One might not guess that the image of a sneaker on a skateboard would stir suspicions of sexual innuendo and lead to student outcry on a sleepy Southern California campus, but such an incident  did occur in 1965 at Cal Poly Pomona and changed the campus for years to come.

Established in 1938, Cal Poly Pomona began as the southern branch of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

In May of 1965, OPUS magazine, a newly created student-run publication, began promoting its third issue, referred to as OPUS 3. The debut of OPUS 3 coincided with an annual campus event known as Poly Vue which would take place on May 14th and 15th. Poly Vue was an open house event in which alumni, parents, and the community were invited to partake in the activities. The campus anticipated about 8,000 visitors to the campus over the two-day event (Poly Post. Volume XX, No. 26. 7 May 1965).

The OPUS staff arranged to promote the issue by posting flyers around the campus and selling it during the Poly Vue event. The articles in OPUS 3 included: skateboarding culture on campus, contraceptives, an article on the graduating class of 1965, and a pictorial of female students on campus.  According to the Poly Post, the campus newspaper, the poster image was “dominated by a picture of a sneakered toe and front wheels of a skateboard, listed three of the featured articles in OPUS 3- “The Women of Cal Poly” a photo story; “Skateboarding” the latest campus fad; and “Contraception – the Female Responsibility?”  concerned with birth control” (Poly Post. Volume XX, No. 28. 21 May 1965).

The advertisements with the sneaker image were posted around the campus on Wednesday night and left undisturbed Thursday. However, as Poly Vue events kicked off Friday morning, administrators noticed that the posters did not have a stamp indicating that they had been approved by the Student Affairs Council. Simultaneously, there were concerns that the image of the sneaker on the skateboard could be interpreted as having a sexual connotation. According to administrators, it was brought to their attention that the “rubber” tipped sneaker and the reference to the article on contraception could be misconstrued as a phallic reference. Although OPUS staff and administrators worked to find a resolution to these issues, which involved getting the Student Affairs Council to approve the poster and blocking out the article references on the poster by hand, the advertisements were still taken down by administrators and the selling of OPUS 3 was effectively banned. Julian A. McPhee, President of the Cal Poly universities, who was present at Poly Vue, refused to discuss the issue with students and referred them to Vice President, Robert E. Kennedy. McPhee’s reasoning for this was Kennedy had a “background in journalism and public relations” (Poly Post. Volume XX, No. 28. 21 May 1965). There was one problem: Kennedy was in San Luis Obispo and therefore had not seen the posters.

Images L-R: Julian McPhee with Opus, Students Protesting

As Vice President Kennedy, began his trek to the campus from up north Friday evening, the OPUS staff and students began protesting claiming they had been censored and it was a violation of free press. The protests continued into Saturday when Kennedy arrived. Once Kennedy reviewed the issue, the ban was lifted, and OPUS 3 sales resumed. Although the controversy seemed resolved on the surface, the damage was done. Questions lingered regarding the behavior of the administration, the organization of the college, and how to prevent this from happening in the future. Had the administrators read the article? How could the administrators in San Luis Obispo decide fairly on material that they had not seen? Why couldn’t the college have its own separate administrators?

The center of the “OPUS Scandal” was the article on contraception which was a taboo subject at the time. In 1965, the Supreme Court case Griswold vs. Connecticut deemed that it was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment to deny birth control to married couples. This ruling would have an impact on many college campuses as more women attended college. In addition, the burgeoning wave of feminism forced the country to face issues of sex, gender roles, and the rights of women head-on.

The article in question “Contraception- the Female Responsibility?” was written by a female student, Eileen Nelson who described herself as a “nurse, a mother, [and] a Catholic” stated that she was inspired to write the article from a “feeling of empathy for students who wish to be informed, but are cut off from communication with the older generation” (Nelson, Eileen. "Contraception- The Female Responsibility," OPUS 3. 1965). She argued that the taboo nature of sex and the unwillingness to be truthful and provide students with proper sex education exacerbated unplanned pregnancies and abortion (illegal at this time). Nelson also pointed out that women who became pregnant were shamed by society, when in fact, by not providing women with the proper education and resources, society too was to blame. Nelson put it succinctly: “Who says contraception is the female responsibility? It’s everyone’s responsibility” (Nelson, Eileen. "Contraception- The Female Responsibility," OPUS 3. 1965).

Given that the topic was so controversial, were administrators really concerned that the posters did not have a stamp? Cal Poly Pomona, established in 1938, did not open its doors to women until 1961. In four short years, the campus had changed drastically and would continue to change with the addition of women, or “coeds.” The first female students were given detailed dress codes and stringent curfews (the men did not have curfews). It is plausible that the administrators were afraid of the contents of the article and with the coinciding public event, Poly Vue, they tried to suppress it to prevent a scandal. It backfired badly. In fact, the administrators’ actions exemplified Nelson’s argument that society did not want to confront the topic of sex.

It is difficult to determine if this one incident was the catalyst for the changes to come, but it is certain that the college was not the same. By the following year, women with a valid marriage license were able to receive contraceptives through the Health Center. In the fall of 1965, President McPhee announced that job duties of the administrators would be reviewed and reassigned. On August 19, 1966, legislation was passed establishing the separation between the two Cal Polys, thus cementing Cal Poly Pomona’s independence.

Elizabeth Hernandez is an Assistant Archivist for the Special Collections and Archives Department at Cal Poly Pomona. She received her MMLIS from the University of Southern California.