March 2001: Vol. 80, No. 2

60 YEARS AGO Elizabeth Obear is honored for being the first female UGA student to solo in an airplane . . . German author-in-exile Thomas Mann delivers campus speech entitled "War and Democracy." 50 YEARS AGO Poet Robert Frost gives a series of seven lectures on campus. 40 YEARS AGO Johnny Griffith replaces Wally Butts, who moves to the athletic director's chair after compiling a 140-86-9 record as head football coach . . . Student demonstrations and a riot break out following the desegregation of UGA by Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter (see 40th anniversary story) . . . Lamar Dodd, head of the UGA art department, appears on the new ABC-TV series "Meet the Professor" along with six of his students. 30 YEARS AGO Board of Regents threatens to pull funding for The Red and Black after the newspaper runs ads for abortion counseling and mail-order contraceptives . . . Student body president Bob Hurley proposes abolishing student senate and increasing student members on University Senate . . . Cheerleading squad receives second-place ranking on IFC's Top Ten Collegiate Cheer Squad Survey. 20 YEARS AGO After 12 years of planning, UGA breaks ground for new Dean William Tate Student Center . . . Student Rick Nedelman earns class credit while visiting 11 countries with "Semester at Sea" program. 10 YEARS AGO 'Desert Storm' protest arises (see story at left) . . . Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt visits UGA . . . Some students are spared from mid-term exams when drum leaking formaldehyde solution causes evacuation of zoology labs. —Heather Summerville

North Campus anti-war encampment was 10 years ago
Desert Storm demonstrations

It had all the earmarks of a Sixties sit-in when, on Jan. 16, 1991, a group of UGA students turned North Campus into an anti-war campground to protest the U.S.'s Persian Gulf bombing campaign against Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The "Peace Camp" got started when a group known as Students Against War in the Middle East (SAWME) adjourned their meeting and relocated to the Arch, where they were joined by protesters from the Athens community.

Initially, UGA president Charles Knapp gave the group his blessing, saying it was "important to tolerate protesters on campus." However, when the makeshift campground expanded to 27 tents, each housing a number of students—and at least 50 coolers—Knapp began to take action to end the encampment. Fifteen days into the protest, Knapp told a small group of campers, including SAWME organizer Allyson Booth, that people could be arrested if the camp was not peacefully vacated. According to constitutional law, if Knapp granted SAWME protesters the right to pitch tents on North Campus, he would be forced to grant the same right to any other organization.

To avoid a free-speech controversy, Knapp agreed to let the encampment continue, but in exchange the campers had to move to a 70'-by-70' area away from the Arch. They also had to pay for damage done to the North Campus lawn, and they had to reapply for "office space" every two weeks. All but one of the campers moved their tents to the designated area in front of Phi Kappa Hall and put down hay to preserve the grass. One student refused to move his tent, which was located under a magnolia tree next to the arch. He was arrested by UGA police, fined for trespassing, and suspended from school for a semester.

By the middle of February, the Peace Campers had endured freezing rain and snow, and some harassment from passersby, who pelted them with water balloons, eggs, firecrackers, even skunk juice.

The 43-day encampment came to an unofficial end on Feb. 28, when the protesters literally folded their tents. Although Allyson Booth said the encampment would continue until a peace treaty was signed, the camp's population dwindled and was finally vacated in time for students to leave for spring break.

—Heather Summerville

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