College of DuPage removes Kent State memorial trees
Four trees planted 40 years ago at the College of DuPage to honor students killed by National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio were recently removed.
College officials said the silver maples were dying and will be replaced. They were located next to where the college's new Homeland Security Education Center is being constructed, but college officials said Tuesday the trees' removal were not necessitated by the construction.
"Our landscaping team had found previous underground work had damaged their root structure," said Joe Moore, COD's associate vice president of external relations.
The college removed the trees three days after the 40th anniversary of the shootings that galvanized the country.
The trees were about 20 inches in diameter at the time they were cut down, Moore said. The homeland security building is the first phase of a proposed $225 million complex intended to make COD a public safety training hub.
Moore said COD President Robert Breuder met with three art faculty members to discuss using the trees to create a more permanent memorial. Moore added the college has committed $10,000 to pay for the creation of a new memorial and will match up to $5,000 more as well as plant four new trees to memorialize the May 4, 1970 tragedy.
The trees were planted on the western edge of the college's Glen Ellyn campus by COD faculty members following the shooting deaths of four unarmed Kent State students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The Ohio National Guard also wounded nine others after being called in to quell the campus unrest by then-Gov. James Rhodes, according to the university's website. More than 60 bullets were fired in a 13-second period. Kent State students Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Williams Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer were slain.
Plans for the permanent Kent State memorial at COD are in the "initial planning stages," said art professor Chuck Boone.
Boone and others were asked to find an artist to create the memorial that will use the wood from the silver maples. They will also help decide where the new memorial will be displayed. Boone said this is the first time the college has commissioned a sculpture or art piece with requirements on what material is to be used. Creation of the memorial is expected to begin in the fall.
Boone said the memorial itself will be a teaching tool.
"It's important to remember what happened at Kent State, not just the four people's lives that were lost, but what brought us to that shooting," he said. "That shooting was based partly on fear of dissent and that's something we need to teach to."