History of the UF Division of Student Affairs | Page 25

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policy on controversial speakers and issues concerning housing policies and
student counseling. An African American Studies program was established in
1969. However, the efforts to increase Black enrollment and aid in the transition
of Black students to the UF campus lagged behind expectations. UF Black
students continued to feel alienated at UF, a historically white campus. By Fall
1970, there were only 343 Black students out of a total enrollment of 22,253
students at UF, or about 1.5% of the enrollment. April 1971, a sit-in demonstration
led by Black Student Union student leaders was staged in President O’Connell’s
Office to protest UF policies regarding minorities. This became known as the
“Black Thursday” sit-in. This sit-in demonstration resulted in the arrest and
suspension of 66 Black students. President O’Connell refused to grant amnesty
to the involved students, which resulted in approximately one-third of the
Black students and several Black faculty leaving the university in protest. When
O’Connell retired in 1973, Black student enrollment had rebounded to 1,000, or
about 4% of the enrollment.
Stu d e n t R i g h t s a n d a n E n d t o I n Lo c o P a r e n tis
When O’Connell became UF President in 1967, Hale’s Dean of Student Affairs
position became Vice President of Student Affairs. In 1969, the Dean of Women
position was “dissolved” and the Dean of Men became of the Dean of Students
with the duty “to supervise men, women, and foreign students.” Then Dean of
Women Dr. Betty Cosby was reassigned to the Vice President Office to conduct
research. A new sub-office on student conduct was created.
Hale was known as a strict disciplinarian during the turbulent 1960s and
early 1970s. During this time period, student protests on Civil Rights issues,
the Vietnam War, and student rights vs. in loco parentis were common on
college campuses including UF. Prankish behavior like panty raids and bonfires
intensified to more serious causes and behaviors. Often students were joined
by non-student activists which escalated situations. This was also the time
period that John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy were
assassinated. UF hired the first university attorney and ombudsman. The late
1960s was the advent of coed housing at UF (defined first as men and women
living in different residence halls in the same residence area then as men and
women living in different wings or floors of the same building). This was also
the time period that the men’s and women’s student associations merged to

I ntr od uction