Ohio officials and Kent State professors have nominated 17 acres on Kent State’s campus to the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of May 4, 1970.

Kent State professors who drafted the nomination, Mark Seeman (anthropology), Laura Davis (health and human services), Carole Barbato (communications) and Jerry Lewis (professor emeritus of sociology) will head to Columbus tomorrow morning for the hearing at the Ohio Historical Society.

The 17 acres include the university commons, the area below Taylor Hall, the parking lot and the practice field across from Taylor Hall. This is the site where Ohio National Guard members killed four students and wounded nine others during Vietnam War protests.

The historical society committee will hear five other nominated sites, including a portion of Logan in Hocking County.

“The nominations are not in competition of each other,” Davis said.

Tom Neumann, associate vice president of university communications and marketing; Michael Bruder, director of design and construction; 20th Century American history scholar Renee Romano, of Oberlin; State Representative Kathleen Chandler and former State Senator and Kent State alumni Leigh Herington will also attend the hearing Friday.

Seeman began thinking about the nomination three years ago, and the process of researching began about two years ago.

Kent State’s front campus near Hiltop Dr. is already declared a historical site. This area served at the original Kent Normal School campus in 1910.

Contact administration reporter Kristyn Soltis at [email protected].