Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Alumni News Archives Winter 1976 Connecticut College Alumni Magazine, Winter 1975-76 Connecticut College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/alumnews Recommended Citation Connecticut College, "Connecticut College Alumni Magazine, Winter 1975-76" (1976). Alumni News. 199. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/alumnews/199 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Alumni News by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. » "'-"'" '", \r' , ..., 1/ Do you bear us, Uncle SaID? EDITORIAL BOARD: Allen T. Carroll '73 Editor (R.F.D. 3, EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Colchester, Ct. 06415), Marion Vilbert Clark '24 Cassandra Goss Simonds '55, President / Mariana Parcells Class Notes Editor, Elizabeth Damerel Gongaware '26 Wagoner '44, First Vice-President / Mary Lee Minter Assistant Editor, Cassandra GOBS Simonds '55, Louise Goode '46, Second Vice-President / Britta Jo Schein Stevenson Andersen '41 ex officio McNemar '67, Secretary / Ann Roche Dickson '53, Treasurer Official publication of the Connecticut College Association. Directors-at-Large, Ann Crocker Wheeler '34, Sara Rowe All publication rights reserved. Contents reprinted only by Heckscher '69 Michael J. Farrar '73 / Alumni Trustees, permission of the editor. Published by the Connecticut Elizabeth J. Dutton '47, Virginia Golden Kent '35, Jane Smith College Alumni Association at Sykes Alumni Center, Moody '49 / Chairman of the Alumni Annual Giving Program. Connecticut College, New London, Conn., four times a year Lois Keating Learned '54 / Chairman of the Nominating in Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. Second-class postage paid Committee, Joann Walton Leavenworth '56/ Chairman of at New London, Conn. 06320. Application to mail at the Finance Committee, Peter M. Paris '74 / Chairman of additional entry Post Office pending. Send form 3579 to the Scholarship Committee, Virginia Golden Kent '35 / Sykes Alumni Center, Connecticut College, New London. Personnel Consultant Sarah S. Buchstane '33 / Co-Chairmen Conn. 06320. AAC member of Young Alumni Cor:-zmittee, Victoria Leonhart '75, Richard F. Cohn '75 / Executive Director, Louise Stevenson Andersen '41, ex officio Communications to any of the above may be addressed in care of the Alumni Office, Connecticut College, New London, Conn. 06320 Connecticut College Alumni Magazine VOLUME 53, NUMBER 2, WINTER 1976 The College 2 Conn today A $233,000 deficit has brought on increased William L. Churchill economy measures, including a reduction in the size of the teaching staff, yet President 5 Deficit Oakes Ames, his assistant William Churchill Leroy Knight and other College administrators remain cautiously optimistic about Connecticut's 7 Doing less for more future. 12 Protest Do you hear us, Uncle Sam? Henrietta Owens Rogers '28 In spite of the bicentennial celebration, many 16 Professors in politics citizens seem to have lost confidence in their Peggy Ford '73 government and in its ability to respond to their needs. Three alumni and a student 18 Who cares? discuss citizen activism in various forms and Liza Bissell Carroll '37 its importance in affecting governmental policy. 22 Dear Congressman Dodd: Rick Allen '76 24 Round & About 26 Alumni Council 1975 28 Jane Smyser 29 Louise Holborn 30 Recommended Reading 32 Class Notes 45 Report of the bylaws committee 1 • 7 I: I ., .,..... j:'. // -, ", • I'· • • ,• .• •. • . .... .... °0 •• • ............. -.. ~ -- Conn Today William L. Churchill Assistant to the President n 1869,so the story goes, when the Central and we were on the police beat-find much to cheer IUnion Pacific crews completed the final trans- about in the campus environment of today. continental rail link, the president ofthe railroad. This is not to imply that we have reverted to a Mr. Hill, was invited to take an inaugural ride. "Mr. Chipsian" era when students were unques- He boarded a ramshackle locomotive for the five- tioningly dutiful; when formal dinners, manda- mile jaunt over rough, hand-hewn, wooden rails. tory chapel and departmental teas were the rule. The trip was extremely bumpy and Hill was The barricades are down; the stridency and rhet- thrown off his seat several times. Suddenly, the oric modulated; the protest marches over and pitching and swaying stopped and the ride be- done. But many of the old questions still remain. came extremely quiet. "What's happened?", Hill Our students have definitely not given up mak- asked the engineer, "Everything is so smooth." ing demands on the College. Their style and tone And the engineer replied, "Why in hell shouldn't have changed but, if anything, our undergradu- it be. sir, we're off the tracks!" ates are asking the institution to be more creative, College administration these days is a lot like responsive and productive. We, as administra- that. If you don't feel the bumps, you're either off tors, are being called upon to be more account- the track or you're standing still. After my first able than ever before for our performance, not year on this campus, my observation is that the only by our students, but by those with whomwe College is still on the rails but there are plenty of have had little more than ceremonial ties in the chances to get derailed if we ignore the signals of past-our host city, the state of Connecticut and the times. the federal government, for example. Considering the upheavals in higher education The new wave of consumerism in higher edu- over the past two decades, it is no small achieve. cation is not surprising. A Connecticut College ment for a small, private college like Connecticut education today costs more than $5,000per year to be among the healthy survivors. Since 1950 and for that kind of investment our students, not college enrollments have tripled; half of the col- to mention their parents, expect a quality experi- leges and universities of today did not exist in ence. They want the best faculty, a rich cumcu- 1955. At the same time the percentage of private lum, comfortable dormitories, good food, and a institutions has declined from fifty percent of the stimulating cultural and social life. If they ob- total to twenty-five percent. The small, residen- serve waste, inefficiency or mediocrity, they are tial campus has been displaced by larger. less quick to tell us about it. personal institutions, and by far the largest num- The most extreme case of educational consum- ber of college students in the United States are erism I've heard about was not on this campus, attending institutions with enrollments over but at the University of Bridgeport where a 10,000. woman has sued for a tuition refund on tbe Set against this background, perhaps the style grounds she learned nothing in an education and character of Conn have not changed as much course she took last spring. This is hardly a case as many alumni seem to believe. Certainly those of SOurgrapes because she received an "A" in the of us who were involved in higher education in course. The suit is still in the courts, but it serves the late '60's-when there were days that felt like to illustrate the high expectations of the incom- 2 \ ing generation of students. Coeducation, while an unqualified success, has The movement undoubtedly owes some of its brought some unexpected pressures. Time was strength to students' anxieties about future em- when this campus was deserted on weekends as ployment and to the tension created by growing the women packed their bags and trekked off to tuition costs in a time of inflation. While these Yale, Wesleyan, Dartmouth and other former forces place new demands on the College, we male bastions. Now students tend to stay on cam- cannot retreat from questions about our educa- pus and they naturally want more social and tional purposes and how we go about achieving recreational outlets. We think this homing in- stinct has some important educational overtones. them. Happily, to this point our students have stayed At the same time we are hard pressed to add sig- out of the courts, preferring to use the more con- ..... \,.,. - ..•... ,-/./ . _ •••. rtll"""_ ·· structive channels of campus governance. At the ---.......-.~ ....... ..- height of the protests we urged students to "work -~ . -~--- within the system." And they are doing it. .--: / -; . itness a recent nine-page report pre- W sented to the Board of Trustees by a stu- dent committee that worked seven months to , ....···0/,J~\\~· draw up recommendations to help the College in its planning. The document contained specific "Our students have definitely suggestions in a host of areas: academics, physi- not given up making demands cal education, admissions, facilities, dining, security, tuition and the quality of student life. It on the College." might be useful to summarize some of their con- nificantly to student activities without raising the cerns and proposed solutions: Academics: More curricular flexibility and price of admission. Some casual observers of the national campus interdepartmental teaching; minim urn course scene have been heartened by the return of some enrollments to keep costs down; maximum class traditional student pleasures. Beer is "in". We sizes to encourage discussion and interaction; a even have it on tap nightly in Crozier-Williams. longer semester to reduce exam stress; better Proms, cocktail parties, and intercollegiate definition of the educational focus and mission of sports displace the drug culture and demonstra- the College. tions. Given the prevailing economic conditions Physical Education: Intercollegiate sports to and poor job market, it would be easy to envision remain at present levels; more intramural and a new hedonism on our campuses; for college to club sports; construction of a skating rink.