I was reading through some issues of the Collegian from 1972-76 yesterday while searching for something from my past. Judging from some of the stories, looking back now the administration didn't seem to have much regard for the students.
* About 10 arrests after the famous 4/3/1974 panty raid/mass streak at North Court, when the UR cops called in the RPD's riot squad. That was a crazy night, and certainly an overreaction on UR's part. I'd forgotten about the subsequent RC student strike.
* The UR police regularly patrolled the dorms, sniffing for ditchweed or looking to bust you if you had hard liquor and weren't 21. I've heard that Dillard mellowed over the years but he was a real hard-assed jerk when I was in school.
* Dean Leftwitch was truly a man who couldn't adjust to changing times and still thought it was the 1950s. I liked Dean Matear but he didn't develop his own leadership style until Leftwitch left.
* Regular food fights at the Refectory because the food was absolutely retched. We went to that Hardee's over on Parham about three times a week at night because we were starving. The current dining hall is unbelievable.
* Practically no visitation rights at UR, none over at WC. Of course everybody broke the rules, but if you got caught there could be serious consequences.
* No real student union, the old Slop Shop was a joke compared to the current commons, which didn't open until fall of 1976. No on-campus apartments, classes in the barracks. No rec center other than the auxiliary gym or sneaking into Millhiser.
* Totally crappy intramural fields, either on the X lot field or at Bandy Lane or sometimes the Keller Hall Field. They even canceled intramural soccer one year.
* No fall break. Classes straight through from before Labor Day until 3-4 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving.
* OTOH, we had a thriving fraternity system, had the annual Block Party, a real rush period, keggers at Millhiser or the auxiliary gym, concerts at the Robins Center, a lot more school spirit, and we generally had to make our own fun, which was a lot of fun in itself.
It's probably a lot easier to attend UR today than it was in my day, and certainly than it was in years before 1972-76, when they even had Saturday classes. OTOH, it was neat to be at UR then; campus life probably changed more between 1972-76 than in any corresponding four-year period since and I was glad to be part of it.
This is a great site:
http://collegian.richmond.edu/cgi-bin/richmond?a=cl&cl=CL2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
* About 10 arrests after the famous 4/3/1974 panty raid/mass streak at North Court, when the UR cops called in the RPD's riot squad. That was a crazy night, and certainly an overreaction on UR's part. I'd forgotten about the subsequent RC student strike.
* The UR police regularly patrolled the dorms, sniffing for ditchweed or looking to bust you if you had hard liquor and weren't 21. I've heard that Dillard mellowed over the years but he was a real hard-assed jerk when I was in school.
* Dean Leftwitch was truly a man who couldn't adjust to changing times and still thought it was the 1950s. I liked Dean Matear but he didn't develop his own leadership style until Leftwitch left.
* Regular food fights at the Refectory because the food was absolutely retched. We went to that Hardee's over on Parham about three times a week at night because we were starving. The current dining hall is unbelievable.
* Practically no visitation rights at UR, none over at WC. Of course everybody broke the rules, but if you got caught there could be serious consequences.
* No real student union, the old Slop Shop was a joke compared to the current commons, which didn't open until fall of 1976. No on-campus apartments, classes in the barracks. No rec center other than the auxiliary gym or sneaking into Millhiser.
* Totally crappy intramural fields, either on the X lot field or at Bandy Lane or sometimes the Keller Hall Field. They even canceled intramural soccer one year.
* No fall break. Classes straight through from before Labor Day until 3-4 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving.
* OTOH, we had a thriving fraternity system, had the annual Block Party, a real rush period, keggers at Millhiser or the auxiliary gym, concerts at the Robins Center, a lot more school spirit, and we generally had to make our own fun, which was a lot of fun in itself.
It's probably a lot easier to attend UR today than it was in my day, and certainly than it was in years before 1972-76, when they even had Saturday classes. OTOH, it was neat to be at UR then; campus life probably changed more between 1972-76 than in any corresponding four-year period since and I was glad to be part of it.
This is a great site:
http://collegian.richmond.edu/cgi-bin/richmond?a=cl&cl=CL2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
