Kent State University continues to mark the 50th anniversary of May 4, 1970, but not all in the community are satisfied with the direction of the yearlong commemoration.



On Tuesday, Kent State President Todd Diacon received a letter signed by 57 veterans, anti-war activists and labor leaders, urging the university to broaden the scope of the planned events to include broader discussions about government surveillance, domestic spying and the anti-war movements of the last 50 years; and to emphasize the lessons of anti-war protest and the right to assemble.



"[The commemoration] is the university’s responsibility, they have the resources and they should do it, but if the university is going to sponsor a commemoration, then it can’t exclude the anti-war movement, which is what it’s doing. Nobody’s saying they can’t hold the activities they’re holding, but basically what they’re doing has nothing to do with why people were out there protesting, and that is quite obscene," said Mike Alewitz, an eyewitness to the shooting and a letter signer.



The group, which does not have a name, specifically calls for the establishment of "educational activities exposing the role of government surveillance and the history of domestic spying, including COINTELPRO at Kent State in May 1970, the repression directed against African-American movement groups and the history of CIA/US covert and military actions abroad."



They also are urging the establishment of "memorial activities that represent broad sectors of the anti-war movement to the present day," including the anti-war student groups, the Chicano Moratorium, Jackson State, the Gulf War anti-war movement, anti-war trade unions, veterans organizations and women’s groups, among other forces that helped to end wars.



Diacon has stated that there will be over 100 events throughout the school year, but currently the 50th commemoration website lists around 30 scheduled events. Past events have already been removed from the website. None of the listed events are specifically about the Vietnam War and the expansion into Cambodia, although several of the event descriptions mention those details within the context of May 4. The war and the anti-war movement were discussed in university-sponsored events led by wounded survivors Alan Canfora and Thomas Grace.



Kent State executive director of media relations Eric Mansfield declined to comment on whether the events list was exhaustive or whether the university is planning any events that would address the letter’s requests.



"We have received the letter, and we remain open to all ideas and input in helping to guide our approach to this significant milestone in the history of Kent State and our nation. The university’s year-long observance of the 50th commemoration of May 4, 1970, is inclusive and ongoing, and we are committed to sharing the lessons of this tragic event: the dangers of polarization and the transformative power of civil discourse and reconciliation," he wrote in an email.



In the letter, the signers also pointed toward an event scheduled for Nov. 7 called "Honoring those who served in ROTC in 1970," which as of Sept. 10 includes the description "Kent State ROTC alumni who were enrolled in 1970 will recount and discuss their personal experiences related to May 4, 1970, including the burning of the ROTC building and the loss of ROTC cadet William Knox Schroeder." William Schroeder was one of the four students killed.



The letter does not suggest that the event should be canceled, but rather states that ROTC "was the academic arm of the military, training the officers that led thousands of GIs to slaughter in an undeclared and unwinnable war [...] while KSU is honoring ROTC, it is ignoring the active-duty anti-war soldiers and their supporters."



The letter further urges the university to "open all meetings, records and discussion venues to the public, without censorship," and to hold commemoration activities throughout the country and the world, noting "May 4 does not belong to the KSU administration alone — May 4 belongs to the entire world." Mansfield declined to comment on whether planning meetings are public or if there are minutes of the meetings.



Alewitz, who currently lives in Connecticut, explained that the discontent started in April when then-president Beverly Warren appointed Stephanie Danes Smith, a former CIA official, to lead the 50th May 4 Commemoration Advisory Committee. In May following an email campaign led by Laurel Krause, a letter signer and sister of Allison Krause, one of the four students killed by Ohio National Guardsmen, Smith resigned.



"Out of respect for the profound concerns held by some members of Kent State’s May 4 community about my former work in national security, I am stepping down as university chair of the 50th commemoration," Smith said in a Facebook post.



"Smith stepped down, but she was still on the committee and her supporters are basically the spokespeople for the commemoration, so it’s been a process unfolding and it took some time to get [the letter] together," Alewitz said.



The letter signed by Alewitz, Krause and others contrasts a November 2018 letter sent to Warren by families of the other three slain students — Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and Schroeder — as well as seven of the nine wounded survivors, including Canfora and Grace, both of whom serve on the 50th Commemoration Advisory Committee.



"With the university’s commitment has come a new and improved level of focused, meaningful and collaborative planning around May 4 that we believe, at last, provides the staffing, resources and stability the annual commemoration deserves," the 2018 letter states.



"We don’t take the position about who should sponsor the commemoration," Alewitz said. "But there’s a reason we were out there [...] this was a deliberate gunning down because they were protesting the war in Vietnam, and that has to be part of the commemoration."



Reporter Krista S. Kano can be reached at 330-541-9416, kkano@recordpub.com or on Twitter @KristaKanoRCedu.