“They were getting rid of me,” Garskof said. “They were taking me away from students because I was being a ‘bad influence.’”

Garskof still decided to make his way to his morning class, even though he essentially had been fired. The university hadn’t lost any time in finding a replacement. An untenured professor had been assigned to teach Garskof’s class.

“I showed up about the same time he did,” Garskof said. “He was greeting students and I was greeting students. I was just having a great time.”

Garskof said he knew he couldn’t stay — it wasn’t his section anymore.

“I imagine we got into a shoving match,” he said of the other professor. “And if that happened, I think I should have shoved him if I didn’t and I’m sure he should have shoved me if he didn’t.”

In the midst of it, a student shouted out, suggesting the class rally at the president’s house. And with that, students ran out and started a demonstration, Garskof said. Students demanded university officials reverse their decision to let Garskof go without reason.

National leaders, including child psychologist Dr. Benjamin Spock, came to MSU to speak on Garskof’s behalf.

A student contributed a portrayal of Garskof as Jesus to the MSU Museum, suggesting he’d been crucified by the administration. Hundreds of students rallied around the anti-war and self-described “troublemaking” professor, but in the end, the university prevailed and at the end of the term, Garskof’s contract wasn’t renewed.

It was one of several cases in an era when faculty were let go without explanation. And students simply wouldn’t settle for the administration’s answers.

It was the era of the Vietnam War, the draft and the environment movement. With the recent successes of the Civil Rights Movement, Michigan students were returning from activism trips in the south to rile up students back home, Garskof said.

Now a psychology professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, Garskof said student activism hasn’t gone anywhere — it’s just changed.

A turbulent transition

With the introduction of the Honors College in 1956, the university attracted new students, who in many cases were an influence on the student body as the conservative land-grant college became increasingly liberal, said Robert Fogarty, who taught American Thought and Language in the late 1960s.

“(Increased activism) was in some ways foreshadowing the changes that would eventually occur at the university,” Fogarty said.

When the Department of American Thought and Language, or ATL, chose not to renew three professors’ contracts without reason in 1966, students took notice, said MSU alumnus and former State News reporter Andy Mollison. Mollison, now a retired resident of Niles, Mich., said Fogarty was among the three professors, all of whom had been published in a controversial campus magazine.

After the dismissals, the activist student group United Students of MSU started planning the Orange Horse affair. A series of rallies was held, with the final standoff in Bessey Hall. Etta Abrahams, an MSU alumna and former ATL professor, unlocked the hall one night, allowing students to hold a sit-in.

“I’m a bit embarrassed by what I did now, but I went over to get my mail and I opened the door and it was probably deliberate and I let people in with me,” said Abrahams, who had a history of activism.

The door Abrahams opened allowed hundreds of students access to the building where the ATL department was housed.

“The big staircase was filled from top to bottom with students,” she said.

“Some people were probably stoned. People were feeling really good and they felt a sense of community.”

Almost 1,500 people were involved during the nine-day protest. Gaining media attention, the issue made its way to the state government, where state regents made a ruling in favor of the university, Fogarty said.

“It ran around the clock,” Fogarty said. “It had some of the characteristics of a religious revival.”

Bridging the generations

The world Spartan activists faced in the 1960s is drastically different from today, but the biggest change is the issues, not the students, Mollison said. In the 60s, students were eager to explore ideas and motivate change to better the world, Abrahams said.

“And I think there are a lot of students like that still,” she said.

Economics plays a large role in how students act today, Mollison said.

“The state was not as economically shattered (in the 1960s),” he said. “There aren’t as many jobs to go around right now. It’s a different time.”

And activism today is tackling that new economic challenge, said Justin Epstein, ASMSU Academic Assembly chairperson and political theory and constitutional democracy junior.

ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government. The group has engaged in numerous campaigns, met with legislators and held a recent rally for affordable education.

“We’re going to address (the issues) and we’re not going to back down,” he said.

The environmental movement that kicked off with the publishing of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” in 1962 — which mentioned use of the chemical DDT at MSU — continues today. MSU Greenpeace is now fighting the use of coal as an on-campus power source.

Although rallies and protests today don’t draw as many students as those in the past, psychology and English senior Glenna Johnson said the environmental movement is alive at MSU. Johnson, who serves as the recruitment chairwoman for MSU Greenpeace, said she became involved to help make a difference.

“I think we’re on our way to people caring more about this,” she said. “I do think the 60s passion is coming back, just slowly.”

Administration officials haven’t shut down the coal plant yet, but Johnson said they have listened to student concerns.

Still, there are misconceptions about student activists, she said.

“Some people think activism and rallies are scary, that people are angry, but we’re not angry, we’re very happy to be rallying and getting our voices heard,” Johnson said. “Activism is still important today.”

Campaigning for gender neutral language and housing at MSU, the overturn of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the legality of gay marriage is key for the Alliance of Queer & Ally Students, said Caytlynn Roy, a public administration and policy sophomore and ASMSU representative for the group.

Many people don’t have a handle on how much work is still to be done in the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community, she said.

“They need to open their eyes,” she said. “People are being bullied and the recent suicides are enough evidence that this community is being oppressed.”

Activism is important, but often taken for granted, Roy said.

“We’ve lost motivation and we see issues as not real issues or see them and think it’ll just get done,” she said. “We just become kind of lackluster.”

Still, Johnson thinks students can drum up some noise on campus and make a difference. It’s just something that will take time, she said.

“These days it takes a real passion about something to shout about it,” she said. “Being an activist takes time, there’s no getting around that. People are becoming more and more passionate because they do realize things need to change.”

More stories about activism at MSU.