The representative of the protest group wanted three questions answered. When would impound vehicles be released, why did the police treat the protest as a riot and who ordered it, and what will be done about the parking situation. After the protesters had dispersed there was worry amongst some of the population of Lincoln about why the students were acting like this. A few individuals believed that the impromptu protest was very communist in nature, while others such as professors and other faculty on the board sympathized with the students.[ii] Eventually the issue of parking was resolved and after this protest more parking spaces for students were created and opened, for a fee. Students still cannot park in on 12th and R directly next to the Lied center but the parking around the area has certainly improved. This protest was one of the lower stake’s protests, that was about a local issue protest to take place on campus, after the events of this day however, many protests after this would be taken up across the country at the same time in response to events happening globally.

The Civil Rights movement, while not as massive as in other cities across the United States as it was in Lincoln in the 60s and 70s, there was still and active Civil Rights student group on campus. The student group, which was made up of White and Black students, mainly dealt with issues pertaining to the campus and its policies addressing African American students. Their protest in 1969 was dealing with the policies and decisions about staffing choices made by the Board of Directors in campus that were made to snub the non-white students.[iii] The protest that took place on the 15th and 16th of April 1969 in front of the administrative building, and the students apart of the protest called for the university to hire a Black counselor and coordinator, among other recommendations on how to make campus life better for African American students and other minority groups on campus. The goal of the protest was to “focus public attention upon the ineffectiveness and insensitivity of the administration.” Also stating that “We've been put off and put off,” … “We submitted a list of 20 concerns and recommendations. They were glanced at and pushed aside.” During the protest no more than 30 individuals took part in the demonstration. The students carried bricks around the building to symbolize the power that the students hold. They had also burned a cardboard coffin with the inscription that “the system is dead”.

During the same Tuesday as the first day of this demonstration the faculty senate accepted the Campus Disorders Policy. “The statement set up guidelines for dealing with disruptive action, with the University to follow procedures of discussion, notification of violation of university regulations; the use Institutional sanctions; and when other means fail, the use of extra-in-situational forces to handle the situation. The proposed statement assures the right of individuals to be Granted hearings on university policy.”[iv] This policy can be seen as a reaction of the faculty, but instead as a way of reacting against the students it was a ways to protect the students. In the following paragraph one of the clauses debated by the faculty was about a sanction period. The clause would protect students from suspension for up to five days and allow them to have a fair hearing if they are accused of causing disorder on the campus. While this is not a perfect policy it does help the students from being suspended and potentially being expelled by the school, for just wanting something to be better either on campus or in a larger community. A year later the campus would erupt in demonstrations as a response to the Vietnam war, the takeover of the ROTC building and rule changes for how to deal with protests on campus going forward.

The 2 weeks in May is used as a description of multiple protest occurring across the country during the month of May. One of the most impactful protests to happen during this period was the protest at Kent State University, where college students who were protesting the planned invasion of Cambodia by then President Nixon were shot by the Ohio National Guard. Four were fatally shot and nine others were wounded. As a result of the shooting protest across the country occurred as both a reaction to the shooting and to protest Nixon’s plan. UNL was one such school where a sit in protest occurred, the sit in involved both professors and students peacefully taking over the Military and Naval Science building. This lasted 2 days, while no violence occurred and the protesters handled the situation well, the Board of Regents were agitated by the refusal for the protesters to vacate the building. Eventually the protesters compiled and attended a Faculty Senate meeting effectively ending the sit in[v].

While both the protesters and the university handled the situation well, with no violence on either side. However, the Board of Regents began an investigation of the events of the sit in, and discovered that Stephen L. Rozman, who was an assistant professor of political science, had been heavily involved in the sit in, even encouraging students to not give into demands. The validity of the accusation was debated for months in court, and subsequently the university did not renew his contract. This decision sparked more protest in support of Rozman, and a sued the university in an attempt to get his job back, which ultimately failed. What came to be known as the Rozman affair influenced the faculty of the university to unionize under the American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO). This allowed for the protection of the faculties’ first amendment rights without the fear of their contracts being terminated by the regents. Other reasons for unionizing was that they would receive money which would be used to improve the “academic standing” of students and providing legal services to the students, which may have led to the creation of Student Legal Services (SLS) on UNL campus[vi]. However, this could not protect the students from each other such as during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979.

In 1979 during the Carter administration Iran overthrew their Shah who was effectively the King of Iran, and installed Ayatollah Khomeini, a political and religious leader. After the revolution took place the US embassy in Tehran the capital of Iran was taken over and all the officials were held hostage. The embassy was seized by students who were loyal to the new religious leader as a response to the US showing favor to the now deposed Shah of Iran. Because of this, students of Middle Eastern descent were continually harassed and attacked even if they were not Iranian. In a letter to Lincoln and Omaha tv stations Iranian students would be watched by the “Minutemen” a nationwide conservative group and would retaliate against Iranian students if any hostages in the embassy are to be harmed. This was just one of many such instances of hate and racism against Middle Eastern students as a whole during this period.

Students were harassed by receiving phone calls during the night and were followed and yelled at by groups of kids in trucks. Some students who were not Iranian were skipped over by buses even while being at designated bus stops, and others were tailed by trucks until they ended the chase after 30 minutes by pulling into the police station parking lot.[vii] In response to attacks like these many would take to the capitol and ask for the extradition of the Shah back to Iran to hopefully avoid an armed conflict similar to Vietnam. Not even six years after the last troops had been pulled out of Vietnam people were fearful of another U.S. intervention. Showing how that the only things that had changed were the people who were protesting, and the foreign country involved. Many subsequent protests would be similar to protests or issues of the past, essentially being passed by from one generation to another, from parent to child.

Similarly, the issue of apartheid era South Africa was passed from generation to generation. In 1966 students took to the streets to protest the regime in South Africa and the companies that had business interests in South African so supported the apartheid government. The companies were mainly insurance companies who had lent money to the regime and had given technical advice to the government as well. The protest had elicited many different opinions from the people of Lincoln and of the companies that the students were protesting. One of the salesmen who was employed by Connecticut Mutual, one of the companies financing the South African Government said that the march was “an awful waste of time” and adding that the “Finance department pays no attention whatsoever to our suggestions. That’s the way it is in most major life insurance companies.”[viii] Seeming to agree with the protesters, but believing nothing can be done from the inside, and is best just for raising awareness to the issues in South Africa. Other representatives of the companies believed that if the students of the university do things like protest, the legislature should not give the university money. Onlookers to the protest had similarly mixed opinions ranging from it being the right of all Americans to protest, saying that the marchers are a disgrace and should instead be learning, and saying that the protesters are communist.

The Protest against apartheid South Africa would continue into the 1990s however, with students of UNL and Lincoln residents would march in honor of the people killed by the South African regime 14 years earlier in Soweto, South Africa. During their march the demonstrators also marched to the governor’s mansion and the University of Nebraska Foundation and plastered posters on them protesting their support of the apartheid government[ix]. Around the same time as the march the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska (ASUN) President was trying to establish a scholarship program for South African college students. They had already passed a bill with unanimous approval which had been focused on “apartheid, divestment and a black South African scholarship program”[x]. The president also addressed while the program would not fix the long-term problem of divesting from the South African government it would in the short-term help students in South Africa. Also stating that both things need to happen and not just one or the other since they are both two different problems that need addressing. Even after nearly 30 years the same issue was taken up by a new group of students with many other groups having come and gone. It is no different to how it was back then.

While time has passed and issues have changed names, the underlying issues of the past are still with us today. In September of 2016 three players from the football team took a knee before the game had started as a peaceful protest emulating Colin Kaepernick and were punished because of it. Many took issue with the decision and saw it as infringing on their right to free speech and right to protest. During the game against the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign many people took to the front of Richards Hall writing Black Lives Matter in chalk on the sidewalk. Many also made signs saying things such as Solidarity, UNL stands with BLM, and the names of the three players. With their location thousands of fans had seen the protest, the protesters because of this had received mixed reactions from the fans “There were waves of approval, fists up, clapping and thanking us,” … “But there were just as many if not more people who scoffed and were visibly agitated.”[xi]. One person would even go so far as erasing the v in Black Lives Matter to make it say Black Lies Matter. Both the reaction to the protesters and the punishment of the players shows that while rules of the university have changed the punishment for speaking out against the norm has not. Students can still be punished by the school for having a dissenting opinion and the treatment of protesters on campus by the people of Nebraska has remained mixed.

Similarly, the protests against Israels genocide of Palestinians have met similar reactions from both people and the university. Many people who are against the protesters argue that they are antisemitic because they do not support Israel action against “Hamas”, all while hundreds of thousands of civilians are murdered by the Israeli military. The protesters are also against the U.S. government sending military aid and having taxpayer dollars go to the murder of civilians. The main goals of the protest were to end the study-abroad trip to Israel have the university disclose investments that fund Israel in any capacity, divest from all investments that go to Israel, and refuse any type of funding from Israel[xii]. The Protest itself and the goal of the protesters are eerily similar to that of the protests and marches to that of the Vietnam war protester, and the apartheid protesters. Similarly to the apartheid protesters of the past, their focus was on the divestment from anything involving the South African government, just like the divestment of anything related to Israel. Along with honoring the deaths of Palestinian civilians and showing how many have died. The reaction to the protests across the country are reminiscent of how the anti-Vietnam war protests were handled. Many thousands of student demonstrators were arrested both during the 60s and 70s and in the present, although thankfully non have been killed by either the police or national guard like the students shoot at Kent State University in 1970.

Protests are not unique to the University of Nebraska Lincoln; UNL has been shaped by these protests. From the 1940s onward, UNL has been changed by the events of the last 80 years for the better. However, some issues are still plaguing the students and faculty into the present; imperialism, racism, and war are still prevalent concerns. To understand how the campus has changed over the years due to the protests that have transpired, one must look at how the priorities of each protest are both similar and different to protests of the past and of the present and why that has changed student life.