cal Poly’s student body primarily expressed its discontent with govern-
ment policies in their newspaper, the Mustang Daily. Student accounts of events at
Cal Poly from 1968 to 1972, from Nixon’s successful presidential campaign to the
wind-down of American military involvement in Vietnam, show that Cal Poly was
able to remain peaceful while splitting from its traditionally conservative past.
During these years, many Cal Poly students showed a clear interest in liberalism
while abstaining from radicalism.
The struggle for equality at Cal Poly remained nonviolent throughout the social
and political turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s.4
Unlike many universities at the time,
Cal Poly’s administration addressed the demands of the Black Student Union in
2. David Brink, “Mill’s Moral and Political Philosophy,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2008), ed. Edward N. Zalta. Accessed 12 Mar. 2014. plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/mill-
moral-political/.
3. Paul Stevenson, “Frustration, Structural Blame, and Leftwing Radicalism,” Canadian Journal of
Sociology, vol. 2, no. 4 (Autumn 1977): 355–372.
4. Strive and Struggle 1967–1975: Documenting the Civil Rights Movement at Cal Poly, Library
Gallery, Robert E. Kennedy Library, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 1–28
Feb. 2014.
7. La Vista 2015 19
order to maintain a peaceful campus. Like Cal Poly, the University of Washington
in Seattle, another public university, felt the pressures of change in the latter half of
the sixties, as the Civil Rights Movement grew. Both UW’s and Cal Poly’s civil
rights campaigns in the early 1960s were not as visible as those in other parts of the
United States, yet both schools shared an established BSU organization on their
campus. In 1969 President Robert E. Kennedy said, “I am confident that earnest
efforts to develop and maintain open communication with minority groups will be
recognized by all as the only way to solve the problems which lack of understanding
and lack of communication bring about.”5
Similarly, in 1968, UW’s President
Charles Odegaard sent a letter to the BSU on his campus, stating his support for
many of their ideas and his willingness to cooperate.6
Kennedy and Odegaard
sought to avoid uprisings by attempting to eliminate any future misunderstanding
between the faculty and the students. Kennedy and Cal Poly Dean of Students
Everett Chandler met with the BSU executive council at the latter’s headquarters in
downtown San Luis Obispo to discuss the BSU’s new proposals and concerns;
President Odegaard did the same just a year earlier at UW. Even though UW was a
few years ahead and slightly more radical than Cal Poly in their civil rights crusade,
these similarities are hard to ignore.
In April 1972, the Associated Students Incorporated of Cal Poly hosted Black
Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale. As at his talk at UW in 1968, Seale was met
with an overwhelming number of people at Cal Poly. With an entry fee of 75 cents
for students and $1.25 for the general public, ASI ranked Seale as one of their most
profitable sponsored speakers at Cal Poly to that date.7
Whether students agreed
with or dissented from Seale’s opinions, this unusually high turnout shows that
many students at Cal Poly had an interest in current racial struggles. Bobby Seale
was not the only national representative of the Civil Rights Movement to visit.
Co-founder and leader of the Committee of Racial Equality (CORE) James
Farmer, Medgar Evers’ widow Myrlie, author Alex Haley, professional basketball
player Bill Russell, and Olympic sprinter Jesse Owens were among the civil rights
leaders who came to Cal Poly (Strive and Struggle 1967–75).
African Americans at Cal Poly were not the only students advocating for racial
equality on campus. At one meeting in the 1968 series Black Pride in America, 100
5. Mel Thompson, “More Meetings Slated with Off-Campus Group,” Mustang Daily,
10 Feb. 1969: 1.
6. Marc Robinson, “The Early History of the UW Black Student Union,” Seattle Civil Rights and
Labor History Project, 2008. Accessed 22 Feb. 2014. depts.washington.edu/civilr/BSU_beginnings.htm.
7. “Sales Slow for Seale’s talk,” Mustang Daily, 6 Apr. 1972: 1; “Seale’s Talk Successful,” Mustang
Daily, 12 Apr. 1972: 4.
8. 20 La Vista 2015
to 150 students showed up, of whom only 23 were identified as black.8
This recalls
the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi where white and black college students
both sought to increase black voter registration. Even though Freedom Summer
was undoubtedly on a larger scale than Cal Poly’s activism, both white and black
students at Cal Poly were finally catching up to the nation’s liberal hopes of equality.
With a growing number of minority
students and a presence of racial bias,9
Kennedy knew he needed to take steps to
diminish prejudice on campus and in the
surrounding community.The
Discrimination Committee, approved by
Kennedy and directed by Dean of
Students Chandler, met to not only hold
public forums to discuss existing discrim-
ination but also discuss possible areas of
future discrimination. In a contemporary
Mustang Daily article, Chandler
discussed one instance of a black student
who felt he was dismissed from his job at
the university’s cafeteria strictly because
he was black.10
By promoting racial equality and holding public forums to debate
the issues, Cal Poly attempted to foster an overall accepting and peaceful environ-
ment.This accepting environment welcomed Sondra Dease in 1972 as coordinator
for the affirmative action program.This program was responsible for recruiting
minority and women applicants to show that Cal Poly was complying with equal
opportunity policies.11
This kind of caution kept students informed on racial
struggles and prevented racial tensions that could have occurred.
One of the first demonstrations in Cal Poly’s history was in January 1968
against Dow Chemical Company recruitment. Dow was responsible for manu-
facturing napalm used by the United States in Vietnam. According to Dave
Markowitz, coordinator of Cal Poly’s Students for New Action Politics, “SNAP
is not protesting against Dow Chemical’s right to appear at Cal Poly. ... SNAP
is protesting the war in Vietnam and the conduct of the war.”12
Markowitz’s
8. Nina Zacuto, “Blacks, Whites Seek Unity,” Mustang Daily, 11 Oct. 1968: 1.
9. Zacuto, “Most Students Open-Minded,” Mustang Daily, 10 Jan. 1969: 1.
10. Cheryl Slabey, “Bias Panel Sets Student Hearing,” Mustang Daily, 4 Oct. 1968: 1.
11 Mustang Daily, 17 Apr. 1972: 3.
12. “Napalm Demonstration Calm,” Mustang Daily, 2 Feb. 1968: 1.
Figure 1. "Dow Shalt Not," Mustang Daily, 2 February
1968. One of the first demonstrations in Cal Poly’s
history was against Dow Chemical Company recruitment
in January 1968. Courtesy of the Mustang Daily.
9. La Vista 2015 21
testimony suggests that the several hundred members of the student body at Cal
Poly who took part in the protest were directly opposed to the war in Vietnam.
Students carried signs that said “Dow Shalt Not Kill” (fig. 1), “Babies Are for
Loving, Not Burning,” and “600,000 Civilian Dead.” However, not all students
were there to protest—a few students got up and spoke in favor of the Vietnam
War.13
Despite the difference in opinions present at
the protest, both sides were able to exist amicably.
Urban areas are often more politically involved
and advanced than rural areas. Kennedy recog-
nized the pattern of delayed activism and sought
to prevent radicalization of the Dow protest. Just
three days after the demonstration, the San Luis
Obispo Telegram-Tribune reported Kennedy “had
only praise today for students who kept their ‘cool’
during [the] campus protest demonstration.”14
Kennedy had seen the effects of the December
1967 Los Angeles State University Dow protest,
which had involved 350 City of Los Angeles police
officers.15
Mustang Daily writers Dave and Lea
Rosenburg informed students that “a report went
out to faculty outlining a ‘learn by doing’ approach
to combat potential and real riots. ... It begins by
stating the startling fact that student violence is
a fact of college life and is on the increase ... [and faculty] are informed how to
combat potential student unrest on this campus.”16
It also reiterates Kennedy’s
attitude that active faculty involvement in potential protest “maintain[s] calm
feelings when opposing views become warm.”Kennedy used faculty members to
prevent violence during the Dow protest by inserting them into the demonstrating
students to eliminate the feeling of the crowd’s anonymity (Kennedy 289).
In addition to moderating the Dow protest, Kennedy was able to prevent a Cal
Poly San Luis Obispo ROTC student protest from his previous knowledge of the
Cal Poly Pomona protest against the ROTC there, at which his son was a member.
13. “Dow at Poly Students Heckle Napalm Pickets,” San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, 1
Feb. 1968.
14. “Cal Poly Students Kept ‘Cool,’” San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, 2 Feb. 1968.
15. Robert M. Neer, Napalm: An American Biography (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2013): 141.
16. Dave and Lea Rosenburg, “Campus Riot Control Plot,” Mustang Daily, 16 Oct. 1968: 3.
Figure 2. "The ardent supporters," Mustang
Daily, 17 April 1972. President Kennedy
also took cautionary measures to prevent
violence during Governor Ronald Reagan’s
visit to attend the Board of Trustees meeting.
Courtesy of the Mustang Daily.
10. 22 La Vista 2015
He moved his presidential ROTC reviews to Camp San Luis Obispo, where total
security was possible and no heckling of cadets could occur (291). He knew the
student body was restless and could react violently, just as at other universities at the
time. His preventative measures may have seemed overcautious to some, but they
were essential to avoiding conflict.
President Kennedy also took cautionary measures to prevent violence during
Governor Ronald Reagan’s visit to attend the Board of Trustees meeting. At these
meetings, anyone who wanted to protest a state government matter could show up
and confront the authorities they wished to influence. Even though Reagan was
fond of Cal Poly and visited on many occasions, this feeling was not always mutual.
One student Democrat, who was in favor of the Economic Opportunities Program
that Reagan did not support, held up a sign that said, “Stop!!! Reagan’s Racism.”17
Reagan’s chief security officer knew Kennedy was against using guns and intimida-
tion techniques on campus to prevent student demonstrations but still urged the
importance of safety precautions. Eventually, Kennedy advocated moving the
trustees’ meetings off campus, even though he believed “dissent at this college at no
time appeared to exceed the bounds of responsibility” (Kennedy 295), that is, of a
liberal rather than radical methodology. In his memoirs, Kennedy acknowledges the
protests of the Kent State Massacre in 1970 on campuses nationwide, “not
excluding Cal Poly” (296), but the lack of news coverage likely indicated these
protests followed a similar peaceful manner to their predecessors.
When Governor Reagan announced a four-day weekend cooling-off period
for all public universities in response to Nixon’s reported invasion of Cambodia
and the Kent State Massacre, Cal Poly was the only public college campus in
California that was allowed to remain open. Without a history as a traditionally
quiet campus, it is likely that the scheduled state judging contest and forty-second
annual convention of the state association of the Future Farmers of America would
have been canceled (287–98). Even though the campus was allowed to remain
open, classes and student elections were postponed. Kennedy believed that if Cal
Poly were to remain running while all other campuses were closed it would “create
problems by attracting to this campus dissent[ing] students from all over the state
who have been relieved of normal class-going responsibilities.”To help protect
the campus against unwanted visitors, barricades and guards were stationed at the
entrances.18
Despite potential danger, students were not pleased with Kennedy’s
decision to cancel class.Tom Brajkovich, a third-year architecture student, said,
17. “Reagan’s Plan Labeled Racist,” Mustang Daily, 17 Apr. 1972: 1.
18. Dave Verbon, “Poly, Cuesta Close,” San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, 7 May 1970.
11. La Vista 2015 23
“I’ve got to finish my project and I can’t get into the architecture building.” Bruce
Reid, another third-year architecture student agreed: “When we go back to class
they’re not going to ask us if we’ve had two days of thinking, they’re going to want
our homework and projects.”19
This small sampling of students shows how highly
classroom and studio education was valued at Cal Poly and could help explain why
Cal Poly did not experience the violent protests that schools like UC Berkeley did.
Even though Cal Poly was not a radical campus, the student body joined the
collegiate wave of war protests. Cal Poly students negatively reacted to Nixon’s
secret bombings of Cambodia and his continued escalation of warfare in Southeast
Asia. In 1972 Cal Poly welcomed Tod Friend, coordinator of the Air War Vote
Initiative in southern California.The Air War Vote Initiative was an attempt to
pledge state resistance to the contribution of men, resources, and money to the war
in Southeast Asia. Friend recognized that the chances of success were low, but it
was still worth fighting for in order to get the people’s voice heard. He addressed
audience members and was quoted by the Mustang Daily as saying that Nixon “is
just hiding the war from the public, letting them think the war is slowing down.”20
The following issue of the Mustang published a letter to the editor from Constance
Brown informing the student body about an upcoming strike at UCLA and UCSB
to protest the escalation of warfare in Vietnam. Even though Friend had no specific
information on strike plans at Cal Poly, dedicated students nationwide were
expected to cut class.21
Raymond Haight, a Cal Poly professor and candidate in the 1970 California
Democratic gubernatorial primary, believed “riots will continue on the campuses as
long as United States troops are on Asian soil.”22
He promised that as governor he
would work towards “uniting 20 million Californians to passively resist all support
of the war in Southeast Asia.” Even though Haight received less than one percent
of the Democratic vote, his beliefs were able to thrive at Cal Poly.
Less than a month after Friend’s visit, the Mustang Daily distributed an issue
with “Special war coverage.”23
The front page dealt with the recent anti-war rally
that had attracted approximately 1,200 students to the College Union Plaza to hear
speakers protest Nixon’s mining of North Vietnam’s harbors.The featured speaker
at this rally, San Luis Obispo City Councilman Keith Gurnee, reminded the
19. Verbon, “School Closing Cal Poly Reaction: They Don’t Like It,” San Luis Obispo Telegram-
Tribune, 8 May 1970.
20. Evans Davis, “State Anti–Air War Ballot Pushed,” Mustang Daily, 20 Apr. 1972: 1.
21. Constance Brown, letter to the editor, Mustang Daily, 20 Apr. 1972: 2.
22. “War Blamed for Rioting—Haight,” San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, 6 May 1970.
23. Mustang Daily, 10 May 1972: 1–8.
12. 24 La Vista 2015
audience that earlier in 1971, San Luis Obispo had passed the strongest resolution
of any city council in California against the war, calling for “immediate, complete,
and total withdrawal from Vietnam.”24
The Mustang Daily did not report any
injuries or arrests at Gurnee’s rally, but the newspaper did report on the escalation
of protests at UC Berkeley that resulted in six arrests and police use of tear gas and
fire hoses on a crowd of 150 people.25
Clearly, Cal Poly students were not
employing the radical tactics that their
counterparts at schools like Berkeley
were, but they were protesting over the
same fundamental ideas. Even though
protests were delayed at Cal Poly, it is
important to note that many students
were greatly dissatisfied with contem-
porary politics.
Students at the neighboring
University of California, Santa Barbara
took a more radical approach to the
escalating war. Gary Steenson, UCSB
alumnus and retired Cal Poly professor,
writes that Cal Poly “seemed like a
different world.”26
There is reason
to believe, however, the two shared
many of the same fundamental beliefs.
While it is true that Cal Poly did
not experience the National Guard,
tear gas, bare-breasted female protesters, and numerous bomb threats that UCSB
did, both schools protested over the same government policies. Students at UCSB
used radical tactics, students at Cal Poly did not. On 25 February 1970, UCSB
students swarmed the streets looking for trouble; a mob formed and smashed
the windows at the Isla Vista Bank of America building before setting it ablaze.
The day after the burning, student Bryan Doherty was interviewed by CBS. He
suggested the bank was targeted because it was a “symbol, maybe ... part of the
agribusiness and American imperialism thing. ...They do a lot of business with
24. Steve Ruegnitz, “Protesters Hit Nixon’s Moves in Vietnam War,” Mustang Daily, 10 May 1972: 1.
25. “Nation Protests in New Violence to Viet Stepups,” Mustang Daily, 10 May 1972: 3.
26. Gary Steenson, email to the author, 29 Feb. 2014.
Figure 3. "War Rally," Mustang Daily, 10 May 1972. Less than a
month after Tod Friend’s visit, the Mustang Daily distributed an
issue with “Special war coverage.”Courtesy of the Mustang Daily.
13. La Vista 2015 25
the government.”27
Two years later, Cal Poly chose to protest America’s involve-
ment in Vietnam in a much different way. Led by Councilman Keith Gurnee,
roughly one thousand students and community members chanted for peace as they
marched in a candlelight procession from the College Union to the Mission Plaza
(fig. 4).28
As the march came to an end, the group sang John Lennon’s tune “Give
Peace a Chance.” Cal Poly’s peaceful
march was protesting the same war
that UCSB was radically opposing.
Mary Ann Shepardson and Ellen
Pensky of the Mustang Daily compiled
student opinion on the election of
1972. While there were students and
faculty members on campus who
believed Cal Poly was a conservative
school, its recent expansion to include
liberal arts majors raised questions
about the diversifying of existing
political beliefs. Shepardson and
Pensky wrote, “In the words of
songwriter Bob Dylan, ‘The times, they are a changing.’ Has Cal Poly done the
same?”29
They quoted Vietnam veteran Roger Pelletier, “I’ve been going here since
’66, and I’ve noticed more enthusiasm for elections now. People coming to Poly have
changed.They care more now.”This belief, especially from a Vietnam veteran, is
perhaps the most telling about the shift in politics experienced at Cal Poly, but it
also demonstrates a persisting liberal belief in the democratic system.
Cal Poly’s learn by doing attitude promoted learning by example and stressed
the importance of education, helping to discourage radical action. In addition,
President Robert E. Kennedy successfully kept close relations with students in order
to eliminate disconnect and violence between students and faculty.This helped
prevent any outbreak of violence at protests and rallies. Without Kennedy’s extreme
precautions, it is likely that student protests would have erupted in radical violence,
like those at other campuses. In Learn by Doing, Kennedy writes of receiving a letter
from a former student who said he “recall[ed] the ’60s at Poly with pride. Yes. We
demonstrated, but peacefully and with a purpose” (291).
27. “Student Unrest: University of California, Santa Barbara 1970,” 26 Feb. 1970 CBS News
broadcast. Accessed 1 Feb. 2014. youtube.com/watch?v=NX8WCEtoDZM.
28. Linda Harter, “Candle March a ‘Beautiful Thing,’” Mustang Daily, 15 May 1972: 1.
29. “A Campus Comments (Yawn) on the Elections,” Mustang Daily, 1 Nov. 1972: 4–5.
Figure 4. "Student protest," Mustang Daily, 15 May 1972.
Courtesy of the Mustang Daily.
