<P> The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre) were the shootings on May 4, 1970, of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces . Twenty - eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis . </P> <P> Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the Cambodian Campaign, which President Richard Nixon announced during a television address on April 30 of that year . Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance . </P> <P> There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students, and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War . </P> <P> Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States in 1968, promising to end the Vietnam War . In November 1969, the My Lai Massacre by American troops of between 347 and 504 civilians in a Vietnamese village was exposed, leading to increased public opposition in the United States to the war . The nature of the draft also changed in December 1969, with the first draft lottery since World War II . This eliminated deferments allowed in the prior draft process, affecting many college students and teachers . </P>

What did colleges and universities across america do after kent state