The Vietnam War was another global conflict with repercussions for Macalester. In contrast to the World Wars, when the college mobilized in support of the war effort, the Vietnam War awakened resistance among students. Being drafted was a concern for many Macalester men, enough that the college began offering informal ‘draft counseling,’ to help students understand the draft and learn more about becoming a conscientious objector.¹ Wth the 1960s and 70s also came a new insurgence of activism and protest on campus. The most dramatic moment was in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings in May of 1970, when four unarmed students were killed by National Guardsmen during an on campus protest of the Vietnam War.

In response to the Kent State shootings, Macalester joined the nationwide student strike. Mac students took over Grand Avenue with protests and sent a delegation of students to Washington, D.C. to discuss changes with lawmakers.² On May 6, the college closed for the week, and faculty voted to allow students to participate in the strike without academic penalty.³

In contrast to the response to previous wars, students were more engaged in making change than ever before. An article in the Mac Weekly published in the aftermath of the school strike helped sum up the impact of the 1960s and the Vietnam War on the atmosphere at Macalester:

“When we were freshmen the predominant attitudes were: (1) fundamental confidence in the responsiveness of our governmental and educational institutions; (2) broadly based willingness to let the establishment leadership carry the ball; (3) a prevailing belief in something called the public interest; and (4) a fundamentally nonpolitical self-perception. All that has changed.”⁴

Throughout Macalester’s history, wartime has served as a disruptive force that changed often long-held practices. Early on in Macalester’s history, war pushed the college to align its policies with the government and utilize its resources to support the war effort. By the outbreak of the Vietnam War, college students were increasingly questioning authority, and Macalester’s campus became the setting for anti-war protest and activism. In each case, war challenged the student body and administration to rethink the significance of a liberal arts education in the midst of conflict.