The May 4 Task Force wants Kent State to fulfill a promise made in 1978 by an ex-president to remove four trees between Taylor Hall and the Gym Annex that were planted to commemorate the slain students of May 4, 1970.

One tree in particular obstructs the line-of-fire the Ohio National Guard took, which the task force says may have been the plan all along.

“It makes it look like they shot through all these trees into the parking lot, like they couldn’t see where they were shooting,” said Nora Rodriquez, co-chair of the May 4 Task Force. “They knew where they were shooting.”

She said the trees’ presence lessens the historical value of the site.

The task force is beginning the first steps of negotiating with the administration over the issue. The organization wants the university to uproot and replant the trees, rather than simply chop them down. They have no new location in mind just yet.

Heather White, Campus Environment and Operations grounds manager, said chopping down one of these trees could cost a couple hundred dollars. However, she said transplanting a tree of this size would require specialized equipment the university doesn’t have. Contracting a project like that could bolster the cost up between $5,000 and $6,000.

“I don’t know that I’d recommend transplanting these trees,” White said.

She said transplanted trees are usually rare species or are unique in some way. She doesn’t think these trees have any of those attributes.

Alan Canfora gave a brief history of the trees. Canfora is the director of the May 4 Center, an organization that works closely with the May 4 Task Force.

Canfora said ex-Kent State President Brage Golding wrote a letter in 1978 promising to remove the trees in an effort to “heal the wounds” of May 4. Golding never followed through with his promise.

“He was basically doing it for cosmetic reasons,” Canfora said, “which unfortunately many leaders do.”

The tall trees were once small saplings, planted by the university in 1971 as a “healing gesture” to commemorate the slain students, Canfora said.

White said the university doesn’t have records on trees that far back, but that the university probably did plant them. She did confirm the trees were not there in 1970.

White said the university has tried trimming the trees in an effort to avoid removing them. She wanted to see if the National Guard’s line-of-sight could be restored without removing the trees.

Canfora led the Board of Trustees on three site tours over the summer of 2009. When he explained the issue of the trees, he said President Lester Lefton and the board seemed sympathetic and interested.

Members of the task force said the university may have planted the trees to distract the public from the truth.

“I don’t think (planting the trees) was for commemorating (the slain students),” Co-Chair Rodriquez said, “but I think now it’s what they say (it was for).”

Krista Napp, the other May 4 Task Force co-chair, said she believes the university was trying to dissociate itself with the shootings, so it built the Gym Annex and planted the trees as a cover-up.

Napp said she thinks the task force will eventually have enough influence to demolish the Gym Annex as well.

“We’re hoping that (Lefton) will be more sympathetic to (the tree issue),” Napp said. “He seems to be more on our side than previous presidents.”

Contact student politics reporter Nick Glunt at [email protected].