ACADEMICS
Ethnic Studies Plans
Black students presented a plan for a Center of Black Studies, followed by a request from Latino students for a program of Mexican-American studies. The students also created the intercollegiate Black Student Union and United Mexican-American Students. Danny Wilks ’71 became the first president of the BSU.
Oldenborg Language Residents
The first language residents were hired to live alongside students in the language halls of the Oldenborg Center. In 1967, residents were hired for French (Brigitte Verpeaux-Roger), German (Irene Bizer) and Spanish (Amparo Ocampo). The following year, new residents were hired for Russian and Chinese. In 1986, a sixth resident was added for Japanese.
Marine Zoology Program Ends
Pomona’s summer marine zoology program, which dated back, with a few interruptions, to the early part of the 1900s, ended in 1967. From 1913 until 1943, it took place in a College-owned marine biology laboratory in Laguna Beach. After the facility was sold, it continued as a six-week summer program at a rented facility, Caltech’s Kerckhoff Marine Lab in Corona del Mar, until 1967.
Ninth Rhodes Scholar
Stephen Schaffran ’67 became Pomona’s ninth Rhodes Scholar.
Asian Studies Pioneer Retires
Professor Ch’en Shou-Yi, who helped to found Pomona’s Asian Studies program (then called the Department of Oriental Affairs), and had been a member of the faculty since 1941, retired in 1967 and was made Emeritus Professor of Chinese Culture. Ch’en was well known during his 26-year tenure at Pomona for his courses on cultural relations between East Asia and the West.
STUDENT LIFE
Recruitment Protests
Two Air Force recruiters were met by 150 students marching around Sumner Hall, and 79 students occupying the placement office and corridor. There was no violence or property damage, but the judiciary councils of the colleges voted to suspend the students and also to suspend the punishment. The immediate consequence of the demonstration was the cancellation of the visits of all recruiters to the Pomona placement office.
Beanie Revolt
According to Nelson Treece ’71, the Great Freshman Beanie Revolt of 1967 ended the long-standing tradition of requiring first-year Pomona students to wear a blue beanie with a capital P on the front.
ATHLETICS
Swimming Champion
Lee Coats ’67 earned national championships for the men’s swimming team in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly.
Experimental Residence Project
The 1967 Metate told the story of the Experimental Residence Project, an experiment seeking to integrate student housing and education by bringing a group of students together as both housemates and classmates in an open course doing readings and holding discussions about Utopian thought and models of communal living. Students all lived together in North Clark dorm, and one of the suites in the dorm was converted to a seminar room for students to meet and have discussions about ways to reform American society.
CONSORTIUM
Name Change
In 1967, the Claremont Graduate School and University Center changed its name to the Claremont University Center, one of a series of name changes over the years targeted and making the role of the graduate institution and support arm of the consortium clearer. On July 1, 2000, Claremont University Consortium was split off completely from Claremont Graduate University, with which it had been associated since 1925, and founded as a free-standing educational support institution of The Claremont Colleges, carrying the duties and responsibilities formerly assigned to the Central Programs & Services of Claremont University Center, along with the charge to assist with group planning, the founding of new colleges and to hold lands for future expansion of the group.
ALUMNI
David Ward
An Academy Award-winning writer for The Sting, David Ward ’67 also was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay for Sleepless in Seattle (with Nora Ephron and Jeff Arch). His many other film credits include Major League and Cannery Row, which he also directed. Ward teaches screenwriting at Chapman University.
ELSEWHERE
Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward Higgins White and Roger Chaffee were killed when fire broke out in their Apollo I spacecraft during a launch pad test.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai peninsula and Golan Heights after defeating its Arab neighbors in the Six-Day War.
Summer race riots broke out across the United States, causing destruction in Tampa, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. The Detroit riot left 43 dead and more than 1,400 buildings burned.