Freshman Year 1971-72
September // October & November // December // January // February // March & April // May // June
SEPTEMBER 1971
Firsts
First female freshmen, largest cohort of freshman students of color
Woman Trustee Named: Gail Haslett, 29-year-old biochemist
Alumni invited to come back to enroll at Williams – for Winter Study.
First woman ever enrolled at the Center for Development Economics: Jada Wattansiritham, research economist from Thailand
New women’s sports teams: field hockey, basketball and lacrosse
New phys ed classes for women: gymnastics, dance and fencing
On Campus
Convocation: Theme centers on women; main speaker Patricia Roberts Harris; honorary degrees also go to Katherine Graham and Marya Mannas.
Colloquium: Women in High Education with Alice Rivlin, Gail Haslett, Lucy Behrman
Lecture and colloquium with Prof. Christopher Ricks, Visiting Professor of Literature; Granville Hicks
Facilities
Admissions Office moves to Mather House from Hopkins House.
Faculty
Chairmen named for first time for six interdepartmental programs:
Joseph E. Harris, Afro-American Studies
Frederick Rudolph, American Civilization
Paul G. Clark, Area Studies
Roger E. Bolton, Environmental Studies
Daniel D. O’Connor, History of Ideas
MacAlister Brown, Political Economy
Irwin Shainman succeeds Robert Barrow as chair, music department (Barrow chair since 1949!)
George Pistorius succeeds Anson Piper as chair, romance languages.
Sports
Bob Odell’s debut as football coach; Ephs defeat Trinity, 35-10. Conditioning program credited.
Extra, Extra!
Peter Hillman launches his Williams Record column, "Shoot the Dog."
Consequences of Growth
Enrollment 1,518; 1,400 live on campus … to move to 1,800/1,700 within five years.
Average class size increases: Over past two years, average Division I section from 16 to 19; Division II constant; Division III from 24 to 25. Enrollment in each frosh history and English section goes from 16 to 22, math and philosophy from 20 to over 30; registration in introductory languages has roughly doubled – membership in classes averages 15.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1971
Issues
War: 26-hour Protest; vigil remembers five Williams grads who died in Vietnam.
Eco: Newspaper recycling begins via Williams Environmental Coalition + B&G.
LGBTQ: “Oh, by the way, I am Roy” – Williams Advocate Editor Dan Pinello comes out in article in first public discussion of homosexuality at Williams.
Racism: Not sure when, but someone tossed three cherry bombs into Lezli Hope White’s Sage quad room. “I never left my window wide open again,” she said.
Local Controversies
Whether students can register to vote in Williamstown. Law requires six months continuous residency.
Design for new Williams Treadway Inn
On Campus
Jane Goodall
Indian classical music concert, to benefit UNESCO for relief work among East Bengal refugees
Dance residency by Ann Halprin/San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop
Theater/Performing Arts
Freshman Revue: My Piece of the Pie (co-written by future film auteur John Sayles ‘72)
Gosh Golly
Mickey Mouse appears on Lasell Gymnasium clock
Theater/Performing Arts:
Choral Society trip to Carnegie Hall and Detroit, performing Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, then a performance in Chapin Hall, November 2
Collateral damage: Donald Haas, first horn player for Detroit Symphony Orchestra, becomes first major symphony player to conduct the Williams Marching, Scrambling, Walking, Sitting, Military, Meandering Moo-Cow and Concert Band.
Clubs/Committees
WMPIRG petitions unsuccessfully to fund itself by adding a $2 fee to each student’s term bill. Fee refundable on request. (Petitioning renewed in March 1972)
On Campus
Panel discussion with members of New York Gay Activists Alliance
Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
Pink Floyd
Sports
Little Three football crown returns to Williamstown: Ephs beat Amherst 31-14; Ephs football (7-1) in sixth place for the Lambert Cup, ahead of Amherst and Wesleyan.
DECEMBER 1971
On Campus
Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton
Theater/Performing Arts
World premiere of sizzle – a musical by William Finn and Charles J. Rubin, with cast including Susan Read, Tom Lockhart, Andrea Axelrod (as a singing Ethel Rosenberg)
Faculty
Votes to exclude students from faculty meetings but offer greater advance information
Sports
Football Coach O’Dell voted Kodak District 1 Coach of the Year
JANUARY 1972
Winter Study
Free University begins, offering such courses as Conversational Italian, Life Drawing, Bread Baking
FEBRUARY 1972
Extra, Extra!
Merger of Williams Record and Williams Advocate into the Williams RecordAdvocate (ReAd)
Winter Carnival
The Persuasions perform; faculty wins Williams’ Ice Follies (traditional Winter Carnival broomball game)
On Campus
Allard Lowenstein, head of “Dump Johnson” movement
Faculty
Charles Fuqua, classics, and Larry Graver, English, promoted to full professor
Tenure given to: Peter Berek, English; William DeWitt, bio; Peter K. Frost, history; Victor E. Hill, mathematics; William Moomaw, chem; Norman Peterson, religion; James Skinner, chem; John Stambaugh, classics, and Rheinhard Wobus, geology
Protest
Williams Afro-American Society occupies Snack Bar for nearly 2.5 hours “to expose the overt racial abuses aimed at black students and the organizational inadequacies of the College Snack Bar.”
Sports
JV Basketball team, led by Harry Sheehy, Fred Dittman, Mike Rosten and Joe LaPaglia, wins Little Three Championship with 20-point victory over Amherst, with help from teammates Regan Miller, Kip Cleaver, Dave Fainer, Eric Pookrum, Walter Clark, Sam Bronfman, Bob Samuelson.
MARCH/APRIL1972
Protest
Group calls for strike or moratorium on classes to protest escalation of the war (and bombing) in Southeast Asia
On Campus
Prof. Telford Taylor (war crimes)
Under Secretary of State Joseph Sisco (Mideast policy)
Theater/Performing Arts
Allan Ruchman and Laurie Michaels in Bruce Jay Friedman’s Steambath, directed by John Sayles
Pinter’s The Room, including Peter Mertz, Helen Kelly, Tony Brown
Ephlats at Chapin
Extra, Extra!
First "Tommy Tangello" cartoon by David Rollert appears in ReAd.
Sports
24-hour track marathon: 200 miles collectively run by Peter Farwell, Tom Cleaver, Scott Lutrey, Pete Hyde, Paul Skudder, Mark Sisson, Bruce James, Chris Potter, Stan Fri, Mike McGarr
Mike Reed and Peter Mertz lead cindermen.
MAY 1972
Faculty
Nine of the 27 new staff members for next year will be women, including Lynda Bundtzen.
Sports
Dick Farley appointed head track and assistant football coach
Mike Reed sets record of 55.5 seconds in 440-yard hurdles.
JUNE 4, 1972
Class of ’72 graduates 352 seniors.
Honorary degrees go to the historian Barbara Tuchman, the commencement speaker; Stephen Sondheim ’50; architect Ulrich Franzen ’42; child development specialist Mamie Phipps Clark; Episcopal Bishop Morris Arnold ’36; cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock; secretary to the Smithsonian Institution Sidney Ripley and Clark Art Institute trustee Eugene Goodwillie