The Many Voices of Peace Studies: Celebrating 50 Years

Jerry Smith

Jerry Smith, who is a retired photojournalist, was the first and only student to graduate from the Peace Studies program in 1975. In fact, that was his most important contribution to the program.

At the time, he and others – such as John Schuder (then professor of engineering), Donald Granberg (then professor of sociology), Jerry Rosser (then director of the Missouri Peace Studies Institute), David Lindstrom (then director of university YMCA), and Dan Viets and Paul Blackman (then active with the Student Mobilization Committee) – were heavily involved with the anti-war movement and were trying to get the Peace Studies program set up.

“Some, even though they weren’t professors at the university, were really vocal in the anti-war movement and in pushing for a Peace Studies-type program,” says Smith.

“Some had been working on it for a couple years, even before I arrived at the university in 1970, and several other people and I, mostly professors at the university, pushed for curriculum as part of an interdisciplinary program. And we finally got it pushed through.”

The Missing Link

While Peace Studies courses had been taught at the university since 1971 in a nonformal, non-program status, they got permission from the university to set up curriculum. Even so, there was still the missing link – a student majoring in Peace Studies.

“So, I said, “Well, I was supposed to graduate in 1974, but could you guys take a look at my course study and see what I would have to take to get a degree in Peace Studies?’”

Smith’s studies were basic liberal arts classes – psychology, sociology, religion, and so on.

“We all sat down and looked at the coursework that I’d done and figured out with a few more courses, I could be the first graduate.

“Everything involved in Peace Studies at that time was pretty fluid, to say the least,” Smith says. “It was pretty much by the seat of the pants getting the Peace Studies program set up, teaching classes that had to do with peaceful resolution of conflicts ….

“I was kind of our Hail Mary pass to see if it would keep the program going.”

The Little-Known Program

At the time, there were no course catalogues for Peace Studies. No pamphlets letting students know what courses were offered, or what the degree requirements were. There was, however, a brief note in the Arts and Sciences Bulletin, published July 1974, stating the new major was offered.

“It was really like you take a bunch of fruit and throw it in the blender and turn it on,” Smith recalls. “I don’t think I ever had a class with the word ‘peace’ in it. In fact, it was more an idea until the degree in ’75.

“Fortunately, Peace Studies has since been able to stay alive and is still going on to this day.”

On Smith’s degree, it says Bachelor of Arts from the University of Missouri, given May 10, 1975. But his announcement for graduation said he was given a degree in World Order Peace Studies. It was considered an interdisciplinary major that allowed you to take a variety of courses in psychology, sociology, political science, economics, religion … and then mesh that all together into a degree.

A Push for Peace

He says at the time, the campus was dominated by athletics and Greek life.

“But we had a core group of people involved in the anti-war movement” – the main push behind the peace movement.

Many people who showed up at the demonstrations commented that they were there, not for like interests, but other causes, he says:

“Once in a while we got some Greek guys marching with beer in their hands because they were hoping to hook up with some long-haired hippy chicks.”

But the core group, about 40 individuals, took Peace Studies very seriously. Smith, who was also director of the Peace Information Center at MU, helped with military counseling with funding of about $500 a year.

“We were able to give draft counseling and military counseling to students and nonstudents, alike,” he recalls. “That program had been set up before I got to campus by John Schuder, as well as the Quakers, the Friends of Columbia, and the Columbia Fellowship of Reconciliation.”

Only Logical

Smith says he and others fought so hard to have Peace Studies coursework because they believed there should be education based on peaceful resolution to world issues, as well as civic local conflicts – in college and in high schools.

“That goal wasn’t being met,” he adds. “I mean you had practically everything offered from basket weaving to whatever…. It sure seemed that in the university setting the idea of having a program that had the idea of making peace should be allowed and should be promoted by the university.”

His lasting memories are of the friendships formed.

“We were a pretty small group of people, and we worked around the clock organizing demonstrations, doing teachings. We organized ourselves into eight or nine different organizations that had extremely overlapping members, but each with a specific idea. We rarely saw new faces.”

The also interacted with Jay Magner working with Vietnam Veterans as part of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

“I was proud to work alongside them,” Smith adds. “To have someone fresh from the war who was condemning it, bought a lot of credence to the anti-war movement. They were very sincere and dedicated people.”

Let-Downs After Graduating

After graduation, Smith applied to the Peace Corps, but at the time they were only accepting applicants with degrees in agronomy and agriculture, he recalls.

“So, I got rejected from the Peace Corps because my degree was in Peace Studies and not farming. I was turned down for a job with the American Friends Service Committee, for the same reason as the Peace Corps, no agronomy degree or farming experience.”

He then found another talent – photojournalism – after publishing in national and international magazines. He worked for different publications in Latin America, writing and photographing the area’s conflicts, especially drug trafficking. He also worked for Nikon Photographic, a camera manufacturer. He is now retired.

He says with global warming, comes other “peace” problems, such as famine, social inequity, lack of water….  

“We’re going to have problems that will cause war and violence and strife, as it has already in many parts of the world – that’s something we need to address.”

He’s pleased the Peace Studies program is celebrating 50 years.

“People just kind of need to take a chill pill and learn to live with other people, and not be violent. To try to work out problems in a nonviolent way,” he says. “I think that’s the best thing that could come of any kind of program.”