In April of 1970, a major student protest took place regarding promotion and tenure issues. Two faculty failed to be reinstated and student protestors staged a one week sit-in. It began on a Monday with a three hour occupation of Vice Chancellor Homer Shamp’s office and evolved into a three day and three night occupation of hallways in the Hillcrest Building which served as the UMBC Administration Building.
Later in May, the UMBC Faculty Senate met to receive promotion and tenure recommendations. As a second semester freshman, I attended the meeting to get a first- hand account to better understand both sides of the issue. After listening to the discussions, the students began to pass around bags of marshmallows. I saw that each student was taking a handful and I did the same. Being a starving college student, I began to eat my marshmallows. It was an interesting meeting in that the students seemed to be doing their best to disrupt the proceedings by chanting. Seeing that it was difficult to conduct business, Vice Chancellor Homer Shamp began the adjournment process. As the meeting was winding down, one student called out “on the count of three” and began counting out loud. As he said three, the students stood up and threw their marshmallows towards the administrators. Watching the action, I realized that my potential career as a campus radical failed at the launching pad due to needing an afternoon snack.