The Vietnam War impacted Cal Poly students, staff, faculty, and the San Luis Obispo community.
Resources listed here can get you started on researching the impact of the Vietnam War at Cal Poly.
President Robert E. Kennedy addresses students gathered on Dexter Lawn on May 4, 1970, the day of the Kent State shootings. Governor Ronald Reagan closed most California public universities and colleges in the aftermath of the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings, but Cal Poly remained open. University Archives Photograph Collection, ua-pho_00000243.
Some of the student clubs and organizations responding to the Vietnam War:
Some specific events:
1965 October 21 - Vietnam Debate
1967 March - Students protest ROTC
1968 February - DOW Chemical Company protest
1968 November - Planned demonstration Rally on National Draft Resistance Day
1969 October - Vietnam Moratorium, a national day-long protest against the Vietnam War.
Cal Poly Report (staff and faculty weekly newsletter):
Audiovisual materials
Search the Online Archives
President Robert E. Kennedy's autobiography, pg. 236: includes his memories of the Vietnam War impact at Cal Poly
Image: Pg 71 of the 1968 El Rodeo Yearbook, covering a 1968 protest led by Students for New Action Politics (SNAP).
San Luis Obispo newspaper coverage can be searched through a library database:
Cal Poly Student Research Papers on the impact of the Vietnam War at Cal Poly via DigitalCommons@CalPoly
President Kennedy's memoirs, pg. 236: includes his memories of the Vietnam War impact at Cal Poly
Chapters from Cal Poly: The First Hundred Years, written by the University Archives staff in 2001:
Over 50 Vietnamese students were enrolled at Cal Poly between 1950 and 1971. Request International Student enrollment data from University Archives at archives@calpoly.edu
Students wrote senior projects on the topic of Vietnam between 1960 and 1980. See them listed in the library catalog here. (Senior projects up to 2009 are available only physically in the library. Learn more here.)