Alareer Hall (Johnson Hall)

“Knowledge is the Soul of a Republic,” reads the etched stone above the north entrance of Johnson Hall, quoting the early American statesman John Jay. Named for John Wesley Johnson, who served as the first president of the UO from 1876-1893, this hall has held visions for the soul of the University since it was built to house the office of the President and other administrators in 1915 [1]. 

Of course, the President and upper administration do more than simply project a vision – they exert their power downwards upon all parts of the University. As this ripple is received by faculty, students, workers and the surrounding community, people gather at Johnson Hall to confront administrative power with their own. This relationship of cause and effect – the struggle for the institution’s soul – illuminates the complex and evolving question of public education: Whose University is it? Historically this has produced grassroots challenges to administrative authority over the direction and priorities of our institution. Presently, the fight against University privatization, the weaponization of corporate interests, and undemocratic governance underscores this tension. Through it all, Johnson Hall continues to serve as a fitting backdrop for ordinary people taking responsibility for their education and communities. Here are just some of the many moments across generations of struggle that have happened here: 

As the campus Anti-Vietnam War movement rapidly escalated in the spring of 1970, Johnson saw some of its largest student sit-ins in its history. On April 22nd, over 300 students filled the lobby, issuing then President Robert Clark with demands to remove naval recruiters and police from campus, abolish the ROTC program, and grant amnesty to those involved with prior disturbances [2]. After 30 hours, Clark abruptly ended student negotiations and sent in multiple squadrons of National Guardsman and members of the Eugene Police Department to arrest those inside and disperse surrounding crowds. In the process, they deployed teargas on peaceful crowds and arrested 61 students [3]. None of the demands were met, and the student conduct code was subsequently amended to include a clause against ‘disruption,’ increase the number of prosecutors, and add provisions for surveilling campus demonstrations. [4]

Later in the year, in the early morning of December 1st, an explosion ripped through the southwest basement of the building, causing substantial damage and jarring the entire University. No one was injured and the case was never solved, though it is reasonable to suggest that similar frustrations around the ongoing Vietnam war were likely a factor [5]. 

On May 6th, 1986, hundreds gathered in front of Johnson to build a wooden Shantytown, joining the nearly decade strong struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. The demonstration was sanctioned and vocally supported by President Paul Olum at the preceding rally, who called Apartheid an “unconscionable violation of the simplest principles of respect for humanity.” [6]  At this time major endowment funds were held at the state level by the Board of Higher Education rather than at individual Universities. Students were rallying around their campaign’s lawsuit against the Oregon Investment Committee for blocking divestment from corporations that profited from Apartheid – a battle that had been dragging out in court since 1977. 

In 2000, students once again took Johnson Hall, this time decrying the use of sweatshop labor to produce university licensed products. They urged President Dave Frohnmayer to sign the UO on to the Worker’s Rights Consortium (WRC), an organization who would monitor working conditions along the University’s supply chain, especially those of Nike. After multiple days of sit-ins that garnered at least six arrests (including both the current and to-be ASUO Presidents), around 50 students launched an encampment on the Johnson lawn to sustain protest efforts on the evening of April 5th. [7] The following day, Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale visited to speak from the Johnson steps in solidarity with the students [8]. Frohnmayer eventually agreed to sign on to the WRC, ending the encampment on its tenth day. Later that month, Nike CEO Phil Knight retracted a pledge of $30 million dollars to the UO citing dissatisfaction with the WRC affiliation. In response Frohnmayer decided not to pay the required membership dues and instead affiliated with the Fair Labor Association, which the camping students specifically urged him to avoid for its laxness in inspections and lack of transparency [9]. Knight later reinstated his gift which was used to fund an expansion to Autzen stadium. 

At around 10pm on Sunday October 4th, 2020 (just a week into Fall term) three activists chained themselves to the doors of Johnson Hall following a Black Lives Matter benefit concert in nearby Washburne Park. They demanded President Michael Schill provide them with a concrete plan to disarm UOPD, divest the UO Foundation’s assets of $1.96 billion from investments in fossil fuels, and democratize the Board of Trustees (the University’s highest governing body). Though groups the Disarm UO, Reclaim UO, Cascadia Action Network, Sunrise Eugene and the Grad Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) made statements of support, no group took sole responsibility for the action [10]. After 16 hours, President Schill granted them a meeting and the trio unchained in celebration [11]. Though small, this direct action yielded a more direct dialogue with power than the over 100 days of marches which filled Eugene’s streets the previous summer. 

Similarly, students affiliated with the 2024 Popular University for Gaza chained themselves to Johnson’s pillars on May 16th and renamed it “Alareer Hall” for Palestinian professor, poet, and mMartyr Refaat Alareer. The same day, they moved their encampment to the lawn adjacent to the front of Johnson, across 13th Avenue. The encampment, launched on April 29th from the Memorial Quad (see entry), condemned the UO’s ideological neutrality and material complicity in Israel’s ongoing Genocide in Palestine. Protesters unchained themselves after 100 hours on May 20th, and on May 22nd – after 25 days of camping in total – they reached an agreement with administration to pack up in exchange for an issuance of a ceasefire statement by President Karl Scholz, a University Senate taskforce to investigate investment ethics, additional faculty hires and funding in Middle Eastern Studies, scholarships for displaced students from Palestine, and cooperation in creating a South and Southwest Asian and North African (SSWANA) cultural center [12]. Organized implementation of the agreement continues as students battle administrative backpedalling and institutional bureaucracy. 

Questions As You Visit: 

What does the building’s design and location within the campus evoke? 

Who will take to the stuffy lobby, stone steps, or ivory pillars next? 

Whose university is it, anyway? 

REFERENCES

1. Architecture of the University of Oregon: A History, Bibliography and Research Guide. (https://library.uoregon.edu/design/architecture-university-oregon) 
2. Oregon Daily Emerald, April 23rd, 1970 
3. Oregon Daily Emerald, April 24th, 1970 
4. 9/23/1970 https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2004260239/1970-09-23/ed-1/seq-19/#words=disruption+disruptions+disruptive 
5. Oregon Daily Emerald, December 1st, 1970. 
6. Oregon Daily Emerald, May 7th, 1986. 
7. Oregon Daily Emerald, April 5th, 2000
8. Oregon Daily Emerald, April 6th, 2000
9. Not violent action data base https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/university-oregon-students-demonstrate-fair-labor-practices-2000-2001 
10. https://doublesidedmedia.com/2020/10/05/the-occupation-of-johnson-hall-day-1/ 
11. https://doublesidedmedia.com/2020/10/06/the-occupation-of-johnson-hall-day-2/