University of Massachusetts, Amherst The Alumnus Volume IV, Number 4 October/November 1973 : In this issue Tiie Alumnus On Campus page 1 October/November 1973 Let 'em eat cake page 10 Volume IV, Number 4 A Joe Btsflk Cloud page 16 Katie S. Gillmor, Editor Battle between Church and State page 18 Rosemary Haley, Editorial Assistant Fish or cut bait page 20 William Halainen '69, Contributor International intrigue page 20 Richard Hendel, Design Consultant . The Classes Report page 22 Photographs courtesy of I Opportunity page 24 the University Photo Center. Living in Petrified Meringue page 27 Published five times a year: Notes &; Notices page 28 February/March, April/May, June/July, Readers' Forum page 31 October/November and December/January by the Office of Public Affairs, University of Massachusetts. Editorial offices maintained in Memorial Hall, Credits University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Bill Halainen, pages 2, 6, 8 & 27 Massachusetts 01002. D. John McCarthy, pages 5 & 17 Second class postage paid at Amherst, Mass. Richard Hendel, pages 10-15 01002 and at additional mailing offices. Marc Navon, pages 18 & 19 Winner of the 1971 Time/Life Achieve- Norman Goldberg, page 24 ment Award for Improvement in Magazine Publishing, the 1972 Atlantic Award for Excellence in Writing, and named in 1972 one of the "Top Ten" alumni magazines Associate Alumni Officers by the American Alumni Council. Lois E. Toko '56, President; John Parnell '66, Internal Vice-President; Ruth Kirk Moriarty Postmaster, please forward Form 3579 '57, External Vice-President; Lillian Moldaw for undelivered mail to Davis '51, Secretary; and Robert Fitzpatrick The Alumnus Hall '43, Treasurer. Memorial University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 Where are you going? What are you doing? What are you thinking? Please keep in touch. We print all the class notes we receive and many letters to the edi- tor. We must, however, reserve the right to shorten or edit information for publication whenever necessary. Please send address changes and other correspondence to Ms. Katiil Gillmor, Editor, The Alumnus, Memorial Hall,i University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01002. Please note that The Alumnus is six to eight weeks in production. We will publish mate- rial at the earliest opportunity. — Notre Dame, the University of Pennsyl- vania, Pomona College and Swarthmore On Campus College. The Brown Alumni Monthly won the Robert Sibley Award as the most dis- tinguished alumni magazine of the year. iA^e did it again A frisbee for your thoughts rhe magazine was deluged with honors this Sharpen your pencils and your wits. One 'ear at the annual American Alumni Coun- of the greatest contests of the century il publications competition. For the second renaming this magazine—is about to com- 'ear in a row The Alumnus was named one mence. First prize : a personalized frisbee. if the Top Ten alumni magazines in the "The Alumnus" has stood us in good ountry and it walked off with more cita- stead, but many readers have suggested that ions than any other publication. a change of name is in order. It is old fash- In the Atlantic Magazine Award for ex- ioned, they say, and sexist, and generally ellence in writing, which went to The uninspiring. Of course, inspiration must Uumnus last year, UMass joined Brown, come from within (both the magazine and !!ornell, the University of Pennsylvania and the reader), and a more graceful and appro- 'omona College in winning citations, while priate moniker may not surface. In that le Harvard Bulletin got first prize, the case, the personalized frisbee will find a teuben Glass Star. The Newsweek Award noncompetitive but worthy home. Dr excellence in publishing content relating Entries will be judged by The Alumnus 3 public affairs and public issues went to Advisory Committee and the Associate Jotre Dame, with UMass the winner in Alumni Board of Directors and should be .egion I. An award for "superior reporting sent c/o The Alumnus, Memorial Hall, Uni- f the institutional issues and internal prob- versity of Massachusetts, Amherst 01002. ms of higher education" given by the 'hronicle of Higher Education was won by ' !ornell; UMass, Brown and Swarthmore irned citations. The Effluent Society The judges also gave special citations )r things "just too good to pass un- by Two award winners were the April/ May The problem began in June of 1970 when marked," and the "Aftermath" series 1973 cover, designed by Roger Roche, and the Western Regional Office of the State Titten by Don Glickstein '73 and Katie the gymnastics photograph, by Gib Fuller- Division of Water Pollution Control lillmor in the April/May 1973 issue of The ton, Russell Mariz and D. John McCarthy. (DWPC) received a complaint about a sew- lumnus came under this category. The age overflow near Amherst College. Through )ver of that issue, designed by Roger lack of planning, inaction, misinformation, oche of the University's publications of- and the perversity of human nature, the ce, was as chosen one of the best covers, problem has since escalated to a total ban [id the cover photograph from February/ on all sewage tie-ins to Amherst's primary larch 1973, a collaborative effort of Gib treatment plant until 1976. ullerton, Russell Mariz and D. John Mc- The ensuing brouhaha has involved the arthy of a woman gymnast, was chosen towns of Amherst and Hadley, the DWPC, ; a best photograph. area contractors, the Western Mass Public Sharing Top Ten honors with The Alum- Interest Research Group (WMPIRG), and us were the publications of Cornell (both several area schools, foremost of which is le alumni news and the engineering quar- the University of Massachusetts. If the ban :rly). Harvard, the University of Missouri, is strictly enforced, the University will be prohibited from using the Fine Arts Center, the new wing of the Infirmary, and several other buildings that are under construction or ready to start. Though the sewage problem didn't come to a head until 1970, there had been in- creasing pressure on the system for some time. Peak flows began to approach plant capacity during the 1960s, when both the town and the University underwent a pe- riod of rapid growth. By 1967 a report in- dicated that the University was frequently exceeding its percentage of plant capacity. Plant sewage was overflowing into the Mill River and Hadley's Lake Warner. The University was not blind to this. "In the mid-60s there was awareness of the pressure being put on the town," says Jack Littlefield, director of the UMass plan- ning office, "but there was also pressure being put on the University. We were un- dergoing massive growth in response to statewide demand." The University, he says, was willing to cooperate with Am- herst but felt it could not dictate pohcy to the town. The DWPC officially noticed the problem in the summer of 1970, although Mark Cummings, a research assistant for WM- PIRG, says that "both the DWPC and the town knew about the Amherst College overflow for several years." (WMPIRG is a student-financed, Nader's-Raiders-style group which contends that both the town and the University were negligent in plan- ning for new sewage facilities.) investigation of the campus' contribution to said that the large-scale developments being In December the DWPC notified Am- the problem. George Norton, Director of built in that area would further tax the sta- herst that it would have to upgrade its the Physical Plant, replied that Whitman tion, and that the Division would not ap- sewage treatment facilities to include a sec- and Howard, an engineering company, was prove any sewage permits for them. ondary treatment plant (about 60% more looking into the problem and would report When the Haley and Ward report was effective than a primary plant). The re- to him in December. released, therefore, the town had three ma- quired completion date was to be in March In accordance with an implementation jor overflows to deal with: those from the 1974. schedule supplied by the DWPC, Amherst pumping station, the treatment plant, and By February 1971 the overflows had be- also hired an engineering firm, Haley and the main behind Amherst College. Though come so serious that the University Health Ward, to analyze its problem and pro- the DWPC approved Haley and Ward's Council met with officials of Amherst and pose a new system. Shortly before they an- proposed treatment system, some towns- Hadley to discuss the problem. The Council, nounced their findings in September 1971, people felt that it was inadequate. At a town chaired by Dr. Robert Gage (now Vice Thomas McMahon, director of the DWPC, meeting in October 1971, a Technical Ad- Chancellor for Student Affairs, then head imposed a ban on new sewer connections in visory Committee (TAC), comprised of pro- of the University Health Services), recom- eastern Amherst because of the excessive fessors and engineers with technical knowl- mended that the University undertake an overflows at the pumping station there. He edge of modern solid waste disposal : systems, was established to review the Some residents were wary of such a strict interpretation of the order meant that plans. move, fearing that the town wouldn't be as the Fine Arts Center (and possibly the Li- TAC finally decided to reject the plans strict in enforcing the ban as the DWPC. brary) could not be opened. as "obsolete and wasteful." According to "In the eyes of WMPIRG," says Cummings, A week after the announcement, UMass the Amherst Record: "What interested "this would have been a virtual 'all systems made an official statement regarding them was the possibility of combining sew- go' for the developers." the new ban.