Oral history interview with Michael Phelan, November 3, 1989
Oral history interview with Michael Phelan conducted on Lewis Carlson on November 3, 1989. Michael Phelan was a student radical at WMU in the late 60s and early 70s. Phelan discusses his education at Ferris, interest in politics, and the influences of Father Gus and Victor Spatthelf. He transferred to WMU in 1968. He recalls his first impressions and encounters with the hippie community, campus life and cultural tensions on campus, the union organization meetings in the student center, underground newspapers, the take-over by of the student union by black students, and his involvement in the SDS chapter. He also recollects the demonstrations he was involved with including the fire bombing of the ROTC lab, notable students including Ed Jacques and WMU’s only communist Freddie Pearlman, the history of the SDS chapter on campus, FBI presents on campus, the second take-over of the student union by the SDS in 1969, reactions to the Kent State Massacre, and leaving the SDS in 1971.