1979-80

This Timeline is based on a portion of Tim Shary's A History of Student Activities and Achievements at Hampshire College. Anything not otherwise cited comes from this source.

Important Documents

 * [[Media:Ways and byways through hampshire.pdf|Ways and Byways through Hampshire]] - one of the monographs included in Hampshire's Ten Year Review

August
Aug 16


 * The Bubble, an air-supported sports dome on the west side of campus, deflates when a 160 foot seam opens in its side; when Hurricane David hits in September, any potential to re-erect the Bubble is diminished. [Climax: September 24, 1979]

September
Sep 24


 * Cathy Hearn, a third-year student, has won three gold medals at the World Whitewater Kayak Championships held over the summer. [Climax: September 24, 1979]
 * The Enfield Solar Greenhouse in Mod 46, designed by students Hiro Chanrai and Craig Sieben, is nearing completion. [Climax: September 24, 1979]
 * Second-year student John Dwork has begun to offer lessons in freestyle frisbee on evenings in the RCC. [Climax: September 24, 1979]

Sep 25


 * In an election for 5 student positions on Community Council, less than 10% of the student body votes. [Climax: October 9, 1979]

Sep 29


 * Three black women, including Hampshire student Ada Griffin, are arrested in a violent and apparently racial confrontation at Russell's liquor store in Amherst; they are charged with disorderly conduct after false accusations of theft by store employees. [Climax: October 24, 1979]

October
Oct 14


 * Over 250,000 lesbians and gay men, including many Hampshire students, gather in Washington, D.C. to call for an end to homosexual discrimination; it is the largest gathering of lesbians and gay men in recorded history. [Climax:

October 24, 1979]

Oct 24


 * Visnu Wood, professor of music and noted jazz musician, has resigned due to stress and the lack of an established Afro-American music program at Hampshire, which he had been trying to develop for years. [Climax: October 24, 1979]
 * The Men's World Freestyle Frisbee Champion, Krae Van Sickle, has enrolled as a Hampshire student. [Climax: October 24, 1979]

November
Nov 6


 * Community Council, lead by Chairperson David Early and Secretary Carolyn Sheehan, sponsor the first of many community meetings entitled "Is The Experiment Over?" to address problems and changes at Hampshire in the past ten years. [Climax: December 10, 1979]

Nov 13


 * Hampshire defeats Cornell to win the Northeast Regional Frisbee Championship. [Climax: November 19, 1979]

Nov 15


 * "Is The Experiment Over?" has produced four "radials" of people working together to target areas of concern in the community, including a student work collective, the structure of governance, isms problems, and communication. [Community Council Misc.: 79F-Z24]

Nov 19


 * Alum Jordi Herold has opened the Iron Horse Coffee House in Northampton. [Climax: November 19, 1979]

March
Mar 3


 * An anonymous donor has contributed $15,000 to the college to help in constructing a community center; the administration has agreed to match that sum, but there is again no agreement within the community on where to build it. [Climax: March 3, 1980]

Mar 7


 * A dead and mutilated fish is left in front of President Adele Simmons's office door overnight; unidentified students who left the fish and a note cited numerous suspicions they have with Simmons and the administration's recent actions. [Climax: March 14, 1980]

Mar 22


 * Five Hampshire students are arrested in a small group that throws ashes, red paint, and blood on the Pentagon concourse in Virginia during a protest of nuclear power and weapons, and selective service registration. [Climax: April 7, 1980]

April
Apr 3


 * Over 250 people, including more than 15 Hampshire students, form a makeshift town on the site of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant during a protest in the plant parking lot. [Climax: April 7, 1980]

Apr 15


 * Community Council bans all uncaged pets from campus effective in the fall semester of 1980. [Community Council Minutes: April 15, 1980]

Apr 19


 * A group of students calling themselves FISH, all past members of Hampshire governance, distribute pamphlets during Parents' Weekend detailing moves they feel the administration has made to keep students out of the decision-making process. [Climax: May 5, 1980]

Apr 20


 * Supporters of FISH spray-paint slogans of protest on buildings and dump or throw pounds of squid in buildings on campus; FISH members Carolyn Sheehan, David Early, Cory Greenberg, Julie Weisman, and Matt Goodman deny involvement. [Climax: May 5, 1980]

May
May 5


 * David Kerr's Research Methods for Reporters class publishes a special supplement to Climax in which they report results from a student survey detailing campus opinions on almost everything. [Climax: May 5, 1980]