Random thoughts on the spring of 1970

By Creighton Wesley Sloan, B.A. ’70

Creighton Wesley Sloan is an information technology process systems analyst working with groundwater monitoring at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina.

It has been almost 35 years since I received an education—mostly outside the classroom—at Buffalo. Thus the details are not as bright as they used to be. Rather than attempt to put together a coherent paper, I would like to throw out some of my thoughts. I believe I have a unique perspective. I was born and raised in Virginia. In 1970, Buffalo was the largest city I had ever lived in. I do not recall meeting any other students from any state south of the Mason Dixon Line. Most people at the university accepted me, but there were ample numbers who stereotyped me based on my accent. The statement I remember most vividly was “I hate to hear a Southern accent, because Southerners are so prejudiced.” Some impressions:

The university had recently become a part of the SUNY system [the official merger took place in 1962]. I do not know when it became known as the University at Buffalo, but while I was there it was either the University of Buffalo or “SUNYAB.” Also, most courses carried four credit hours. During my most recent trip to the university, I was surprised to learn that most current courses are three credit hours.

Most people think of Vietnam in relation to that time period. It was also the time of the “Prague Spring” [of 1968]. Czechoslovakia denounced Stalin, abolished censorship and attempted to reform communism by having open elections for a legislative body, which was free to make and enforce laws. Open government did not last long, as Soviet troops invaded. As a sign of solidarity, a group of us got material, sewed a large Czechoslovakian flag and hung it from Norton Student Union.

Martin Myerson was the president of UB [from 1966 to 1969]. It was his mandate to change the university from having a regional reputation to having a national reputation. He had an “open door” policy for students. I used that policy to my advantage. I started out at Buffalo as a student who was struggling academically. Martin Myerson helped me through the bureaucracy, so that by the spring of 1970 I was an honor roll student.

There were two distinct periods of campus unrest during my last academic year at Buffalo. The first was aimed at the administration of UB. The second was after “Four Dead in Ohio!” in May 1970. The campus had almost gotten back to “normal” when the tragedy at Kent State occurred.

That spring, I was a member of a group of students who believed that the war was wrong, but did not believe that riots on campus would make a difference. We formed the Peace Patrol. Armed with nothing but citizens’ band radios for communication, we patrolled the campus with the armed police. As ridiculous as it seems now, our assumption was that the students would not attack us because we were fellow students and the police would not attack us because we were not causing any trouble. The person who had been my best friend when I first enrolled at Buffalo was on the side of the protesting (later rioting) students. He has not spoken to me since.

On the night that “all hell broke loose,” both the students and police were more agitated than usual. The Peace Patrol met in Norton Union and decided to put as many students as possible as a buffer between the students and the police. I have never been convinced, but the police said that the students threw the first stone. Whatever precipitated it, the police came storming out of Hayes Hall and attacked on the lawn on the Main Street side of Hayes. Fortunately, no shots were fired, but clubs were used. Hindsight says that we should have anticipated that the majority of injuries would be to members of the Peace Patrol. Both police and students attacked us. I remember vividly that the leaders of the Peace Patrol tried to restore order, while the leaders of the rioting students stayed behind closed doors in Norton.

In the spring of 1970, I was working to finish my courses so that I could graduate. I lived off campus, but spent much of my time in the library. My course in monetary theory had a research paper that accounted for 100 percent of my grade. The class met at the professor’s house because it was safer than meeting in the assigned room on campus. One night, during the period police were housed on campus, I left the library at 2 a.m. The only thing I could believe is that the police assumed that anybody walking on campus at that hour of the morning was up to no good. I was tear-gassed! I escaped into the relatively clean air of Clement Hall and spent the night in that women’s dormitory.

Campus unrest was not entirely bad for me. Being from Virginia, the Buffalo winters were harsh. I am still amazed that I lived through them! I had a very warm coat made of fake fur. It was similar to the coats in the photograph on page five of UB Today, Fall 2004. As a result, while patrolling during late nights with the Peace Patrol, my girlfriend liked to cuddle. We were married in August, packed everything we owned in a Volkswagen and moved to Iowa; she graduated from UB with a degree in medical technology in 1972. Her entire family—parents, grandparents, cousins, etc.—lived on Long Island and many people said it would not last, but we are still married.

Our two children are in college and our son is at least considering applying to the University at Buffalo to do graduate work in theoretical physics. Today, my wife, Gloria Smith Sloan, B.S. ’72, is manager of a medical technology research laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.