Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Eleanor G. Pawlicki Oral History

Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Eleanor G. Pawlicki Oral History

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Transcription	Show Transcript Print Transcript Back Eleanor Pawlicki, Oral History Transcribed by Rhonda Rinehart My name is Eleanor Pawicki. I am sixty years old. I was getting my Bachelor of Education degree on Kent State, and I was on campus on May 4th of 1970. I was in geography class when we were notified that we should leave the class. I was sort of in doubt as why we should leave because I heard a number of ambulances going by, but I didn't understand why our class should be interrupted. So I went to my next class, which was bowling, on the other side of campus, and there were hardly any people around the area where I was -- around McGilvrey Hall, I believe. I went to this bowling alley, and there were several students there, and they didn't know if we were going to have bowling or not, so I thought -- after waiting around for about a half hour and still hearing sirens, I thought, Well, I'm going to go back home. Because I was commuting from Warren, Ohio at that time and my car was parked on Main street at a Sohio station where I always parked every day. So I started back to the gas station, and I remember wondering if I should go back and see what was going on because I knew that things had been sort of in a state of panic all week. All my classes had been interrupted with different kinds of -- they said bomb scares, and I'd go to class and they would say, "Well, we're going to have bomb squad come in and check out the room" before we were able to stay here, so we would have to leave and go outside. And then they would tell us, "Well, you can go into class if you want. It's at your own risk." And, you know, after going through that for a week, you really didn't know what you were supposed to do on May 4th of 1970. Since I was an older student, I thought, Well, I'll just let the young ones go where they want to go and I'll just go home. So then I finished my courses by correspondence and talking to the professors on the telephone. I got all 'Bs' and one 'A' from my bowling, which I took the rest of it through the mail, and they sent a real big many-page exam. And I couldn't complete it -- only about half of it, so I got my husband's friend who was an expert bowler, to look at it -- he couldn't even answer the questions! But I graduated anyhow, that same year of December in 1970, and James Michener was the speaker. Things were still tense on graduation day, and one man came up to the podium while James Michener was speaking, and the first thought that came through my mind was, Oh, he's going to kill him. And that was just the mentality of those times, you just always expected the worst of whatever was going to happen. But I guess the man was a little mixed up, and Security just escorted him out. I've since gotten two other degrees from Kent State -- a Master in Education and a Master in Library Science, and I just wanted to come back today because it seems that each year it becomes more meaningful, especially -- I've been in Tieneman Square in China through Kent State, studying there also, and it seems to me -- everybody says how terrible that is in China because they fired on their own people. Well, the same thing happened here on a smaller scale. If anybody would like further information, if I can be of help, you can contact me at Hudson, Ohio. I'm in the phone book -- P-A-W-L-I-C-K-I, or through the Alumni Association you can get my name and address. I think that's all today. Thank you. ×
Narrator	Pawlicki, Eleanor G.
Narrator's Role	Student at Kent State University in 1970
Date of Interview	1990-05-04
Description	An undergraduate student majoring in education at Kent State University in 1970, Eleanor Pawlicki discusses her memories of what she experienced on campus on May 4, 1970. She was in a geography class in McGilvrey Hall when the shootings occurred, and heard numerous ambulances going by. She describes the atmosphere on campus during the week before the shootings as tense: several of her classes had been interrupted by bomb threats. She discusses completing her classes by correspondence and graduating in December, 1970. She recalls a tense moment from the commencement exercises, when James Michener was speaking and a man approached him on stage. She says that she immediately assumed the worst--that this man would kill Michener--explaining that this was the mood at the time.
Length of Interview	3:58 minutes
Places Discussed	Kent (Ohio)
Time Period discussed	1970
Subject(s)	Ambulances Bomb threats--Ohio--Kent College students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews Kent State Shootings, Kent, Ohio, 1970 Michener, James A. (James Albert), 1907-1997 Students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
Repository	Special Collections and Archives
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Institution	Kent State University
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Disclaimer	The content of oral history interviews, written narratives and commentaries is personal and interpretive in nature, relying on memories, experiences, perceptions, and opinions of individuals. They do not represent the policy, views or official history of Kent State University and the University makes no assertions about the veracity of statements made by individuals participating in the project. Users are urged to independently corroborate and further research the factual elements of these narratives especially in works of scholarship and journalism based in whole or in part upon the narratives shared in the May 4 Collection and the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project.