Junior Year 1973-74
SEPTEMBER 1973
Facilities
Construction begins on $5 MM project to build future John E. Sawyer Library in space between Chapin and Stetson Hall.
Thompson Memorial Chapel tower damaged by a lightning strike.
Bryant House votes to admit coeds; Carter House remains lone all-male residence.
Williamstown grants college license to sell wine and beer to students in soon-to-be-opened “college pub” (aka “The Log”) in former Alumni House on Spring Street.
On Campus
King Crimson and the James Cotton Blues Band featured in poorly attended Chapin Hall concert.
Film critic John Simon speaks to capacity crowd at Bronfman.
Sports
Cross country: Typo in caption below—it's our Mark Sisson.
OCTOBER 1973
Faculty/Administration
John Chandler inducted as 12th president of Williams College.
Read his induction speech here
Politics/Protest
First meeting of Students for the Impeachment of President Nixon held following Nixon’s firing of Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Nixon’s acceptance of Attorney General Elliot Richardson’s resignation. Group organizes panel discussion including Profs. Vincent Barnett (poli sci), Terry Perlin (history), Jonathan Aaron (English) and Randy Bartlett (econ).
Clubs and committees
Debates continue over whether WMPIRG should receive college funding.
On campus
Dave Mason Band plays at Chapin.
Sports
Women’s tennis and field hockey teams conclude winning seasons with shutouts in their final events.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1973
Politics/Protest
Watergate and the Mood of the American People symposium; panelists include George Gallup, Burns Roper, James MacGregor Burns.
Center for Environmental Studies holds its second annual autumn symposium: Environmental Legislation and Its Effect on Local Affairs.
Father Philip Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth McAlister speak about peace movement .
On Campus
Nikolais Dance Theatre Company in weeklong residency
New Riders of the Purple Sage and John Herald and the Honkies perform at Chapin (with ensuing disruption, threatening future “rock” concerts).
Baba Ram Dass (formerly Dr. Richard Alpert)
Poet Joseph Brodsky
Performing Arts
Williams Choral Society performs Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with guest soloists and 85-piece symphony orchestra.
Tune in
15th Semi-Annual Trivia Contest broadcast on WMS-WCFM from midnight to 8 am, Saturday, December 8, 1973.
Facilities
The Log opens for business on Spring Street, offering food, wine and five types of beer.
Due to nationwide fuel shortage, a lone Christmas tree is strung with lights in front of the Thompson Memorial Chapel. All residential buildings close over holiday break to conserve fuel.
Sports
Williams women’s swim team, having only five members and therefore not able to enter all the events, nevertheless comes in second among five colleges in invitational swimming and diving meet at Middlebury.
Williams football beats Amherst (previously undefeated for the season) for Little Three title, 30-14. (Half-time event marked the Purple Moo Cow Band’s final march under the leadership of Rich Levy ’74.)
Newly appointed varsity men’s basketball coach Curt Tong replaces retired coach Al Shaw. In season opener against Albany, Williams wins 74-71, led by Harry Sheehy (28 points) and Fred Dittman.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1974
Faculty/Administration
Professor of Economics Stephen R. Lewis Jr. replaces Joseph A. Kershaw as provost.
Professor of Theater Jean-Bernard Bucky selects AMT’s new director.
Facilities
A Women’s Center—two rooms upstairs in the Center for Environmental Studies at Park Hall—opens; founders envision space being used as a library/study area/room for discussions focusing on concerns of women on campus.
Coffeehouse
Coffeehouse entertainers include Leon Redbone and Paul Geremia, as well as local campus talent.
Tune in
WCFM, broadcasting from the basement of Baxter Hall, begins an 11 pm nightly news program covering international, national, regional and local news, plus sports and weather.
Theater/Performing Arts
Black Student Union presents Black Movements on the Move: A Divided People Together at the AMT, featuring BSU dance troupe, a cappella singers and a gospel choir under the direction of Delbert Wigfall.
Wedding Bells: Stravinsky’s theatrical cantata Les Noces presented at the AMT in collaborative venture including several college departments, the Williams College Dance Society, Williams College Choral Society, students, professors, Williamstown residents and guest soloists. At a supplementary session, musical and choreographic demonstrations were followed by critic Roger Shattuck discussing the source of the ballet and the composer.
Cap & Bells presents Cole Porter’s Anything Goes in 10 sold-out performances.
"Tom Lockhart plays the male lead role of Billy Crocker with ‘craggy agility’ (“when he starts to tap-dance, the whole stage is super-charged with movement and energy”). Andrea Axelrod plays Bonnie Latour, an air-headed New York doll, expanding the stereotypic role ‘with some fine comical work, especially in 'Let’s Step Out' and 'The Heaven Hop' (in which Lisa Berkley was one of the angels who tapped in toe shoes). [Andrea center in photo below]. The originally selected musical, Showboat, was dropped due to opposition by several members of the Williams College black community. "
Sports
Due to energy crisis, planned ‘away’ hockey games in Maine postponed, replaced with local competitors.
Small but mighty Williams women’s swim team ends season with fourth place finish (out of 20 teams) at Wellesley College Invitational Relay Meet.
MARCH/APRIL1974
Faculty
Campus community is shaken by the unexpected death of Professor of English Charles Thomas Samuels, age 38 (photo). Highly esteemed for teaching courses in American literature and cinema, Samuels had recently been promoted to full professor, effective July 1.
Clubs/Committees
College Council advocates for inclusion of student input on tenure decisions. Debate continues about whether students might be members of and have voting rights on the CAP, Committee on Appointments and Promotions.
After some “irregularities” in the election process, Steve Phillips takes over as president of the College Council.
Issues
Controversy swirls over Teenage Fantasies, one of several pornographic films scheduled for public viewing, having been limited to those enrolled in Prof. Michael Frank’s Winter Study course.
Committee on the Campus Environment organizes its third annual Earth Week, with speakers, discussions and activities such as a solar energy workshop, bike maintenance workshop and cycling tour.
Politics/Protest
The Northern Berkshire Community for Non-Violent Alternatives sponsors weeklong series of speakers, discussions and activities on the continuing warfare in Indochina. A 24-hour vigil is staged in front of Hopkins Hall, centered around a life-sized tiger cage identical to those currently in use in Vietnamese prisons.
Facilities
Chris Alberti, chair of Ad Hoc Committee on Housing Policy, and Dean Cris Roosenraad meet with students to discuss single-sex vs. co-ed housing options. Some Carter House residents unhappy over proposed elimination of all-male housing.
Gosh Golly!
The streaking craze finally arrives at the Williams campus with three sightings in a single week, mid-March 1974 (when the mean temperature was probably about 36 degrees).
New phys ed class offerings include rock climbing and trail maintenance.
Spring Weekend
Dixieland Carnival (event organizers Dick Hawes and Barbara Allen) includes a males-impersonating-females beauty contest, pie eating, climbing a greased flagpole, and corralling a greased pig. Evening musical events feature Maggie Bell, and the James Montgomery Blues Band.
On Campus
Twyla Tharp Dance Company
Italian guitarist Oscar Ghiglia
Timothy Crouse, author of The Boys on the Bus: Riding with the Campaign Press Corps
Ralph Nader speaks for over two hours to a full house at Chapin, blasting the oil industry, the Nixon administration and citizen apathy. Some of us never ate a hot dog again after hearing Nader talk about their manufacture.
Theater/Performing Arts
The Williams Jazz Ensemble, led by Tom Piazza ‘74, plays to a packed Coffeehouse crowd after a year’s hiatus.
Cap & Bells presents Stephen Sondheim’s (Williams ’50) Company at the AMT, only four years after its Broadway premiere. Cast featured ‘75ers Andrea Axelrod, Tony Brown, Patty Brown Glenn, Chris Wolfe and Polly Wood. Jeff Johnson ’74 directed, Prof. Irwin Shainman conducted the orchestra. The cast had to deal with the shocking, untimely death of costume designer Sarah Doane over Spring Break.
The Ephlats present spring concert along with Princeton's Tigertones and Tigerlilies, Dartmouth's Aires and Wheaton's Whims.
Sports
Women’s squash team, coached by Don Cooke, posts 4-1 record in its inaugural season.
Basketball team sets a school scoring record with 120-87 win over Clark University at Lasell Gym (prior record 114 in 1965-1966 season). Harry Sheehy named to the E.C.A.C. Division II All-East basketball team, having set a Williams record, averaging 22.3 points per game for a total of 445 points for the season.
New world indoor record set by 10 distance runners in the third annual Williams Road Runners Club 24-Hour Relay, racking up 278 miles, 573 yards with an overall average time of 5:10.4 per mile. ’75ers on squad include veterans Mark Sisson, Pete Hyde, Scott Lutrey (photo), Paul Skudder.
MAY/JUNE 1974
Facilities
Projecting a $350,000 budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, Provost Stephen R. Lewis, Jr. recommends closing Griffin Hall and the top floor of Hopkins, closing the gym or field house an extra night per week, and reducing the temperature of buildings by another degree. The tripling of fuel costs, inflating costs for lighting, materials, food and many other essential supplies, is the major culprit.
The Mount Hope Farm Study Committee recommends selling two tracts of land totaling 75 acres to help finance the college’s continued use of the remaining 1000+ acre estate. Its landmark Elm Tree Mansion possesses high quality, expensive and impractical features (a central vacuum system, an Aeolian pipe organ, 10 marble fireplaces, and two bank vaults for china and silver). The estate’s English Tudor cow barn has three-foot stone walls and cost $1 million to build in the 1920s.
The former Williams Inn is renamed the Cyrus M. Dodd House. The Inn and five smaller buildings nearby are to become a new residential “house” for 117 students and one faculty member. Students previously affiliated with Bascom House will move to Dodd, as Bascom becomes a Women’s Annex to Perry House.
Politics/Protest
Approximately 60% of the student body donates funds or pledges to observe a day of fasting to benefit Oxfam-America. Monetary contributions, rebates from Food Services and an allocation from the College Council yield close to $3,500. The funds are being directed to alleviate the suffering caused by drought in countries south of the Sahara desert.
Extra! Extra!
Due to staffing and financial challenges, the formerly twice-weekly ReAd suspends publication after the May 9, 1974 issue, with only one more edition (June 9) published during the spring ’74 semester.
Appearing in the May 9, 1974 ReAd; was the ad a prank?
Sports
Track: team co-captain Mike Reed sets new College record in the high hurdles (14.5) at the New England Championships. For the first time in 11 years, the Williams team wins the Little Three title in track.
Who's (on) First: Freshman Elizabeth “Babe” Kirk breaks the gender barrier in baseball, being the first woman to play in a Williams varsity baseball game.
Women’s lacrosse: Ends its inaugural season with a 3-2 record. Team includes ’75-ers Martha Tucker, Jessie Kingston, Anne Wright.
Football: Captains named for next season—Bud Niden and Rodney Geier.
Graduation
Class of 1974 graduates: Bachelor’s degrees awarded to 369 students, including 52 women.
Master’s degrees are awarded to eight students who constitute the first class to complete a two-year graduate art history program offered by the College in collaboration with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
Master’s degrees or certificates are presented to 20 students from developing nations who completed a one-year graduate program at the Williams Center for Development Economics.
Honorary Degrees go to legal scholar Prof. Paul A. Freund, the commencement speaker; Howard University Prof. Emeritus Sterling A. Brown ’22; cultural anthropologist W. Allison Davis ’24; Williams political science Prof. Robert L. Gaudino; legal historian J. Willard Hurst ’32; John E. Lockwood ‘25, senior partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy; Barbara W. Newell, president of Wellesley College; Nikos Psacharopoulos, director of the Williamstown Theater; and Gordon B. Washburn ’28, Director Emeritus of Asia House.