Trinity Tripod Essay

Nuclear weapons and nuclear war are words that are treated with respect and feared by everyone who speaks them and more importantly feared by those who have them and those who wish to have them. In society when people fear something they want to know more about the subject so they are able to form an educated opinion and understand what they are fearing and learn about the positives and negative consequences. At Trinity College students raised the question of nuclear war, the student body in the 1980’s were clear in their writings that they did not know what to expect with the rising nuclear arms races between the United States and then the then USSR; therefore students were fearful in these rising tensions and the language that was used by

In the Trinity Tripod article that came out early on in the 1980’s on, April 13th 1982, fear was a key motivation and feeling throughout campus. On the second page of the student run newspaper the headline wrote, “Spencer(Associate Dean 82’) and Lee(philosophy professor) Attend Nuclear War Conference.”(Tripod, 2). Without hesitation, the article brings up nuclear weapons and tells readers exactly what they are going to read about which every headline does; however this headline has an impact, mentioning nuclear weapons. The article then continues on to explain what these staff members were doing at this conference. The author writes, “Attended by representatives of nearly 100 colleges and universities from around the country, the conference packed several lectures and question and answer periods regarding aspects of nuclear war ranging from arms control to the medical effects of radiation, into 2 days. Workshops held the afternoon of the second day dealt with ways in which these problems could be addressed in the classroom.”(Tripod,2). These 2 faculty members wanted to give their students the best up to date knowledge that they could about the nuclear arms races; they understood that everyone in the world and around campus was growing weary of all of the reports coming out in the news

In March of 1984 during events like the presidential debates and other presidential campaign events, to help educate students Trinity College had the founder of ‘Ground Zero’ come speak at campus. Ground Zero is “a non-partisan nuclear war education project, which produces materials and sponsors activities designed to educate and involve the American people on the issue of nuclear war”(Tripod, 1). This speaker's name is Dr. Roger C. Molander, he was a member of the national security staff under 2 presidents and at the time was the founder of Ground Zero. One of Walter Mondale's talking points was that Regand didn’t know how to handle nuclear weapons, and he called for a “nuclear freeze”. As there was only a few months left for people to form opinions and be able to cast their votes, Trinity hired an expert on nuclear weapons to come and speak, he was also non-partisan so his opinions could be very