Marvin Center Dedication: Student Protest, 1971
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Cloyd Heck Marvin, president of GW from 1927-1959, was a controversial figure whose conservative tendencies came to loggerheads with various elements of the GW and Foggy Bottom Community. In 1971 when the then University Center was dedicated, students showed up to protest a Board of Trustees resolution to name it after Marvin. The building remained nameless until 1975, when Marvin’s widow, Dorothy Betts Marvin, donated money to the university in the form of a naming gift on behalf of her late husband. With that, the University Center became the Cloyd Heck Marvin Student Center. What follows is the text of the student protest of 1971:
"The dedication of the University Center in the name of Cloyd H. Marvin is a clear example of the present ethics of our University. It seems entirely appropriate that GW has decided to memorialize its racist heritage. The veneer of a liberal, progressive institution appears to have rapidly evaporated in the face of an increasingly reactionary trend in the nation at large. The result constitutes a slap in the face to many of us who believe in the necessity of making the George Washington University relevant to the general community.
"Our indignation aroused in us the desire to demonstrate, or to disrupt the center dedication. We feel, however, that this would only play into hands of those who are dedicated to preserving the status quo. There is already a deep sense of frustration among us stemming from past marches, strikes, and mass meetings. To have another confrontation would only increase the already overwhelming apathy on campus. On the other hand, our passivity merely encourages the University administration to dream of a return to the student complacency of the fifties.
"We reject the dream, this nightmare. And this rejection is what we are all about. We do not want a University dedicated to producing "the man in the gray flannel suit." We do not want a University that is a training ground for government and corporate functionaries. We are already too aware that this university reeks from a stultifying atmosphere of stagnation. We have no intention of standing idly by while GW attempts to make the seventies a rerun of the fifties.
"We stand in firm opposition to this attempt. We will not tolerate a University dedicated to going nowhere and doing nothing. While it is true that we are unsure of the best way in which to act, this does not mean that we will not act at all. We will search out the most effective means to assert that we as students have the right to a significant voice in the direction of our University. And, at the very least, let this be notice that the opposition exists. What you have just read is a statement by a group of students, which was printed in the Feb. 15 Hatchet. We requested of the administration, John Cantini specifically, that we be allowed three minutes to read the above. We were given an unqualified refusal.
"In May of last year over 2000 GWU students participated in a march and dedication service in memory of the four students murdered at Kent State. In their honor the center was named by the University Chaplain, Kent State Memorial Center. We feel that today's ceremony is illegitimate and blatantly disregards the rights and wishes of the student-community. We can not and will not have our ideals and energies stifled by a group of rigid, narrow minded administrators. We believe in a university that will endeavor to solve the problems we face today not an institution which serves and aids the causes of those problems. A university that will help alleviate the oppressed conditions of the black people in Washington, not close its doors to this problem. A university that will contribute to the search for world peace, and not do the research for those who wage war. And a university that will dedicate itself to the preservation, not destruction, of our environment.
"We compel you to move forward, not to memorialize the inequities and injustices of the past. We hope, if you have listened, that you will be compelled to leave the ceremony as we intend to do. When you listen to our grievances we can grow together, when you refuse to let us speak we are forced to seek other means."
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Author or Source: RG0063/10/Marvin Center
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
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