1970s

The 1970s was a decade rich with student activism and student motivated change on various levels. As such, it is no surprise that Yale student activists were able to enact change in the contexts of the university and New Haven. Their struggles represent a wide range of experiences that are informed by the cultural, social, political, etc. backgrounds of the students. Thus, we cannot and do not promise to totally encompass Yale student activism in the seventies, rather we aim to highlight some of the various methods students used to collaborate with one another, different student activists, the university, and New Haven to fulfill their goals. We believe that focusing on these collaborations is a fruitful method of analysis because they demonstrate in which situations different student activists chose to stand in solidarity with each other, the Yale administration, and New Haven residents and organizations. Conversely, the collaborations can also highlight tensions between these actors and in doing so they expose ideological differences between groups that helps us understand the context behind certain actions. In this particular decade, we have chosen to highlight work from the Asian American Student Association (AASA) in the form of the Asian American Student Conference, the publication of the Amerasia Journal, and a student recruitment event hosted by AASA. We have also chosen to represent the founding of the Floating Counselor Program, which is now officially known as the Peer Liason program. Further, we are representing the work done by Puerto Rican Students at Yale who pushed for a Puerto Rican Studies program and their collaborations with the local Young Lord party. Finally, we are showing the work of Mecha at Yale in which they outline their rationale for a student cultural center to the Yale administration.