Tuesday, April 22, 1969 began like any other spring day at Marquette University. Classes were in session, and Father Raynor (1969) sent a memo to Moeller directing him to “appoint a committee of faculty, administrators, and students to address itself to points c. and d. raised by the ASMU sub-committee investigating ROTC.” This marks two months passing since the formation of the ASMU sub-committee and six months since the original Coalition for Peace request.
“Members of the Anti-ROTC Coalition attended the mass [in the St. Joan of Arc Chapel] celebrated by Father Patrick Burns, SJ, assistant professor of theology. After mass, the students asked him to get word to Fr. Raynor that they wanted to meet with him” (Riordan, 1969, p. 4) to discuss issues related to the ROTC program. According to Riordan (1969), “the statement demanded a dialogue with ‘the man whose name is on the Defense Contract’ and said that the students were occupying the chapel until ‘the channels of communication are opened'” (p. 4).
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Sources:
Raynor, John P. (1969, April 22). Committee to study points c. and d. raised by the ASMU sub-committee investigating ROTC at Marquette (Series 20.2, Box 12). Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J., Chronological File, Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.
Riordan, R. (1969, May 2). MU still unravelling confusion of chapel incident. The Marquette Tribune, 53(57), 1, 4.
