Editing Brandeis University (section)

=== 1960s: Countercultural epicenter ===
Brandeis became an epicenter of radical student activism and [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|anti–Vietnam War protests]] during the [[counterculture of the 1960s]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Bronner|first=Ethan|date=1998-10-17|title=Brandeis at 50 Is Still Searching, Still Jewish and Still Not Harvard|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/17/us/brandeis-at-50-is-still-searching-still-jewish-and-still-not-harvard.html|access-date=2022-01-02|archive-date=2022-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102221859/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/17/us/brandeis-at-50-is-still-searching-still-jewish-and-still-not-harvard.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It was the National Student Strike Information Center during the [[student strike of 1970]].<ref name=":1"/>

==== Student takeover of Ford Hall ====
On January 8, 1969, about 70 black students entered then-student-center, Ford Hall, ejected everyone else from the building, and refused to leave.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Student Occupation of Ford Hall, January 1969 | work=Brandeis University Archives, Remembering Ford & Sydeman Halls | url=http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/archives-speccoll/exhibits/ford/occupation/index.html | access-date=2013-02-09 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127011528/http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/archives-speccoll/exhibits/ford/occupation/index.html | archive-date=2013-01-27 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The students' demands included the hiring of more black faculty members, increasing black student enrollment from four percent to ten percent of the student body,<ref name= seize>{{cite news |title= 70 Seize Hall at Brandeis: Faculty Condemns Action By Negro Students |work= The Baltimore Sun |date= January 9, 1969 |page= A8 |id= {{ProQuest|539247176}} }}</ref> establishing an independent department on African American studies,<ref name= resume>{{cite news |title= Students Resume Brandeis Classes: Protest by Negroes Goes On as Negotiations Continue |first= John H. |last= Fenton |work= The New York Times |date= January 11, 1969 |page= 17 |id= {{ProQuest|118533415}} }}</ref> and an increase in scholarships for black students.<ref>{{cite news |title= Negro Students Accuse Brandeis Of 'Racist Policies,' Seize Building |newspaper= The Washington Post|date= January 9, 1969 |page= A3 |id= {{ProQuest|147744840}}}}</ref> Over 200 white students staged a sit-in in the lobby of the administration building.<ref name= suspends/> President [[Morris B. Abram]] said that, although he recognized "the deep frustration and anger which black students here and all over the country feel at what must seem—and often is—the indifference and duplicity of white men in relation to blacks",<ref name="suspends" /> the students' actions were an affront to the university. The faculty condemned the students' actions as well.<ref name="seize" /> On the fourth day of the protest, the [[Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex]] Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order, requiring the students to leave Ford Hall.<ref name="resume" /> While Abram did not allow the order to forcibly remove the students from Ford Hall to be enforced, 65 students had been suspended for their actions.<ref name="suspends">{{cite news |title= Brandeis U. Head Suspends 65 in Campus Protest: Offers to Resign Escalate Demands |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= January 12, 1969 |page= 10 |id= {{ProQuest|143655739}} }}</ref> On January 18, the black students exited Ford Hall, ending the eleven-day occupation of the building.<ref name="end-occupation">{{cite news |title= 64 Black Students End 'Occupation' at Brandeis |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= January 19, 1969 |page= 3 |id= {{ProQuest|147736439}} }}</ref> There had been no violence or destruction of property during the occupation, and Brandeis gave the students amnesty for their actions.<ref name="end-occupation" /> [[Ronald Walters]] became the first chair of Afro-American studies at Brandeis later the same year.<ref>{{cite news |title= Ronald Walters, Rights Leader and Scholar, Dies at 72 |work= The New York Times |date= September 14, 2010 |first= Dennis |last= Hevesi |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/us/15walters.html |access-date= February 24, 2017 |archive-date= February 3, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170203122205/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/us/15walters.html |url-status= live }}</ref> Ford Hall was demolished in August 2000 to make way for the Shapiro Campus Center, which was opened and dedicated October 3, 2002.