Alumni Reflect on Harvard

Even though shiny pates and khakis have replaced the sideburns and bell-bottoms, it felt like old times as hundreds of alumni stood in front of House dining halls yesterday, trading anecdotes and recalling their tumultuous days as undergraduates.

Twenty-five years have passed since they tuned in and turned on, but members of the Class of 1971 seem to agree that their Harvard experience--and the politics of protest that surrounded it--is still relevant to their lives today.

"After college, you didn't take anything for granted," said Michael Shear '71, a Crimson editor and former classics concentrator.

Others agreed.

"It was the events which shaped college," said former Leverett House resident Wesley C. Gryk '71. "The strikes forced us to realize that there were questions in the world without simple answers...to realize that good grades and extracurriculars, things we had worked at our whole lives, were not what life is all about."

Paul P. Perrochi '71, former station manager for WHRB, echoed Gryk's sentiment.

"I still believed in eighth grade civics when I came to Harvard. And then you had all the stuff with Vietnam. This message of exploitation, and the economic realities, and how so much boiled down to class," he said. "I learned how much hatred there was out there, how much discrimination."

He added that the hatred he saw during Vietnam protests prepared him for the challenges he would face as a gay man in today's world.

For most returning class members, academic and extracurricular experiences were inextricable from the era's political events.

Gryk recalled his history and literature tutorials turning into protest meetings, where Shear said section discussion generally moved beyond the syllabi and became preoccupied with the contemporary political unrest.

Even lighthearted frolics became loaded with social implications.

"I just remember the pool. Remember that we had hours when suits were optional in the pool?" Henry J. Sommer '71, a former Adams House Committee member asked a group of friends.

Other classmates also had fond memories of skinny-dipping in the Adams House pool.

"We had 'token suit hours' from about 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.," Paul E. Tebbets '71, a former House chair of Students for a Democratic Society, said "It made it very easy to get a date if you were from Adams House because the assumption was that you would somehow end up in the pool."

The undergraduates' nude antics caused more upheaval than they had expected. Alumni said that as a result of their actions, older alumni felt both alienated and outraged--and withheld funds from the House after a picture of two nude students, wet from the pool, was published in the 1970 yearbook

For most returning class members, academic and extracurricular experiences were inextricable from the era's political events.

Gryk recalled his history and literature tutorials turning into protest meetings, where Shear said section discussion generally moved beyond the syllabi and became preoccupied with the contemporary political unrest.

Even lighthearted frolics became loaded with social implications.

"I just remember the pool. Remember that we had hours when suits were optional in the pool?" Henry J. Sommer '71, a former Adams House Committee member asked a group of friends.

Other classmates also had fond memories of skinny-dipping in the Adams House pool.

"We had 'token suit hours' from about 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.," Paul E. Tebbets '71, a former House chair of Students for a Democratic Society, said "It made it very easy to get a date if you were from Adams House because the assumption was that you would somehow end up in the pool."

The undergraduates' nude antics caused more upheaval than they had expected. Alumni said that as a result of their actions, older alumni felt both alienated and outraged--and withheld funds from the House after a picture of two nude students, wet from the pool, was published in the 1970 yearbook