Student Violence and Social Issues: A Historical Perspective on the Storrs Campus
Student activism and social issues have significantly shaped the environment at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Storrs campus throughout its history. From protests against corporate recruitment to debates surrounding sensitive social issues and tragic events, students have consistently engaged in dialogue and action to address concerns within the university and the wider world.
Protests and Demonstrations
Student activism has a long history at UConn. In October 1967, over 150 protesters from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) occupied Koons Hall to prevent Dow Chemical representatives from conducting interviews with students. The students protested Dow Chemical's production of napalm, which was used in the Vietnam War. In December, Dow Chemical representatives managed to conduct student interviews in the Business Administration building, though protesters again occupied the hallways where the interviews were taking place.
The student protesters pointed out that President Babbidge was appointed as a director for an aerospace company with military contracts, Kaman Aircraft. They also highlighted his associations between insurance and banking companies, which put him in proximity to the chairman of Dow Chemical in 1968, Carl A. D’Archive.
More recently, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) has sparked debate on college campuses across the country with their Spring 2019 Campus Clash tour. When conservative speaker Lucian Wintrich visited the campus, the event encountered significant opposition. A trio consisting of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, Director of Communications Candace Owens, as well as YouTube personality and talk show host Dave Rubin later took the stage.
Counter-rallies, including a protest organized by Industrial Workers of the World, were held to "protest hate," as Kirk and Owens are often referred to as white supremacists. Despite the controversy, Rubin stated, “I volunteered for the event to help out and promote free speech on campus. I think we had a great event tonight, promoting dialogue on our university campus.”
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Addressing Sexual Assault and Safety Concerns
Concerns about sexual assault and safety have also been a recurring theme on the Storrs campus. The existence of a trail connecting UConn's campus with off-campus housing has been marred by the nickname "rape trail". This half-mile paved path, about 6 feet wide and winding through the woods behind the University of Connecticut’s campus, starts at the back of a commuter parking lot and leads to off-campus apartments.
Brittnie Carrier, a UConn senior, expressed her concerns during a rally, stating, “This culture is being bred here,” while reading off a long list of recent incidents at the university. Students have called for action to address the issue, with suggestions including renaming or remarking the trail. As Carrier noted, “We are trying to use this moment as a teaching moment… What can we do to take control over the discourse,” and “Rename it, remark it - whatever. It’s somewhat feeding the culture by not acting. Words are powerful."
Spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz stated, "I agree with students that the nickname does nothing but add to anxiety and fear among students.”
Sgt. Richard Cournoyer, of the Mansfield Resident State Troopers Office, offered a different perspective, stating, “I think it’s an unfair and unjust stereotype,” and “It’s just not a scary place."
According to the university’s community standards office, which is responsible for investigating complaints of sexual assault and disciplining students academically, there has not been a single incident on the “rape trail” reported to them in at least the last eight years.
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Rep. said, “All universities are not accurately reporting this". In the past five years, the UConn Police Department reported that it has received 55 sexual assault complaints campus-wide. In Mansfield, the 25-square-mile town that includes the area surrounding UConn and off-campus housing, there were three reports of rape or attempted rape in 2012.
The Legacy of Mansfield Training School
The history of the Mansfield Training School, an institution for individuals with disabilities, is intertwined with UConn's past. Heather Cossano, an assistant director of digital humanities & media arts at the University of Connecticut, introduced the research group’s presentation, saying how personal the project was to her. The research group consists of Ally LeMaster, Ashten Vassar, professor of english Brenda Brueggemann, Collin Lamontagne, Jess Gallagher, Madison Bigelow, Paula Mock, Lillian Stockford and Matthew Iannantuoni. They introduced themselves, their majors, the specific role they play in the research project and their interests which ranged from institutionalized ableism and the restrictions of rights for disabled people to how medical education has roots in eugenics.
The speakers started talking about the origins of Mansfield Training School: a splinter from several failed attempts in the 1850s to build a hospital. Dr. Henry M. Vassar said, “It kind of starts as a philanthropic venture and a religious venture.”
UConn and Mansfield Training School formed a friendly relationship in the 1960s according to Brueggemann. A lot of psychological experiments and trials by UConn’s faculty were done on the patients in Mansfield Training School because they were close. An example is Dr. David Zeeman’s research on ADHD and experimental psychology. When under investigation, Vassar said there were over 40 health and safety violations found. After a court case and arduously expressed concern, Mansfield Training School officially closed in 1993. Roger D.
On the topic of the legacy of Mansfield Training School, Bigelow said “Mansfield was kind of used as a case study.” LeMaster said “It’s part of the National History Registrar and it’s slowly deteriorating.
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The audience wrote down what topics they were most interested in from a list of 10 items, all of which were artifacts or topics about Mansfield Training School. Among the list were eugenics discourse across institutions, spoiled dairy products shipped to Mansfield Training School from UConn and the “take a resident home” program between Mansfield Training School and UConn, - the residents in question being those from Mansfield Training School.
Brueggemann informed the audience that Babbidge was disabled himself, being blind in one eye. “Babbidge changed the way deaf education was taught” with the Babbidge Report, which criticized oral education for deaf students. Babbidge was on record “Publicly acknowledging that disability is a problem and not something we should accept.
Some audience members asked what a training school was, to which the speakers introduced the topic of occupational therapy, or exploitation via the teaching of manual labor for therapy. Women were supposed to wash and iron the clothes and there was a large output of candles, they noted. The first step in accountability is publicly recognizing the wrongdoing. Spring Valley Student Farm partook in outsourcing labor from Mansfield Training School, and it has a plaque acknowledging only those who were epileptic who did occupational therapy on the farm, acknowledging it as occupational therapy. Still, these acknowledgments can appear ineffective like land acknowledgments according to Vassar. “The Jimmy File” is an account written by Charlotte Meryman about Jimmy Lundquist who was institutionalized at Mansfield Training School. The speakers noted that many of the files documenting Mansfield Training School patient experiences have been redacted. A video was played where archived files for Mansfield Training School were shown. Vassar said “What I find most haunting is how people were silenced and institutionalized but people want something paranormal” to draw them in. There was then a short Q&A session. An audience member asked how the university should handle the Depot Campus if its plans to build a housing project on that land.
The Impact of 9/11
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had a profound impact on the UConn campus. The Daily Campus, UConn's student newspaper, provided extensive coverage of the event and its aftermath. Sam Zelin, a staff columnist for The Daily Campus, reflected on the coverage, noting, "Of all the events I’ve seen covered by an iteration of UConn’s student newspaper so far in my searches through the archives, 9/11 is unique in many ways. For starters, the coverage continued for weeks, if not months."
Zelin contrasted the coverage of 9/11 with that of presidential assassinations, where coverage was typically limited to one or a few issues. The extensive coverage of 9/11 allowed for significant student input, as opposed to relying solely on articles from the Associated Press or the United Press International.
The Sept. 13 front-page story, entitled “Students hold vigil on mall,” outlined the solidarity that occurred at UConn directly after the attacks, as “several thousand members of the campus and surrounding community gathered on the Student Union mall.” The story’s caption states that songs were played, and that vigil-goers were seen praying and weeping. Meg Noble Clifton, the author of the article, shared her experience, stating, “The vigil itself was extremely moving, and I was amazed at how the organizers pulled it together so quickly."
However, the attacks also led to fear and discrimination. Two students at UConn decided to leave permanently and return to the UAE, out of fear that they might face violence at the school.
Exactly a year after, on Sept. 11, 2002, the new editorial board published an editorial board that focused solely on the solidarity. It mentioned how the country stayed strong in the face of terrorism and focused on the national pride generated by the aftermath of the attacks. It did not mention the hatred and warmongering that spread even on this very campus.
Zelin reflected on the atmosphere on campus, stating, “I remember the atmosphere on campus being much like it was everywhere else. People were in shock, they were saddened, they were angry, and there were patriotic displays everywhere. I remember seeing more American flags around campus and on people’s cars. We did our best at the DC to encapsulate what was happening in the world and to contextualize it to students’ lives."
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