Created in the 1960s during the Vietnam War, the Student Senate was the product of one of many student demands for increased decision-making power within the College. To say that Oberlin’s Student Senate was active in this period would be an understatement; it was a participatory democracy where different student groups organized and presented their own demands working to change the school from within. In 1967, they drafted a letter to President Lyndon Johnson opposing the escalation of bombing in Vietnam. In 1972, a school-wide referendum was held with 1,046 students, or 55 percent of the student body, voting in favor of a two-day moratorium on classes, and using that time to facilitate community action against the Vietnam War. In all, they demanded that the College allow students to determine social rules rather than faculty or administration members, and refused to entertain the meager compromises offered by the College.