Time Flies

Hundreds of students come to Keene State College every year looking to have a prominent college experience. This year’s class of 2009 will be graduating with many stories to reminisce upon for years to come. Whether students are traditional or non-traditional, they will all have memories of what it means to be a KSC student; but what about all the other graduated classes? What happened to the alumni?

“Today, there are 180 alumni working on campus” said Patricia Farmer, director of alumni and parent relations.

Farmer is an alumnus as well, who graduated in 1992. Richard LeDuc, professor of English and American Studies held the position before her. He graduated in the late 1960s. Among other alumni, two faculty members wished to remain anonymous. However, they will be referred to as Henrietta, who graduated in 1970 and Leona, who graduated in 1978.

“It was so different back then,” LeDuc said. “The campus was a lot smaller and we didn’t have as many people as we do now.”

The campus was also set up differently.

“Appian Way used to be a street; cars would drive down it,” LeDuc said. “The quad used to be two tennis courts and there would be matches all the time.”

“Even the faculty used to play,” Henrietta said. “I also remember during rush week, instead of the frats putting up little signs lining Appian Way, they would paint on bed sheets and hang them on the tennis courts.”

“There were personal homes everywhere,” Leona said. “They were on Wyman Way and Appleton Street. There were houses where Butler Court is now and there were no Pondside dorms at all.”

“During my freshmen and sophomore years, Joslin was a school for nursing and the nursing dorms were also located there,” LeDuc said. “The dorms were different too. They were all either male or female; no co-ed dorms were allowed yet.”

Elliot Center used to be known as Elliot Community Hospital and was the hospital for all of Keene. The Student Center was called the Lloyd P. Young Student Union and was located in what is now known as Rhodes Hall. It was a requirement to take physical education in the 70s. The gym was in Rhodes Hall’s basement, which was fully equipped with a bowling alley to play candlepin and a curtain to hit golf balls into.

“The Student Union was the most social place on campus,” LeDuc said. “There were also three main frats: Kappa Delta Pi, Alpha Pi Tau, and Tique. Those were pretty popular too.”

“The Student Union used to be across the street [Main Street]. Now they changed it to the Historical Society. Can you imagine that?” Henrietta said.

“When I was there, the Active Outing club had just been started by Keith V. King,” LeDuc said. “He was a physical education professor. As far as clubs went, we had intramurals and rugby; all of your basic ones. Definitely not as many as there are now. There were the basic educational ones, like biology and chemistry.”

LeDuc explained how segregated KSC used to be between men and women.

“There used to be a Dean of Men and a Dean of Women,” LeDuc said. “There were only fraternities, no sororities. I also remember there being curfew hours for women. They had to be back at a certain hour every night. I think they got an extra hour on the weekends, but men didn’t have any hours.”

“I remember this one geography teacher I had who made the girls wear skirts to class,” Henrietta said. “It was part of her classroom policy.”

Today, students are a lot more laid back with their style of dress and aren’t pressured by their professors to wear a particular garment.

“I try to be comfortable, but I also try to look nice,” said junior Marisa Tomao. “I don’t go out of my way to dress up; my main concern is to be comfortable.”

Class registration was also a stressful time for students in the 70s.

“I remember dodging from building to building trying to get all my classes I wanted,” Henrietta said. “You see, we had a piece of paper that we needed to get our teachers to signature to sign up for classes. So we’d have to plan out which buildings to go to first because we needed a particular class.”

Tomao agreed.

“Sometimes it’s [registration week] stressful because sometimes you can’t get the classes you need,” she said. “But it’s easier when you’re a junior or senior because you get a better registration date.”

“It was kind of frustrating because some classes wouldn’t let you sign up for others online. It was kind of like a Catch-22 because in order to take one class I needed to be signed up for the other,” junior Kendra Evans said. “I think that by going to each professor, it would have been a lot easier for me.”

Other students find registration to be an easy experience.

“I was able to sign up for all my classes instantly,” said junior Stephanie Denefrio. “I didn’t think it was working at first because I’ve always had problems in the past.”

Could you imagine going to Fiske Hall’s basement to eat every day? In the 70s it was where the Dining Hall was located.

Henrietta also recalls spending the night at Keene for orientation, just like students can to do today.  

There were also no smoking policies on campus.

Students and professors alike were allowed to smoke in class as much as they wanted. Faculty were also allowed to smoke in their offices.

Technology was also different as time changed and years went by.

“We never had computers while I was here,” Leona said. “After I graduated, I came back to work in ’82. We had IBM typewriters. I used to dream of computers because if you made a mistake and you were trying to make five copies, you’d have to go through and correct each one.”

As far as clothing in the 70s, the faculty wore suits to work and the students were mostly hippies.

“They would dress in floating gauzy skirts and had bouffant, long matty hair,” Leona said. “There weren’t any tattoos or piercings yet. I think that got big around 15 years ago.”

Leona also described social gatherings the campus would have during the 70s during the Vietnam War. Some faculty helped instigate it too.

“There was a lot of awareness about the devastation during the war,” Leona said. “But overall, I’d say Keene State College has taught me about how to accept diversity, accept differences, and how to work with that diversity. I have learned to deal with people. This campus was not diverse at all when I went here, but it is slowly changing and becoming more diverse.”

College life was a little different in the 90s, however.

“When I went here they had just finished Holloway,” Farmer said. “The Zorn Dining Commons was in the Media Arts Center. There are lots more clubs now, but we had Greek life and the R.A.’s [Resident Assistant] would be together.”

There were also conflicts in history that took place during Farmer’s college life.

“We were in the middle of the Gulf War which was scary,” Farmer said. “I would lie in bed and listen to the radio about reports on the war. It was my first taste of conflict. Then there was the Pamela Smart case in 1991. That was huge.”

Later on there were some fads that reached Keene, N.H.

“Phish came to play at the Colonial Theater,” Farmer said. “There were many different shops on Main Street and the Colony Mill came in the late 80s.”

The Fiske Quad was a big hang out place for students as was the Student Center. 
Farmer said no one had personal computers. Instead, students would carry around floppy disks and would need to schedule lab time to do their homework.

However, the cost for making photocopies was the same as it is today, which is a grueling $10.

There have been so many changes to KSC’s campus and student life has been altered because of it. Just think of 20 to 30 years from now when you will have memories about college life back in the day. There are always more changes to come.

A centennial provides a great opportunity to stop and look back on time, to see the advancements and accomplishments that have happened in the past. However, time will go on, so we might as well start making memories for the next 100 years. 

Julia Hecht may be contacted by jhecht@keeneequinox.com.