Harpur College 1965 Yearbook (Binghamton, NY) - Full Access

Other events livened up the year. When AI Robinson and Barry Levine, both slightly tipsy, heisted a statue of the Christ Child off the Courthouse manger scene, Binghamtonites were outraged. In the spring, Harpur had the only first-class panty raid perpetrated in the four years, since some people actually got into O'Connor, although most of the cowards scream– ing for entrance fled in the opposite direction when the doors were opened. But it was a famous victory. Also, an extraordinary number of very notable people were showing up to speak. Eleanor Roosevelt, her sympathies won by a heart-rending letter written by Ronnie Bayer on the In– ternational Relations Club's state of abject poverty, arrived to speak. Harlan Cleveland, linus Pauling, Norman Thomas, I. F. Stone, William Rusher and Brand Blanshard found their way here. The Hungarian String Quartet arrived to play a Bartok quartet which brought the house down. These, however, were events which came here. What were the students doing? Well, a group of students stood on the center mall to protest the resumption of nuclear testing by the Russians, a demonstration which took perhaps less courage to participate in than any other. Thirty-seven students took part in a Washington Peace March. Within the school, the key demonstration was the Bermuda Riot, (not a riot at all, really) in which students, in pro– test of an inane dress regulation banning bermudas in the dining hall, arrived en masse in bermudas to confront Dean Belniak and Mr. Marshall at the door. The result was that the ban was lifted. The year ended with a few more traumas. Dr. Bartle told us that some people in town thought that we were unclean, and that we might wash a little. He added that, oh yes, sophomore boys might live in the Carlton Hotel in 1962-63. We did a collective double-take and then saw visions of 200 boys hounding room service, climbing down fire escapes and dropping water balloons on cops - in a yearlong Marx Brothers orgy. The plan fell through and a chance to irrevocably destroy town-gown relations was lost. As the days lengthened and minds mischievously idled, some boys began to toy with he idea of "taking" a final, or two, or three. So the Katzenjammer Kids snuck into offices and read the exams into a tape recorder. The plan was perfect, except that they were caught and thrown out of school. So the first year ended, in relative calm. But there had been a portent: the state had picked Harpur as a guinea pig for the trimester and the first stirring of outrage began to be heard. Everything seemed to explode in our sophomore year. The girls were wondering what the new women's housing head, Miss Patricia Wilson, would be like. She was young, the girls were glad to see, and this assured at least a compassionate, contemporary ear to problems. This· notion was quickly disabused by a series of bed checks, flashlight searches, and other bits of nocturnal razzle-dazzle. Miss Wilson became a veritable lightning rod for invective and a cold war was started in the girls' dorms. 13