Like Warren, upon reading his and Malcolm's piece about the radical early 70s many memories of my time at Keele come to mind. I was the Students' Union Treasurer in 1970/71 (ever the bureaucrat). So I was intimately involved, as a spectator and trying to pick up the pieces, in the fun and games of the period.
One highlight of the nude students cavorting on the island, which existed in front of the Students Union, were the academic staffs' children riding around and around the island on their bikes to have a gander. The other scene of note was of the shop manager hustling his female staff into the storeroom while he served a male participant with an ice lolly - a big red thing I seem to remember.
The protests of Autumn 1970 were over secret files. Warwick University's registry had just been liberated and files were found with comments on the political inclinations of various students. So they had to have the same at Keele - didn't they.
So the student body, against my better judgement, took over the Senior Common Room. After that activity fizzled out the protest culminated in an attempt to beat the American anti-war protesters' efforts to levitate the White House, with our own plan to levitate the Vice-chancellors residency. I know the earth moved for many students during their stay at Keele, but on that night everything remained rock steady.
Gerry Northam - an ex-graduate of Keele at Radio Stoke - did an excellent mocking aural documentary of the event in a half-hour broadcast. I hope the tapes are preserved. In three or four thousand years time they will feed some academic controversy about symbols and protest in late twentieth century iconography, worthy of at least a PhD or whatever qualifications will exist in future days.
The initial instigators of the fun and games were a bunch of anarchist `students', whose philosophy was based on an Italian movement known as `situationalism'. In one activity they brought the Edgar Broughton Band to play at Keele, who doled out spray cans inviting the student body to go around spraying the University. Edgar was not so pleased when that included the windscreen of his van.
Unfortunately, all this fun and games had a downside. One poor student got nabbed for the spray job done in the Student Union and was fined some enormous sum. There was a collection for him at the University - not much was raised. I believe somebody paid his fine off anyway. He was a clever chap - got a double first in Psychology and some other head banging subject. Which one I can't remember.
This group of `situationalists' also attempted to buck the exams at the end of the Foundation Year . When you took these you were allocated a specific seat for the duration - yes, I didn't get the requisite marks in the end of term tests to be relieved of this chore.
Anyway three of them occupied, in turn, the same seat for the three different exams: art, social science and science. I didn't see any of them the following year. So the combined power of their three brains,each specialising in one paper, was still not sufficient to get one of their number through the exam. Alternatively, I suspect, the university rumbled their wheeze. I'm sure I saw one of their test papers attached to some crocodile clips with the wire bit connected via an electrode to a cat in the Communications Department. By the way, has the Communications Department finally found out what cats are trying to communicate to us.
Well enough of this memory lane stuff. The more recent graduates must think we are a sad bunch of old gits who go on about buying a round of five pints and a packet of pork scratchings and still having change from a ten shilling note. Yes, that was the other revolution that occurred while I was at Keele. We went decimal - so ended œ.s.d. So to the good old days - tune in, drop out and lets do it again.
