Forty years ago, many individuals involved in SF State’s five-month campus strike risked physical harm by rallying in efforts to ensure the creation of the College of Ethnic Studies.

Student protesters were beaten, tear-gassed, knocked down and arrested by police for believing that a department, solely devoted to the study of third world academics, should be created.

Their determined efforts paid off, and now SF State is home to one of the most impressive multiethnic colleges in the country.

While the college is now regarded as a specialized academic cultural center, individuals involved in the creation of the department look back at the chaotic days 40 years ago with mixed feelings.

“SF State was basically turned into a police camp during the strike,” said Dan Gonzales, associate professor of Asian American studies and active student participant of the protests. “The police had long, heavy batons that were strictly used for crowd control. If someone got hit in the head with one, it would draw blood.”

To control the masses of student protestors, police used pepper and tear gas, Gonzales said. “It was a very scary time to be a student at SF State.”

On occasion, tactical alert squads were called in to quell the violent atmosphere on campus, said Benjamin Stewart, chairman of the Black Student Union at the time. “People were getting beat up by police constantly, even students not involved in the strikes were getting beat.”

“There was both a physical and mental struggle that students had to endure to create the College [of Ethnic Studies],” said Kenneth Monteiro, current dean of the college. “They would risk harm by putting their bodies on the line.”

Police covered virtually every building, Gonzales said. “There were plainclothes officers that would look for excuses to take advantage of their authority.

“It seemed like some police were looking for a confrontation— beating up on students must have been a substitute for not going to Vietnam.”

In many cases the excessive police brutality worked to a disadvantage for the authorities, Stewart said. It alienated a lot of people and “made students feel like it was us against them.”

The police reaction to student protestors was unabashedly excessive and relentless, Gonzales said.
Protesters had to “endure tear gas, police chasing and attack dogs,” Monteiro said. “It really is amazing what students went through.”

When university administrators met the demands of the student protestors, it signaled an end to the violence and conflicts between students and police, Stewart said.

“I look back on those days and sometimes wonder how I made it out alive,” Stewart said. “[Although when I reflect] about what we created it makes me think that the struggle was worth it.”