1960-1970 - Northern Magazine

To many, the 1960s can be summed up as the Vietnam War, hippies, drugs, protests, and rock 'n roll. A common joke goes, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there." Other revolutionary movements of the decade included the Stonewall Riots and the beginnings of LGBTQ+ rights, the Women's Lib movement, and the continuing and growing civil rights movement. The Beatles became popular, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Alongside these revolutionary cultural changes, geopolitics was equally dramatic: The U.S. entered the Vietnam War, the Berlin Wall was built, and the Soviets launched the first man into space. President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy were all assassinated. 

The Area Training Center/NMU Skills Center opens off campus and graduates its first class in 1961. It gets a new home in the Jacobetti Skills Center in 1980. The Pride of the North marching band led by Professor Lorin Richtmeyer performs at half time of a Green Bay Packers game in 1961.

The Common Learning Program starts in 1962 (also known as the Four-Course Plan) “to provide each student with basic learning skills, to awaken his intellectual curiosity and develop his concern for contemporary issues, and to help him understand the relationship of man and his environment.” It morphs into the Liberal Studies program in the ’70s and today is the General Education program, which is also undergoing an evolution.

The name changes to Northern Michigan University in 1963.

The campus extends to the shores of Lake Superior with a purchase of 75 acres from Royal Oak Charcoal.

In 1966, a proposal and actions to expand student housing by buying lots and removing homes in the neighborhoods north of campus sparks major controversy and protests, with faculty member Robert McClellan siding with local residents to protect their homes. The popular professor also clashes with administration over other matters, is accused by Harden of having “a highly negative attitude toward the university,” and is fired. Harden resigns (again, after previously resigning over a dispute with a Board of Control Member over the Right to Try, a move which students protested en masse and convinced him to retract). Lawsuits are filed. Jamrich eventually reinstates McClellan.

In spring 1967, students also protest a variety of campus issues including housing, dress codes and food.

In December of 1968, the Black Student Union holds a sit-in at the Pan-American basketball game to protest the treatment of African American students at Northern. Seeing a lack of progress and further sleights, the following December, BSU holds a sit-in in Dean Allan Niemi's office. The largely peaceful protest leads to the trial of the 'Marquette Six' in 1970.

A peace vigil is held on campus, followed by a candlelight procession on Third Street in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. after his assassination. A scholarship is established in his honor.

A renewed commitment to Right to Try is outlined by President Jamrich in his 1968 Development Plan:

“The University has attempted to evaluate the potential of applicants in such a manner as not to exclude from the opportunity those high school graduates who may not have performed well in their high school years, but who evidence emerging potential and motivation to profit by a college education.”