Coed Visitation

During the summer of 1971, there was a proposal to the Board of Regents that the dormitory coed visitation be liberalized. At the time it was against the rules to have someone of the opposite gender in the student’s dorm room. President Soshnik claimed that it was because a survey they had taken of the opinions of the students parents showed that their opinion “ ‘falls far short of overwhelming support for the policy’” (Regents Reject). The students were not at all happy with this decision and many planned to boycott it. The situation made relationships between the students and regents stressed and tense. Essentially the whole argument came down to whether the University was going to be the parent of the students or not. Also the lowering of the voting age added to the idea that eighteen and nineteen year-olds were able adults who could make decisions about who should be allowed in their dorm room or not.

War Protests

On May 4, 1970, there was a peace march that ended with the arrests of thirteen people, twelve of whom were University of Nebraska-Lincoln students. The rally began on the steps of the Union and then fifty students walked to the Terminal Building to ask the draft board to shut down for the day. After the draft board refused, policemen declared that what the students were doing was illegal and that they needed to leave. After the arrests, one hundred-fifty more students walked down and silently protested across the street from the Terminal Building. That night students decided to camp out in the Military and Naval Science Building where they remained until 10:00 am the next day, May 5 (ROTC Building Occupied).While in the Military Building, students gave President Joseph Soshnik a list of six demands: amnesty for the students arrested at draft board or who may be arrested at the ROTC, the University board to back the National Student Association strike on classes, for the ROTC to be suspended, the campus police to not carry guns on the campuses, the Regents' meetings open to the public, and that free University classes would receive one hour of credit toward a student’s degree (Dvorak).The sit-in at the Military and Naval Science building did not lead to any arrests, but it lead to the dismissal of the teacher, Stephan L. Rozman (Knoll, 154-155).

Rozman Protests

There were also student protests over Professor Stephen L. Rozman's dismissal. At the beginning of the 1970-1971 school year, ASUN, the Student Senate called a meeting to decide what action to take about the fired Rozman; the decision to not renew his contract had taken place over the summer. Another group of students decided to participate in a two-day fast in Love Library at the President Soshnik's office. The same Monday the fast began, fifty students marched over to Chancellor D.B. Varner's office and protested Rozman's dismissal (Seacrest). The Chancellor attempted to tell them that even the Regent's were divided on the Rozman issue. The students held the claim that what the Regents were doing was repressive plus the students had no say in the affairs, but were affected by the decisions of the Regents. The students wanted more of democratic society for the University. The fasting protestors in Soshnik's office eventually were convinced to become a group of three that was a physical representation of the repression of University policy. One of the three representatives was a teacher who, as an untenured teacher, wanted to find out if the Regents could or would remove him the same way they removed Rozman. As far as Soshnik was concerned, he didn't mind the protestors as long as they were undisruptive (Rozman Dismissal Prompts 2-day Fast).