Virginia Tech in the 1960s: An Exhibition of Student Research

Abstract

This exhibit comes from student research in HIST 2984 – A Nation Divided: America in the 1960s. It explores the evolving nature of student life at Virginia Tech (then known as VPI) over the course of the 1960s. Using the student newspaper, The Virginia Tech, as the base, the students conducted research for panels which highlight events and trends defining the student experience: everything from dating and socializing, to student government and student-faculty relations, to race relations and responses to the Vietnam War. By placing these stories within the larger historical context of that time, it becomes clear that although Virginia Tech students were, in many ways, far from the center of the social, cultural, and political tumult that characterized much of the 1960s, they were not immune to the changes and conflicts the decade ushered in.