Ellamae Calvert founded the Student Peace Center in Madison, Wisconsin in 1955, modeling it after one established at the University of California. The constitution of the Student Peace Center in Madison defined its central purpose as “helping create the conditions under which peace can exist. We want to educate for peace, and we want to provide a channel through which people who have a peace concern can give useful, concrete expression to it on campus.” The eight original members held monthly meetings to view films and hold discussions, but in 1957 the program was expanded to include a protest march against compulsory military training of male students and to hold the first annual Anti-Military Ball. In 1959 the center also became involved in agitation against the draft. Its sporadic activity ceased when the Madison Committee to End the War in Vietnam assumed most of the functions of the Student Peace Center.
