The University Responds

Two days after the "riot" at the union, then Dean of Women Miriam A. Sheldon formally responded to the incident. Her medium was "On Being a Student", a publication released by the office of the Dean of Students.

Sheldon's tone was optimisitc and inspriring. Her hope was that this incident would be put behind the students. She reminded them that  the main reason they were on campus was to learn.

This article, written by the Dean of Students in 1969, argued that students should pursue more peaceful protest on campus and how it relates to project 500. Dean Stanton Millet backed the students' right to protest but asked them to understand their parents' and legislators' fears about the radicalism on campus. He argued that if students do not learn the difference between "dissent and disruption" that the future of project 500 and the university itself will be at stake, because legislators in Springfield could defund the program and the university.