Five days into the Israel-Hamas war, a Cleveland news helicopter hovered over 鶹ý’s Kent Campus. Students supporting Palestine had scheduled an afternoon march, which would be followed by Hillel’s evening vigil for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
History rings within any mention of war-related student demonstrations at Kent State, even a half-century beyond Spring 1970. But on that recent October afternoon, each campus event was peaceful. The chopper flew home early.
And so it has been, for the most part, at Kent State, while higher-profile conflicts and fallouts have taken their toll on a few other American campuses in 2023.
“We’re not everybody — we are Kent State,” said Kent State President Todd Diacon during his monthly video chat with the university community in late November. “We have a singular place in the history of the United States. We have a singular opportunity to demonstrate to others how to engage in tough conversations but in a way that respects the opinions and the humanity of those who disagree with us.”
Diacon, others in the administration and faculty, and some student leaders have attempted to frame campus discourse and engagement around two principles from among the university’s long-standing set of core values: the freedom of expression and a commitment to treat one another with kindness and respect.
Diacon began leading the focus on values last spring and informed the effort with lessons learned from May 4, 1970. He was working to get ahead of intensifying politics in Columbus, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., that had become marked by rhetoric painting higher education as a problem rather than as a source of solutions within the state and nation.
“Particularly when we go into a national election, there’ll be a lot of incendiary rhetoric,” Diacon said. “We’re going to address that by reminding people of our core values. Our North Star as an institution is our commitment to kindness and respect in all we do, combined with a fierce commitment to the freedom of speech.”
National media have knocked on Kent State’s door since the beginning of campus unrest across the country this fall.
“Civil discourse and activism are in the Kent State DNA; it’s at the core of who we are,” said Interim Senior Vice President for Student Life Eboni Pringle in an October interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” In that interview, Pringle pointed to the tension that can arise from the contradictions between free expression and kindness and respect.
“What we’ve been talking about with our students for a number of years, under President Diacon’s leadership, is really this tension is necessary for all of us to be able to grow and develop and learn from each other,” Pringle said.
Kent State’s Undergraduate Student Government leadership recently drafted a joint statement on responses to the war, antisemitism and Islamophobia. The student leaders hope that the statement will be co-signed by the student groups supporting Kent State’s Israeli, Palestinian, Muslim and Jewish students. Discussions have yet to lead to an agreement, but the proposed statement does echo sentiments heard from all corners of Kent State during the fall semester.
The School of Peace and Conflict Studies, with the School of Communication Studies, convened a Nov. 16 student event to share perspectives on the Israel-Hamas war. The standing-room-only gathering was held in the May 4 Reflection Gallery in Taylor Hall, in the center of the scene of the 1970 shootings. The School of Peace and Conflict Studies (originally known as the Center for Peaceful Change) was launched in the immediate wake of the May 4 tragedy, and its role today as a convener is central to the positive change that continues to come from that legacy.
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Interim Sr. VP Eboni Pringle shares Kent State’s values focus during live NPR interview