Reflections
Posted on Oct. 1, 1990In a few short weeks my class, the Class of 1970, will be celebrating our 20th reunion. For those of us who entered Carolina in the Fall of 1966 and are now approaching the challenges of midlife, our reunion provides an opportunity for reflection.
Much change has come to our University and to Chapel Hill since the late 60’s. I recall as a freshman that there were very few women students. Indeed, freshmen women were admitted for the first time only in 1965. There were still very few black students. In the fall of 1966, women were still required to be in their dormitories before curfew, 11 p.m. on weekdays, as I recall, and midnight or 1 a.m. on weekends. Class attendance was taken and three absences in a course would surely result in a lower grade, if not outright failure. Our freshman year, Carolina went to the final four and began what has become a virtually unbroken succession of NCAA and NIT tournaments for Carolina basketball.
The Spring Jubilee weekend was still a much anticipated and delightful experience for all with big name entertainers performing under the oaks and maples of Polk Place. From the ”Age of Aquarius” to the breakup of the Beatles, from Dr. Zhivago to The Graduate, we enjoyed the creativity of the 60’s.
During our years at Carolina, the Vietnam War was expanded, the Tet offensive occurred, and we became the first class of college seniors subjected to the “draft lottery.” We gathered in Memorial Hall to listen to Joan Baez, Hubert Humphrey, William Buckley, Allard Lowenstein, and others.
Within weeks we witnessed the nation’s reactions to the twin assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Campus unrest from Berkeley to Columbia and racial unrest from Watts to Detroit and Washington, N.C., dominated the news. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago cast a long shadow on the 1968 Presidential election which would end in a photo finish.
As we began our senior year, we shared the nation’s excitement over Neil Armstrong’s ”A giant leap for mankind” as he became the first person to walk on the moon. A short time later, the nation would be amused by a massive gathering at Woodstock.
By the time we graduated, our class had participated in or observed any number of campus protests pertaining to the Vietnam War, the Lenoir Hall food workers strike, and just a few short weeks before our graduation we watched in horror as students at Kent State were killed.
As with any class, we had our particular favorites among the faculty, staff and administration. Anne Queen, Director of the Campus Y, was our unofficial convenor and conscience. Katherine Carmichael firmly ruled as dean of women and became the “absentee mother” to many women students. Chancellor Carlyle Sitterson had the challenge of leading the University during these difficult times and somehow always found the time to listen patiently to the concerns of student leaders. There were a number of younger faculty members who particularly identified with student concerns regarding civil rights and the Vietnam War and many of these were very close to our class. Among others, this group included Joel Schwartz, Peter Filene, Jim Leutze, Sam Wells and Lew Lipsitz.
Certainly, for those who recently graduated in the Class of 1990, their experiences were different from those of us in the Class of 1970. Both the student body and faculty are larger and are represented by many more blacks and women. Recent graduates find a very different ambiance from the “village” of Chapel Hill. Gone are curfews, dress codes, and attendance checks.
Not too long ago I had the occasion to sit next to an alumnus from an earlier class who had not been back to Chapel Hill in 30 years. He remarked that his fear in returning was that he would find that the campus had been “ruined.” To this I responded, “Well, what did you find?” He observed that he walked down Franklin Street, crossed over and passed Silent Sam, the Davie Poplar, the Old Well, glanced across Polk Place from South Building, walked down to Wilson Library, where he breathed a sigh of relief. His observation was that very little had changed and that, within these boundaries, what he considered to be the charm of Chapel Hill and the University had been retained in its physical essence.
Of course, there have been other changes. We are today much more of a research university, the level of our funding that is derived from research grants and contracts is significantly greater than that of the late 1960’s. We are still heavily dependent upon and grateful to the state for our financial support but the competition for these public dollars is much more intense than it was in the late 1960’s. The UNC System now encompasses 16 campuses rather than the six of the late 60’s. Carolina is more challenged to be competitive in a national marketplace for faculty and students. Like society, we face new issues that were not existent or as prevalent in the late 1960’s, including drugs, aids, budget and trade deficits, arid growing environmental concerns.
My classmates, as we return for our 20th reunion, we find, as we would expect, a campus, a student body, an administration that is different from that which we experienced. We also find a University poised with excitement in anticipation of the upcoming Bicentennial Observance and challenged by the invigorating history and tradition of this oldest public university.
As we return to walk the campus, enjoy the sights and the sounds and relive memories, we will undoubtedly recall the special moments, the special experiences, the special relationships that shaped not just our student days here but also profoundly shaped our lives. There is a bonding that occurs in such experiences, one that has been going on for nearly two hundred years. It is part of our proud Carolina tradition; one that we were privileged to experience as students and one that we now have an opportunity to share again as alumni.
To my Classmates of 1970, I look forward to seeing you.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
