Kent State was no hotbed of campus unrest such as Berkeley, Columbia, or Wisconsin. Radicalism never gained much traction there. The school’s nickname throughout the Midwest was Apathy U, characterized by careerism and conformity. One Kent State student recalled talking with another while waiting in line at a campus cafeteria. “I remember one of us saying we were glad we were in Kent because [such extremism] wouldn’t happen here.” “This is a campus,” noted a visiting New York journalist, “where you meet activists who have never heard of The Nation or read the New Republic and students who
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