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1969--1970

A Timeline

By Victoria E. M. cain

September

Tuition is raised form $ 2000 to $2400 and board from $640 to $720.

In its first year, Afro-American Studies attracts 22 concentrators, five of whom are white.

The Weathermen, a militant spin-off SDS's New Left caucus, violently disrupt the Center for International Affairs, injuring several and breaking windows.

October

A National Moratorium is held on the fifteenth to protest Vietnam. Classes are canceled, and students and faculty protest. President Nathan M. Pusey '28, like President Nixon, remains in his office and works all day.

Pusey refuses to sign a protest against the war. 79 other college presidents sign it, including Mary I. Bunting, the President of Radcliffe.

With 736 students, Hum 7, taught by Professor William Alfred, is the most popular course in the University for the second year running. John Kenneth Galbraith's class on "The Modern Industrial Society" came in second.

November

Sesame Street, created by twelve Harvard professors, debuted on national television. It was a smash hit.

Yale beats Harvard 7-0.

More than 1000 Harvard students and faculty participate in the Washington D.C. peace protest, which attracted a quarter of a million people. Former Harvard professor of psychology Timothy Leary calls the event "out of sight."

SDS and BSFA sit-in at University Hall, trapping Dean May for over an hour, until Black students escorted him out.

December

The Rolling Stones come to Boston.

Lottery numbers were announced, and students sweated beads of relief--if they weren't born on September 14.

Students fast for two days to protest the war.

91 members of the Organization for Black Unity take University Hall and the Faculty Club in the name of equal pay for Black workers and increased hiring of Blacks for Harvard construction projects. Five students are suspended.

Richard T. Tarnas '72 wins the Quincy Pancake-Eating Competition. His secret? Grass-induced munchies.

January

Six Harvard students win Rhodes scholarships again topping the nation in numbers.

The Brattle theater suspends its annual reading period Bogart festival of the first time, citing the unavailability of many films.

The Harvard Undergraduate Council votes itself out of existence.

Dionne Warwick is chosen as women of the year.

February

Pusey announces his resignation and the search for the 25th president of Harvard begins.

100 members of SDS demonstrate at the Office of Graduate and Career Plans against a recruiter for Army Officer Candidates.

Emily Dickinson Townsend Vermeule, a scholar of Greek archaeology, is granted tenure. She is the only woman on the tenured faculty.

Mather House opens its doors for the second semester.

March

The Sociology department comes into his own, as it splits from the Social Relations department.

April

A riot brakes out in the Square. As street fighting rages for four hours, police use tear gas and clubs to break up a crowd that peak at 3000.

Ground is broken for the new Science Center.

May

Nixon announces an invasion of Cambodia and a "stepping up" in the war.

SDS march against government policies which had the intent of burning the campus ROTC building is blocked by more moderate students.

Kent State, Jackson State and Ohio State erupt, an several students are killed. Campuses across the nation erupt in protest.

The faculty votes a resolution allowing students to skip their final exams so they can protest against the war.

350 students set up pickets and succeeded in keeping administrators out of University Hall of a day. They claim they will not leave until their demands are met.

Both students and faculty call for the abolition of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities, which they call a repressive body.

Black Business School students strike to protest racism at HBS.

The Corporation flaunts faculty and student opinion and votes in favor of the GM management and against Ralph Nader's group in a stock proxy fight.

June

Commencement is coed for the first time. Pusey gives a farewell Baccalaureate address which condemns students radicals. The ceremonies are disrupted as Cambridge residents storm the stage.

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