Nov. 2, 1929: Fraternities host house parties for girls visiting the College
On Saturday, Nov. 2, 1929, seven fraternities — Chi Psi, Delta Psi, Sigma Phi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Kappa Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, and Zeta Psi — planned a series of five house parties to welcome 160 female visitors to campus. According to the Record, the fraternities arranged for an orchestra from New Haven, an orchestra from Boston, and a band from Springfield to provide music for the evening.
Published alongside the news of the parties was a reminder of the College’s house party rules, which would “be in effect during the present weekend,” as had been true throughout the year, the Record wrote. The consumption of alcohol was banned, both for students and performers (it was, after all, the Prohibition era). There had to be a chaperone accompanying all female visitors, and chaperones’ names had to be given to the College three days prior to their arrival. The College’s Administrative Council also condemned any “unnecessary interference with the curriculum caused by the premature arrival of girls.”
The issue also included the news that Mabelle Blake, the director of personnel at Smith College, found that “only” eight of the 433 women in Smith’s vocational department were planning to marry in lieu of employment, which the Record called an “interesting discovery as to the ambitions of the modern college girl.” Blake’s survey also reported that 138 students intended to go into business, 95 planned to go into teaching, 37 wished to continue academic work, and 45 had “positions waiting for them in various departments of life.”
Oct. 31, 1978: WCFM radio host announces false nuclear radiation threat on air
The Oct. 31, 1978, edition of the Record described a “mild panic” that descended on campus in the early morning of the previous Sunday after a WCFM radio host announced that radiation from a nonexistent Canadian nuclear incident was headed towards Williamstown.
A little before 2 a.m., radio host Fred Kooperstein ’79 received a phone call from a man he said had a “mature voice,” who identified himself as a member of a local weather organization and informed him of a power plant meltdown in Quebec that was sending radiation in the direction of Western Massachusetts. Kooperstein checked the United Press International (UPI) newswire, but when he found no report of the incident, he concluded that it was likely that the weather organization would learn of the event before UPI and announced the news live on air, he told the Record.
About 20 minutes after his announcement, Kooperstein realized that he “might have been conned,” he said. According to the article, the incident followed another incident in which a person anonymously called the same weather organization, announcing his intention to assasRecsinate several people in Western Massachusetts. The FBI investigated each call and determined them both to be hoaxes.
Oct. 26, 2004: College releases plans for Sawyer Quad renovations
On Oct. 20, 2004, the College unveiled plans to redesign what would become Sawyer Quad at a faculty meeting, following a presentation to the Board of Trustees the previous weekend. The plans included the demolition of Sawyer Library in order to plant a grassy quad; the construction of two buildings for faculty offices, classrooms, and public spaces (the future Hollander and Schapiro Halls); and the expansion of Stetson Hall to include a new Sawyer Library. The project’s price tag had not yet been finalized, but it was announced at the faculty meeting that the College had set a $105 million cap for the construction.
In addition to the new buildings, the architects proposed turning Stetson’s faculty lounge to the left of the entrance into a reading room that would be open for 24 hours a day.
“They were jazzed,” then-President of the College Morton Schapiro said of the Trustees’ reactions at the faculty meeting. The plans received similar praise from faculty, staff, and students, the Record reported, though the College also had plans to hold a formal community forum to gather more community input.
