Bachman Hall Sit-In

Lauren E. Ekroth, 33, assistant professor of speech at the University of Hawaii, was arrested in the Bachman Hall sit-in. He was among 158 people who stayed and were taken away by police. The sit-in protested the non-renewal of Dr. Oliver Lee’s contract — an issue of academic due process and academic freedom.

A newly hired assistant professor, five months into his first tenure-track job, chose to get arrested alongside his students for the principle of academic due process. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin printed the names and addresses of every person arrested. Ekroth’s listing: “Lauren E. Ekroth, 33, asst. prof., speech, 2251 Mohala Way.”

Five days later, the Honolulu Advertiser reported that Ekroth was among the faculty members questioned by a university committee about their participation in the sit-in. The professors issued a joint clarification defending their actions on the grounds of academic freedom.

Four and a half years later, in November 1972, the Star-Bulletin’s Lois Taylor returned to the story in a two-page retrospective, “Whatever Happened to the Bachman Hall Gang?” Ekroth — still on the speech faculty — offered a reflective diagnosis of the movement’s decline: “It’s the sense of belonging that’s absent in a multiversity. The return to the fraternity thing tells you who you are. It is a reflection of a larger society, belonging to the bowling team and the Elks. Anger is the cement that holds a student movement together. Without anger there’s no sense of direction. The movement with all its craziness, its flailing out, was healthy to the extent that students and faculty were taking some real responsibility in the functioning of the university.” The 1972 article puts the arrest count at 152 rather than 158; the original 1968 Star-Bulletin reporting said 158. The discrepancy is unexplained.