Commencement
. On May 24, Clarkson awarded a record 623 degrees: 496 bachelor's, 116
master's, and 11 PhDs.
Distinguished Teaching Award
. This honor was reinstituted after a hiatus of six years, and
bestowed on Professor Joseph Scaturro of the Department of Industrial Distribution. (See
Appendix III)
New Curriculum
. In fall 1970, the faculty introduced new undergraduate programs in all three
schools. This new curricula required only 124 credit hours for undergraduate majors, effective
with the Class of 1974; changed the emphasis in major areas of study; and introduced greater
flexibility for students in their choice of electives.
One of the reductions involved reducing the number of required liberal studies courses
from eight (one per semester) to six, thereby dissolving the required four-semester History of
Western Civilization sequence. (See 1966)
Faculty Senate Actions
. Since its beginning in 1965, and its recognition by the Board of
Trustees in 1967, the Faculty Senate concerned itself with advising the president on matters of
policy.
It recommended a new tenure policy, worked out guidelines for reappointment and
promotion of faculty, promulgated a sabbatical leave policy, called for student representation on
College committees, initiated the recognition of distinguished teachers, and established an inter-
college cross-registration program emerging from the Associated College Consortium.
Student Senate Formed
. To help the Faculty Senate, the Student Council, formerly concerned
with mainly allocating money from student fees to student organizations, reorganized itself into
a Student Senate, and began to assert student participation in College policy matters. Working
closely with the Faculty Senate, the Student Senate appointed representatives to joint faculty-
student committees to handle such immediate matters as public order on the campus, the status
of ROTC at Clarkson, grievance procedures, and teacher evaluations for every course.
Disorder on Campus
. On April 17, 1970, at the height of the Vietnam war, some Clarkson
students decided to hold a "peace review" in front of Snell Hall on the day before Clarkson's
ROTC contingent was to hold its President's Annual ROTC Review that preceded Moving-Up
Day ceremonies on Saturday, April 18. Their meeting was to discuss possible reactions to the
ROTC corps march from the review in the Alumni Gym to the Moving-Up Day ceremonies in
the Arena. At that meeting, demonstrators replaced the College flag with a peace flag.
Then, moving up Elm Street to the ROTC building, the crowd began to harass the
military by threatening to "levitate" the building. Including the son of Tran Van Dinh, former
Vietnamese general and foreign minister, these anti-war demonstrators then moved back to
Snell Hall lawn where one of the student leaders asked people to "bring a rock" to that parade.
Clarkson administrators interpreted those remarks as evidence that some form of
demonstration or confrontation was scheduled to occur during that review in the gym.
Therefore, to forestall any possible violence, they decided to restrict admission to the gym by
admitting the public to the review through only one entrance; anyone "equipped with any
implement which might be used violently" was to be barred admittance.
