Class of 1973

At a time when the world outside the gates of Harvard Yard was reacting to the Vietnam War, race relations and radical movements, the students of the class of 1973 followed suit.

"The world was totally imposed on our existence," says Jean C. "Carly" Moreno '73. "You inevitably confronted the issues, no matter what you believed in."

They arrived on campus in the wake of the spring 1969 takeover of University Hall, absorbing the lore of radicalism.

"When we arrived as freshmen in the Yard, all the upperclassmen were telling us about the bust that had happened the previous spring," says Richard C. Melvoin '73. "That was our introduction."

And by that spring, students were not only affected by faraway events like Nixon's Cambodian invasion or the Kent State protest but by an occurrence closer to home: the integration of Harvard and Radcliffe.

As their undergraduate years progressed, class members recall a general decrease in activism, a more coeducational experience, continuing racial tension and a little taste of the sexual revolution.

Activism

The class of 1973 had its moments of activism, from strikes in Boston, to protests on campus, to marches on Washington. Yet the classes before them were more active, and as the Vietnam War drew to a close, activism at Harvard entered its twilight.

Mirroring the proliferation of national activist groups, Harvard's students marched, protested and went on strike for various concerns.

Critical issues included the war in Vietnam, U.S. involvement in Cambodia, apartheid in South Africa and a stronger Afro-American studies department.

In February of 1972, roughly 50 black protesters, primarily students, occupied Mass. Hall to protest Harvard's investment in Gulf Oil Company, which operated in South Africa.

But the Harvard class of 1973 was not as radical as those of other universities, such as Kent State or Berkeley.

"We were on the tail end of the turbulent years on and around campus," says Richard H. Mitchell '73.

Alan P. Morse '73 chuckles when he recalls the letter his grandmother, a Radcliffe alum, wrote to the head of the Radcliffe student council, urging the students to "get out there and protest."

Morse says he views the activism that was there as a "me too affair."

"A lot of this [activism] was initially in campuses other than Harvard's, and Harvard was playing a catch-up game," he says.

Thomas J. Schneider '73 agrees that activism was not overwhelming during his undergraduate years.

"[Activists were] a minority in the class," he says. "Most of the class was probably less political than in the years preceding."

While they may have been less activist, the class of 1973 was devoutly liberal.

Schneider, who was the vice president of the Republican Club and an anti-war activist, says more moderate Republicans "were sort of nonentities."

"If anybody was conservative, they were really embarrassed," says Louise Reed Ritchie '73. "They stood out as being really different than the average student."

A small minority of pro-war students started Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). As anti-war demonstrators rallied to burn the ROTC building, formerly located on Francis Ave., YAF members stood on its roof.

Laszlo Pazstor Jr. '73, who founded YAF, recalls getting anonymous death threats.

"I definitely felt like a stranger and an outsider," he says. "It was a constant struggle."

Certain protests and strikes left their mark on the community. In response to the United States' bombing of Cambodia, a large majority of students stopped going to class, leaving many professors to cancel their final exams.

For some, this meant going to Washington for protests. Melvoin describes busloads of Harvard students who flocked to the capital, saying. "It was an amazing time."

The War

Much of the activism during the class' years at Harvard centered around the Vietnam War.

While few Harvard students fought in the war--many took student deferments in order to stay home--it still affected the lives of the class.

"There was a tremendous amount of guilt, [both] from people who were taking student deferments and from living in this society and feeling that our government was doing something wrong in our names," Morse says.

"A lot of us took the war very much personally," he adds.

The draft weighed heavily on the minds of male students.

While almost all of the students had obtained college deferments in order to postpone the draft, each student was assigned a lottery number. The lower the lottery number, the more likely it was that the students would have to enter the draft come graduation time.

"Two numbers that everyone knew very well were their own SAT score and their lottery number," Mitchell says.

But with the ending of the draft and the heavy withdrawal of American troops in March of 1973, the class became less activist.

"The number of issues decreased because the whole war issue largely subsided as an issue," Schneider says. "There was a momentary flurry around what was going on in Angola, but the reality was, there was nothing that galvanized people like the Vietnam War."

"[The winding down of the war] took the wind out of the sails in political activism," he says.

Melvoin agrees that the amount of activism changed as the class progressed from their first year to their senior year.

"I don't think we could have possibly maintained that level of intensity [as in our first year], and we didn't," he says.

Radcliffe and Harvard

When Charlotte Crane '73 came to Harvard University, she lived in the Quad, signed in and out of her House and could only receive male guests during certain hours.

By the time she graduated, Crane was living in John Winthrop House, came and went as she pleased, had many casual male friends and only had to walk a few minutes to her job in Lamont Library.

"It was something of a shock," she says of the Radcliffe and Harvard administrations' decision to integrate both colleges' dorms and Houses in the spring term of 1970.

"Our first semester was the only time I experienced the old Radcliffe," Ritchie says.

Being the last Radcliffe class was something of a distinction. "We had, at least, that first term where we could all live together," says Rebecca Miller Sykes '73.

Despite the initial adjustment, graduates recall coeducational housing was a positive part of the class's undergraduate experience.

"For the most part, we had brother-sister relationships with the Harvard guys," Moreno says. "[Co-residency] ended up being the creation of a lot of friendships."

Crane agrees, saying that with integration, "most people found casual male-female relationships easier. There were enough women so that you didn't feel totally weird."

However, Melvoin, a Kirkland House resident, says that, "given the overall proportion of women in the colleges at that time, it was impossible to have anything approaching equity in the Houses."

He says a less gradual transition would have made the integration more complete. Restrictive quotas prevented more than a set number of women from transferring into each House.

"That ability to have great friends that were male and female did not yet exist," he says, "partly because of the numbers and partly because of the structure of the place."

On the flip side, males who moved up to the Quad say it could often be an alienating experience.

"I much preferred it to living at Harvard, but I felt like sort of a mascot up there," Morse says.

"There was an unwillingness to allow for all of us to have our own humanity, as if the men at Radcliffe were as much a part of the problem as any 'male chauvinist.'"

Margaret Morgan Grasselli '73, who was a Quad resident while an undergraduate, says "more women would have liked to have lived in the Harvard Houses, but it wasn't that easy" because of the restrictions. Meanwhile, "attracting the men up to Radcliffe was, sad to say, not that easy."

Race Relations

While men and women were beginning to live together without tension, black and white students often were not. They took the same classes, but many ate at different tables, joined different activities and lived in differentsocial spheres, separated by an often-impermeablewall of tension.

Schneider, who is white, says there was "prettymuch total isolation. There were very fewAfrican-Americans who were highly integrated interms of their daily activity. To a very largeextent, the African-Americans associated, partiedand dined together."

For Sykes, a black student from the segregatedSouth, the Harvard experience was disappointinglysimilar.

"There certainly was a sense of 'them' and 'us'and a division between us," Sykes says. "It wasdistressing to me because I had thought that lifein the North was going to be different," she says.

Moreno, who is Hispanic, says the tension waslimited to black and white students. "Back then,nobody even knew in the East whatMexican-Americans were," she says. "It wasn't anissue."

The separation between the two races was mostapparent in dining halls, where black and whitestudents would sit at separate tables.

"There was a discomfort in crossing cultures,"says Morse, who is white.

"People made an effort, but there was tension;there was an awkwardness," Pazstor says.

And while the intention for racial integrationwas apparent, implementing it was much moredifficult.

"Although people believed that we had to do abetter job with race relations, everyone wasstymied because there was so much tension amongus," Sykes says.

On the heels of the civil rights movement ofthe '60s, many black students were attempting tocreate an identity within the class.

"It was a time when it was the rise of theblack power movement," Schneider says. "There wasa very strong sense of trying to establish a[black] identity."

Ritchie says she continuously felt isolated and"different."

"I got tired of answering peoples' questionsabout why my hair looked the way it looked. Themore liberal people may have sought me out becausethey wanted a 'black friend,'" she adds.

"It is hard to go through life having toconstantly explain yourself and not necessarily beyourself," she says.

Social Life

Along with the confrontation of racialproblems, a small-scale sexual revolution wastaking place within the College, and alcohol anddrugs were staples of the social scene.

Besides the mixers, parties and Brattle Theatermovies, nude bathing at the Adams House Pool was aregular event.

But though the 1973 yearbook shows pictures ofnaked students making out, promiscuity was neveroverwhelming.

Mitchell says that while the sexual revolutiondid hit Harvard, it was not a huge force oncampus.

"Men and women were exploring relationships andexploring one another in a very healthy manner,"he says, "but people weren't meeting one another,shaking hands and leaping into bed."

Henry S.G. Hardy '73 agrees that the sexualrevolution created more of a ripple than a wavewithin Harvard.

"When I got there, there were no rules at all,and there was [promiscuity]," he says, "butwhatever sexual revolution there was had happenedby the time I got there. There wasn't any bigchange in sexual behavior on campus during thetime I was there."

Final clubs were not a big part of social life.

"The final clubs left the rest of the worldalone," Crane says.

"People really sort of tried to ignore them,"Moreno agrees.

However, she says, "even the people that werein the most conservative of the clubs were drawninto radical events...they were getting theirroots shaken a little bit."

Schneider, who was a member of the Delphic,says that final clubs were "largely ignored."

"When the issue was raised by people, peoplewere generally not terribly friendly in theircomments," he says. "They were viewed as beingconservative."

The Class of 1973

Diversity was the watchword in 1973 almost asmuch as it is now.

"We were probably as broad a spectrum as youcould imagine," Crane says.

Schneider agrees, saying there was nooverriding group within the class. "I had friendsranging from Groton and St. Paul's to people frompublic high schools in the middle of nowhere," hesays.

And whether their memories are of protests inthe Yard or of co-ed bathrooms, class members saytheir Harvard experience was definitely unique.With the outside world changing, members of theclass of '73 were changing as well.

"The class reflected the turbulence of thetimes," Pazstor says.

Ritchie says what she remembers most about thetime was its hopefulness.

"We were convinced that we could save theworld," she says.Crimson File PhotoACTING UP: The class of 1973 arrivedat the height of protest, but as the Vietnam Warended, activism entered its twilight.

Schneider, who is white, says there was "prettymuch total isolation. There were very fewAfrican-Americans who were highly integrated interms of their daily activity. To a very largeextent, the African-Americans associated, partiedand dined together."

For Sykes, a black student from the segregatedSouth, the Harvard experience was disappointinglysimilar.

"There certainly was a sense of 'them' and 'us'and a division between us," Sykes says. "It wasdistressing to me because I had thought that lifein the North was going to be different," she says.

Moreno, who is Hispanic, says the tension waslimited to black and white students. "Back then,nobody even knew in the East whatMexican-Americans were," she says. "It wasn't anissue."

The separation between the two races was mostapparent in dining halls, where black and whitestudents would sit at separate tables.

"There was a discomfort in crossing cultures,"says Morse, who is white.

"People made an effort, but there was tension;there was an awkwardness," Pazstor says.

And while the intention for racial integrationwas apparent, implementing it was much moredifficult.

"Although people believed that we had to do abetter job with race relations, everyone wasstymied because there was so much tension amongus," Sykes says.

On the heels of the civil rights movement ofthe '60s, many black students were attempting tocreate an identity within the class.

"It was a time when it was the rise of theblack power movement," Schneider says. "There wasa very strong sense of trying to establish a[black] identity."

Ritchie says she continuously felt isolated and"different."

"I got tired of answering peoples' questionsabout why my hair looked the way it looked. Themore liberal people may have sought me out becausethey wanted a 'black friend,'" she adds.

"It is hard to go through life having toconstantly explain yourself and not necessarily beyourself," she says.

Social Life

Along with the confrontation of racialproblems, a small-scale sexual revolution wastaking place within the College, and alcohol anddrugs were staples of the social scene.

Besides the mixers, parties and Brattle Theatermovies, nude bathing at the Adams House Pool was aregular event.

But though the 1973 yearbook shows pictures ofnaked students making out, promiscuity was neveroverwhelming.

Mitchell says that while the sexual revolutiondid hit Harvard, it was not a huge force oncampus.

"Men and women were exploring relationships andexploring one another in a very healthy manner,"he says, "but people weren't meeting one another,shaking hands and leaping into bed."

Henry S.G. Hardy '73 agrees that the sexualrevolution created more of a ripple than a wavewithin Harvard.

"When I got there, there were no rules at all,and there was [promiscuity]," he says, "butwhatever sexual revolution there was had happenedby the time I got there. There wasn't any bigchange in sexual behavior on campus during thetime I was there."

Final clubs were not a big part of social life.

"The final clubs left the rest of the worldalone," Crane says.

"People really sort of tried to ignore them,"Moreno agrees.

However, she says, "even the people that werein the most conservative of the clubs were drawninto radical events...they were getting theirroots shaken a little bit."

Schneider, who was a member of the Delphic,says that final clubs were "largely ignored."

"When the issue was raised by people, peoplewere generally not terribly friendly in theircomments," he says. "They were viewed as beingconservative."

The Class of 1973

Diversity was the watchword in 1973 almost asmuch as it is now.

"We were probably as broad a spectrum as youcould imagine," Crane says.

Schneider agrees, saying there was nooverriding group within the class. "I had friendsranging from Groton and St. Paul's to people frompublic high schools in the middle of nowhere," hesays.

And whether their memories are of protests inthe Yard or of co-ed bathrooms, class members saytheir Harvard experience was definitely unique.With the outside world changing, members of theclass of '73 were changing as well.

"The class reflected the turbulence of thetimes," Pazstor says.

Ritchie says what she remembers most about thetime was its hopefulness.

"We were convinced that we could save theworld," she says.Crimson File PhotoACTING UP: The class of 1973 arrivedat the height of protest, but as the Vietnam Warended, activism entered its twilight.