Campus changes, 50 years ago

In 1970, La Crosse State publicized plans to develop green space on campus between 16th Street and the football stadium.  The proposed pedestrian mall would pass by the Murphy Library and the Cowley Science building, and it would feature concrete benches, planters, and sculptures.  The mall would be developed later in the 70’s.  It’s now the site of the Hoeschler Clock Tower at UW-L.  

A campus demonstration against the Vietnam War turned deadly at Kent State in Ohio that spring, when four young people were killed and others wounded by National Guard troops assigned to break up the protest.  That August, a violent explosion killed a researcher at the Army Math Research Center on the UW-Madison campus.  The FBI searched for four suspects in the Sterling Hall bombing.  Three of them were captured within the next few years.  The fourth man has never been found.  

The Beatles broke up in 1970.  So did Simon and Garfunkel.  Both acts had somber ballads hit Number 1 on the music charts that year, “Let It Be,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”  It was also the year for “Everything is Beautiful” by Ray Stevens, “ABC” by the Jackson 5, and hits by the Carpenters and the made-for-TV Partridge Family.  In 1970, yesterday in La Crosse.