1973-74

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.

September

 * The Trustees decide to name many of the buildings on campus, after soliciting extensive student input. Learn more: Naming the Buildings

Sep 1


 * Hampshire's Whole Woman Center has been established in Dakin D-102 and 103, having been organized over the summer by women students; they offer a number of resources to all women on campus without regard to ideology. [Climax: September 11, 1973]

Sep 9


 * Third-year student Brian James and faculty associate Dick Spahn organize a group to conduct community meetings for men examining their roles in society; their first meeting is held during the fall colloquy. [Climax: September 11, 1973]

Sep 13


 * The Amherst-Hampshire College Tea Party, a group dedicated to "thrusting themselves and the college institution into participation in Amherst town politics", holds their first meeting, citing hopes to help in building a bike path along Route 116. [Climax: September 18, 1973]

Sep 17


 * The Residential Learning Centers of House III, i.e. Human Development and Educational Studies, in donuts 4 and 5 respectively, have opened and are conducting group and community meetings to aid them in their purposes. [Climax: September 18, 1973]
 * The Hampshire College Theatre Board is created, with seven voting members: students Tim Angle, John Oleson, Andrea Stander, and Jim Weed, staff members Daphne Reed and Liz Coolidge, and technical director of the Performing Arts space, Richard Kahan. [Climax: October 2, 1973]

Sep 21


 * Hampshire's first political rally for students seeking governance positions is held in the Main Lecture Hall before a luke-warm and small crowd. [Climax: September 25, 1973]

Sep 22


 * The Board of Trustees votes to name Academic Building I as Franklin Patterson Hall, AB II as Emily Dickinson Hall, the Science Building as Charles Cole Center, and Houses III, IV, and V after towns inundated by the Quabbin Reservoir. [Climax: September 25, 1973]
 * Third-year student Kitt Morris puts up for sale the pottery studio that she built, equipped, and maintained since 1970 in Wayne Stiles House; she offers to sell it to Community Council for $750. [Community Council Misc.: 73F-Z19]

Sep 26


 * The Bubble, an air-supported dome covering eight tennis courts on the west side of campus, deflates around 10 p.m. after a perpetrator slashes a 3-foot tear in its side, causing a 120-foot opening and $5,000 worth of damage; it is repaired in five days. [Climax: October 2, 1973]

Sep 27


 * A small fire, apparently caused by an arsonist, breaks out in the Dakin basement between F and G at 3 a.m.; large house meetings the next day with House Master Miriam Slater lay plans for fire prevention and safety precautions. [Climax: October 2, 1973]

October
Oct 2


 * Diane Damelio has won re-imbursement of her income for the time in which she was unemployed as the result of her unexpected firing; she had filed an arbitration suit against the college.[Climax: October 2, 1973]

Oct 3


 * Students picket Atkins Farm in support of the United Farmworker's lettuce and grape strike.[Climax: October 2, 1973]

Oct 4


 * Another fire breaks out in Dakin House, starting in the basement of J with a pile of papers apparently ignited by an arsonist. [Climax: October 9, 1973]
 * The Whole Woman Center produces two proposals for internal governance after two days of meetings, one giving more autonomy to interest groups and one forming a committee of the groups; women on campus are asked to select their choice via ballot. [Climax: October 9, 1973]

Oct 5


 * The Hampshire frisbee team defeats long-time rivals Clark University, 15-8, in a contest on their home field; top scorers are Andy "Sticky Fingers" Shannon and Rob "Whiskey Man" Bell. [Climax: October 9, 1973]

Oct 8


 * The third Dakin House fire in five days (the fourth since September 27) engulfs J-210, when an unidentified person enters the unlocked room and sets fire to the clothes in a wardrobe. [Climax: October 9, 1973]
 * The Centrum Gallery opens in House III with a photography exhibit by Walter Rosenblum entitled "Pictures of Haiti"; gallery founders and directors are students Per Larsen, Riker Davis, Karen Goodman, Kate Evarts, and Jamie Peebles. [Climax: October 16, 1973]

Oct 13


 * Diane Damelio is reinstated as a staff member of the Business Office, on "probation". [Climax: October 16, 1973]

Oct 25


 * 100 people respond to announcements for a "raffle" in the AB lounge, at which three students "get rid" of a pound of marijuana; two winners each receive a half-pound, the sponsors earn $10 each, and $40 is donated to Financial Aid. [Climax: October 30, 1973]

Oct 29


 * After a hastily called meeting at law professor Lester Mazor's house the previous night, a handful of students and faculty hold an all-community meeting in a stuffed Main Lecture Hall to deliberate on the impeachment of President Nixon. [Climax: October 30, 1973]

Oct 30


 * Nearly 500 members of the Hampshire community assemble in front of the library to consider questions on Hampshire's endorsement of impeaching President Nixon; a simple vote calling for Congress to impeach Nixon is approved, 418 to 42. [Climax: October 30, 1973]
 * Academic Council votes that all B.A. degrees, and Division II and III exams, will no longer have the option of being awarded "with distinction", as they had been for the previous years' graduating classes.[Climax: November 13, 1973]

November
Nov 4


 * Hampshire joins over 30 other schools at UMass for the New England School's Organizers Conference To Impeach Nixon. [Climax: November 6, 1973]

Nov 6


 * Students, staff, and faculty have named AB II as Emma Goldman Hall, after the anarchist and feminist who worked for the cause of libertarian socialism in the U.S. until her deportation to Russia in 1919; she died in Canada in 1940. [Climax: November 6, 1973]
 * Statistics show that 50% of students in this year's entering class expect to meet with their advisor several times a month for guidance, and the average student expects to spend 16 hours studying each week. [Climax: November 6, 1973]

Nov 17


 * A student is raped while hitch-hiking to Mini-Mart on the driveway; the unidentified man maces her in the eyes, ties a noose around her neck, and drives for 70 minutes before raping her; upon her return, the student finds no one at Security. [Climax: December 4, 1973]

Nov 19


 * President Longsworth sends a letter to the parents of students living in Dakin H, J, and K, urging them to talk to their children about the fires over Thanksgiving break, and to support his decision to administer polygraph tests when they return. [Memo from Charles Longsworth: 11/19/73]

December
Dec 4


 * Ten fires have now broken out in Dakin J and K since September, an average of one every six days; state fire investigators suspect that the arsonist lives in Dakin. [Climax: December 4, 1973]

Dec 11


 * Controversies rage over an executive decision to delay the start of January Term by five days in order to conserve energy; students and members of the Academic Council feel the move exceeds the jurisdiction of the administration. [Climax: December 11, 1973]
 * Students are being evacuated from Dakin H, J, and K to the Dining Commons every two to five nights as the fires in those buildings continue; all-night suite patrols and off- duty firemen watching the buildings have produced no suspects for over 15 fires. [Climax: December 11, 1973]

Dec 15


 * The second student in a month is raped while walking along the driveway; the vehicle description is similar to the automobile driven in the November assault, and the time and date of the crime are exactly four weeks later. [Climax: December 18, 1973]

Dec 18


 * Despite measures including posting security guards on halls, tying open bathroom doors, and requiring students to sign in and out of the building, fires continue to break out in Dakin House every few days. [Climax: December 18, 1973]

Dec 30


 * A formal report on the Dakin House fires is filed by investigator Ray Hill, which is only given to certain members of the administration; while the community is not told the findings, no more fires occur after the investigation. [Climax: February 19, 1973]

January

 * Self Study Report published
 * Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses. In: Self Study Report (1974)
 * Redesign of the Liberal Arts Education; Evaluations and Records; and Strengths and Weaknesses of the Academic Program. In: Self Study Report (1974)

Jan 26


 * During a stakeout of the campus exactly six weeks after the last rape, Amherst Police Officer David Jankowski arrests Michael Collins of Granby, CT; Collins is charged with numerous crimes, including kidnapping, as he had just picked up another student. [Climax: February 12, 1974]

Jan 29


 * Michael Collins sends letters to the rape victims, revealing that he is 37, married with two teenage children, and a compulsive gambler from an alcoholic family; he does not confess to the rapes, but pleas that his family's hardships be considered. [Climax: February 12, 1974]

February
Feb 8


 * Kenneth Garfield, a third-year student, files his nomination papers to become a candidate on the Amherst Board of Selectmen, the first Hampshire student to run for local political office.[Climax: February 12, 1974]

Feb 14


 * Student and Chairperson of C.O.C.D. David Kaplan signs an agreement titled the "Memorandum of Understanding" which establishes a food service operation in the Prescott House Tavern, to be run by the Saga Food Service. [Community Council Misc.: 74S-ZO1]

Feb 26


 * With the first original class scheduled to graduate in June, Academic Council passes a motion to have student transcripts list all non-Divisional activities in the same category, including academic classes, house courses, and student-generated activities. [Climax: March 5, 1974]
 * Files in the President's Office, including the report on the Dakin House fires, are found missing after a student reports that confidential documents have been mysteriously showing up in his mailbox. [Climax: March 5, 1974]

Feb 27


 * At least five more students report that confidential documents from the President's Office have been either mailed to them or left under their doors, while copies of the documents begin to appear elsewhere on campus, posted on bulletin boards. [Climax: March 5, 1974]

Feb 28


 * Another raffle of marijuana is held by students, this time in the dining commons, but only for two ounces; the 850 tickets sold are enough to fund a party for the event in addition to paying for the marijuana and leaving a percentage for Financial Aid. [Climax: March 5, 1974]

March
Mar 2


 * Charles Longsworth and Vice President Bob Birney bring Amherst Police detectives to campus to investigate the theft of the confidential files; afterward, no more copies of the files are posted.[Climax: March 5, 1974]
 * An aerosol can explodes when left on a hot burner in the Dakin K-2 lounge; another is found about to explode three days later. [Climax: March 5, 1974]

Mar 7


 * A skirt hanging in the Dakin K-2 bathroom is set on fire; vials of dangerous chemicals are found in a stall in the same bathroom the next day; officials are not sure if the incidents are related, or if it is the work of the arsonist from the fall term. [Climax: March 12, 1974]

Mar 12


 * A fire marshal for the state of Massachusetts condemns the third floor of the Johnson library as a fire and health hazard; art students, who had been creating and storing their work on the floor, are ordered to remove their items. [Climax: March 19, 1974]

Mar 19


 * First-year students Scott Blau and Dick Sclove have announced that they are candidates for election to membership in the Town Meeting of Amherst. [Climax: March 19, 1974]

April
Apr 9


 * Ken Garfield is defeated by two incumbents in the election for Amherst Board of Selectmen, but Scott Blau and Dick Sclove are elected to the Town Meeting. [Climax: April 16, 1974]

Apr 10


 * A luxury Peter Pan Bus is stuck in the Greenwich House driveway for over an hour after the driver delivers a student to her mod and finds he is unable to back out of the area; students with flashlights rally to help the driver make an 11-point turn. [Climax: April 16, 1974]

Apr 25


 * 267 members of the community vote in a referendum to approve the Code of Rights which Community Council has been working on for two years; 164 votes are cast against it, and Council announces that further modifications will be made. [Climax: April 30, 1974]
 * Community Council approves a "phase-out" plan to ban all new pets from campus effective for the fall semester, 1974; the move comes after numerous attempts to control the pet population problem. [Community Council Minutes: April 25, 1974]

May
May 1


 * An estimated 60% of the students on the meal plan refrain from eating at Saga in support of a nation-wide fast for Oxfam programs raising money for the drought- stricken regions of sub-Sahara Africa. [Climax: May 7, 1974]

May 2


 * Over 300 students sign a petition requesting that "Mademoiselle" Magazine not be allowed to do a story on Hampshire; the story, along with a fashion lay-out featuring Hampshire women, was to be part of a series including UMass and Mount Holyoke College.[Climax: May 21, 1974]

May 18


 * President Longsworth announces, at the first regional press conference since 1970, that Hampshire has been accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, two weeks before commencement. [Climax: May 21, 1974]

May 21


 * The Hampshire frisbee team, in a "flurry of games over a three week period [has] established itself as undisputed New England champ"; the matches include one of the highest-scoring contests on record, a 36-35 tie-breaker against Tufts University. [Climax: May 21, 1974]