The Midpeninsula Free University (MFU) was one of the largest and most successful of the many free universities that sprang up on and around college campuses in the mid-1960s in the wake of the Free Speech Movement at University of California, Berkeley and the nationwide anti-war Teach-ins which followed.Draves, The Free University, Chapter 5 Like other free universities, it featured an open curriculum—anyone who paid the nominal membership fee ($10) could offer a course in anything—marxism, pacifism, candle making, computers, encounter, dance, or literature.

Courses were publicized in illustrated catalogs, issued quarterly and widely distributed. See for example, Spring 1969 MFU Catalog It had no campus; classes were taught in homes and storefronts. Its magazine-style illustrated newsletter, The Free You, published articles, features, fiction, poetry, and reviews contributed by both members and nonmembers. The MFU sponsored, Be-Ins, street concerts, a restaurant, a store, and was actively involved in every aspect of the flourishing counterculture on the Midpeninsula, including the anti-war movement at Stanford University.

Aims and goals

Its original Preamble focused on the criticism of education found in SDS's Port Huron Statement.SDS Regional Newsletter, Mar. 8, 1966, Vol. 1, no. 8 Winter 1966 MFU Catalog Later, as its courses and interests expanded to include the full range of 1960s counterculture—especially the burgeoning human potential movement—the MFU adopted a revised Preamble reflecting a more expansive visionWinter 1968 MFU Catalog, p. 2—a document which one commentator characterized as "a compelling and almost classical manifesto" of the aspirations of 1960s counterculture.Knight, Street of Dreams, pp. 128-129

In so far as the MFU had a concrete political philosophy, it was the belief that the counterculture harbored the potential for a new politics—open, more humane, and more creative—one that could lead to a true community and a better society. Eventually, the MFU came to focus on the encounter group and the psychodrama as the primary vehicle for that transformation. See for example, Fall 1968 MFU Catalog, p. 3, 5-8]

Enrollment, curriculum and governance

In its most active and successful years—1968-1969—enrollment varied between 1,000 and 1,275.and scroll down to Index Topic: How big was it? Between 150 and 300 courses were offered each quarter, covering a variety of categories: Encounter/Sensitivity (26%), Arts (15%), Philosophy & Religion (13%), Crafts (12%), Politics & Economics (12%), Leisure (10%), Whole Earth Studies (8%), Education (4%). and scroll down to Image Topic: "What was taught?" Due to the nature of the courses, classifications and percentages are necessarily approximate It was known for its intriguing and disparate mix of classes.Knight, Street of Dreams, pp. 130-132 ; Winter 1968 MFU Catalog, pp. 14-15; Spring 1968 MFU Catalog, pp. 14-15; Power, "Midpeninsula: The Jivy League", The Nation, 1969-04-14

The MFU strove for full participatory democracy. All significant decisions were made by the membership, either at monthly membership meetings or weekly Coordinating Committee meetings open to any member who wished to participate and presided over by an elected Coordinator.and scroll down to Link 10: Fall 1968 Catalog, pages 3, 5-8

Community and political involvement

The MFU brought together in classes and at meetings the diverse, overlapping and sometimes divergent, strains of the local counterculture—artists, crafts-people, writers, leftists, pacifists, dissatisfied liberals, disaffected street-people, environmentalists, people involved or interested in mysticism, computers, encounter, drugs, rock music and sexual freedom.and scroll down to Index Topic: The Free U Community It also supported, publicized, and collaborated with other countercultural organizations on the Midpeninsula and throughout the Bay Area.and scroll down to Link 11

The character of the MFU was defined as much by the concrete struggles and controversies it confronted as by its declared aims and goals. There was, first of all, its unsuccessful quest for a much-needed community center.and scroll down to Index Topic: The Community Center That led to a peaceful demonstration and a series of street concerts featuring local rock bands.and scroll down to Links 35 & 36 Not long after, the MFU was denied the right to hold one of its regular be-ins at a city park. It further antagonized the already hostile city fathers and the conservative Palo Alto Times by going to court, having Palo Alto's park ordinance declared unconstitutional, and holding its Be-In as scheduled.and scroll down to Index Topic: Celebrations and Be-Ins All of this occurred as opposition to Stanford's involvement in war-related research was crystallizing.and scroll down to Index Topic: The Anti-War Movement MFU members participated in the protests and sit-ins which ultimately—after injunctions, mass arrests and trials—resulted in Stanford divesting itself of the Stanford Research Institute and eliminating ROTC.and scroll down to Link 51 While all that was happening, the MFU—along with Kepler's Books, the local Kennedy Action Corps headquarters, the Resistance, and the home of a Palo Alto Councilmember who supported gun control—became the target of a series of firebombings, conducted by a right-wing group calling themselves the Society of Man.and scroll down to Index Topic: The Bombings

The Free You newsletter

Besides the usual announcements and in-house news, The Free You published stories, poems, essays, humor, reviews, travel pieces, re-prints, commentary, and even recipes. The text was accompanied by photographs, illustrations and artwork, often in color, in a magazine-like format,and scroll down to Index Topic: The Free You Newsletter utilizing the recently developed IBM Selectric Composer. Like the catalogs, which used the same technology, it was widely distributed.

Its editorial policy was, like the MFU's classes, wide-open. Any member of the community could submit an article, story, poem or other piece of work and it would be published with minimum editing by the staff.and scroll down to Index Topic: The Free You Newsletter for links to art, photographs, poems, stories, and humor It also published original work by well-known writers and poetsNelson & McClanahan (eds.) One Lord, One Faith, One Cornbread. And see,—Ken Kesey, Wendell Berry, Robert Stone, Thom Gunn, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman.

Decline and demise

By late 1969, the political and life-style tensions latent in the counterculture had emerged,and scroll down to Index Topic: Tensions Within and Without; See, in particular, Links 90 & 91 and the leadership of the MFU—weary and frustrated in their attempts to realize its aims and aspirations—looked for a new generation of leaders and another path.and scroll down to Links 96 & 97 That new leadership came from a group of members affiliated with the Revolutionary Union, a Marxist–Leninist-Maoist organization, which later became Venceremos. In 1970, it took control of the MFU, repudiated its preamble and re-organized its newsletter.and scroll down to Link 98 Enrollment fell to 700 in 1970 and to 70 by 1971; in July the MFU was disbanded.and scroll down to Index Topic: Epilogue

People

Course leaders came primarily from the community. Some were well known and some were prominent visitors: Paul Goodman was the principal speaker at an early organizational meeting; Herbert Marcuse taught a seminar; Joan Baez lectured on non-violence; Norman O. Brown, Stewart Brand, Richard Alpert (later, Ram Dass), Alexander Lowen, Robert Hass, and David Harris all taught classes at one time or another.Scroll down to Index Topic: What Was Taught, and see final paragraph of that topic.

While the MFU model was egalitarian, much of its success was due to a core group of leaders and a dedicated staff, all of whom taught classes and most of whom held elected positions, such as: Robb Crist, Vic Lovell, Robert Cullenbine, Kim Woodard, Larry Tesler, Marc Porat, Jim Warren, John McCarthy,Tessler, Porat, Warren, and McCarthy, along with Bob Albrecht (who taught classes), became significant figures in the later Silicon Valley computer culture; that culture, along with the MFU's contribution, is the subject of Markoff, What the Dormouse Said, Chapter 4. Graham and Rene Lewis, Tom Reidy, Roy Kepler,Doyle, Radical Chapters: Roy Kepler Kathy Kirby, Tom Crystal, Gail Teel, Grace Olsen, Mark Jensen, Docey Baldwin, Dorothy Bender, and Jim Wolpman.and scroll down to the list of "People Whom We'd Never Do Without" under the Index Topic: The Free U Community.

The Free You newsletter was first edited by Jim Warren and later by Fred Nelson, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman, and Jon Buckley.and scroll down to Index Topic: The Free You Newsletter Bob Palmer was its master printer; Nina Wolf, Joan Larimore, Emil Pierre, Lee Reeves, and Phil Trounstine were responsible for most of its graphics and much of its photography.and scroll down to the list of "People Whom We'd Never Do Without" under the Index Topic: The Free U Community.

FBI surveillance

From 1968 through 1971, the FBI—as a part of its nationwide COINTELPRO operation directed at dissident political organizations—conducted extensive surveillance of the MFU and many of its leaders.and scroll down to Index Topic: The FBI and the MFU The available FBI file runs about 200 pages, with numerous redactions. Informants were utilized. Individual names were noted, and a number of members were included or considered for inclusion in the FBI's "Security Index" of persons to be detained without a warrant should a crisis occur.and scroll down to the Appendix: Selected Documents from FBI File OnMFU

See also Free University of New York Antiuniversity of London

Notes

References

[Biography of the radical pacifist who helped start the MFU. Several chapters on his MFU classes and experiences.] [Balanced survey of free university movement, locates the MFU historically and politically in the overall scheme; see Chapter 5.] [Former President of Duke University comments on MFU and its classes.] [Description of role the MFU and its members played in shaping the Silicon Valley computer culture. See Chapter 4] Nelson, Fred & McClanahan, Ed, (eds.) [Collection of writing from The Free You.]

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MFU in particular appeared in Time, Newsweek, New Your Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and Palo Alto Times; for example, p. E9; WSJ, 1968-04-25, p. 1; PA Times, 1968-09-31.