The late 1960s and early 1970s were pivotal years in the history of computing technology. But they were also pivotal years for what one contemporary writer called "the technology of computer destruction." The same era that witnessed the dawn of the microelectronics revolution also witnessed the nationwide spread of campus protests, in which activists routinely occupied and in some cases even bombed university computer centers. While data-processing magazines chronicled feats such as the rise of the ARPANET and the birth of the commercial microprocesser, they also warned of "arson, bombing, invasion"—new terms added to the DP expert's technical vocabulary during what Computerworld dubbed, in 1970, "the year of the crisis."

News reports regularly depicted these computer-related protests as crimes of passion. Since computers connoted order and rationality, it seemed that maladjusted students had chosen these machines to vent their disorderly and irrational urges. Upon inspection, however, these computer-related protests exhibit the same two principal causes as the majority of campus protests at the time: the Vietnam War and racial injustice. While issues such as the selective service or Black Studies programs ostensibly had nothing to do with computing, activists targeted computer centers for tactical, not passionate reasons. On the one hand, computers were identified as instruments of war. Their origins in World War II and their subsequent affinity with classified defense contracts meant that, with the exception of ROTC buildings, computer centers were often the most immediate manifestation of the "military-industrial-academic complex" on campus. On the other hand, computers were vital to the daily operations of many universities—more vital, in some cases, than administration buildings. They were also extremely expensive. Shutting down a computer center halted essential administrative tasks or big-budget research projects, and even a brief occupation could cost the university thousands of dollars in wasted machine time. Students held computers "hostage" while negotiating demands, knowing that administrators would think twice before ordering a police raid or spraying a fire hose if it might risk the integrity of a multi-million dollar computer installation.

In the late 1960s computers were fulfilling inumerable tasks, of both a quotidian and a highly specialized nature. They processed payroll data, managed airline reservations, and calculated missile trajectories. By collecting the wide range of protest actions at U.S. universities between 1968 and 1971, the following map adds a new dimension to the documented "use" of computing technology in this era. Whether it was through a bombing or a sit-in or a rally, students used computers—and the university's immense ideological and capital investment in computing—to advance agendas of anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and student control of higher education.

/* The scale of Alaska is 39% that of the contiguous United States, so its area is reduced to about 15.2%. The uninhabited Rat Islands and Near Islands are not shown. */ /* Hawaii is shown in the same scale as the contiguous United States. The uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are not shown. */ cursor select: = protest = sabotage UC Berkeley Brandeis University Boston University University of Cincinnati Fresno State College Harvard University Hofstra University Howard University University of Kansas Loyola University UW Madison University of Maryland University of Miami M.I.T. New York University Northwestern University Penn State University University of Pittsburgh Princeton University Salem State College UC Santa Barbara Stanford University SUNY Stony Brook Tufts University UI Urbana-Champaign Utica College

The information in this map is comprehensive to the best of my knowledge, but I am sure there are protests and occupations of which I am not aware. There are also several protests and occupations of which I am anecdotally aware, and for these I am waiting to acquire more reliable documentation. I have relied on major news outlets (mostly the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe), and I have consulted school newspapers and yearbooks whenever they were available online. Occasionally I have consulted counterculture publications such as New Left Notes or Madison's Kaleidoscope, as well as more specialized publications such as Computerworld or Science. I have tried my best to provide political and historical context for each protest action, and this has been easier for schools that are more likely to attract media attention and analysis (e.g. Harvard, as opposed to Utica College). The Northwestern and Howard entries draw from Martha Biondi's The Black Revolution on Campus. The Northwestern entry also draws from "They Demanded Courageously," an incredibly thorough account of "The Takeover," its context, and its consequences. The University of Pittsburgh entry draws from a special online section from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The University of Wisconsin entry draws from Tom Bates's Rads. The UC Santa Barbara entry draws from an interview with participants published in Kalfou. Thanks to University of Cincinnati archivist Kevin Grace for clarifying the location of the SWORCC.