The story link is attached. It shows only ‘photos’ of the original pages of Life magazine, ads and all, so the verbiage cannot be copied and pasted.
As I read the story, Al Miles ---who became Dean of Students in the summer of 1969---became, as he wanted to be, a catalyst for change toward student involvement in college administration. Monsignor Fleming was a very charming and amiable man, who was thrust into the role of acting SHU president when Bishop Dougherty was no longer there (I am not sure how or why this happened in late 1968. Illness?). The clergy were still stunned and trying to redefine themselves after the radical --- and beneficial --- changes of Vatican II. We ‘Baby-Boomers’ were the first generation to have and to be able to do or to use all of the things that we did: TV, rock-n-roll, transistor radios, used cars, telephones in the common household, and, yes, drugs. Unlike our parents and (mostly) immigrant grandparents, Boomers always were asking ''Why?'' The independent spirit of the times---which took hold earlier on many higher profile campuses (Columbia, Berkeley, Harvard, etc.)---eventually percolated down to South Orange, too. The story touches on the no-nonsense working class families, the authoritative RAs (Resident Assistants) and some of the dorm restrictions I enumerated above. SHU was even more a school of dayhops in the 1960s. The ‘new’ wing of Boland Hall wasn’t opened to students until Spring, 1967. The ‘monse’---as we called him---was caught between a rock and a hard place, and IMHO O’Keefe (whom I knew) and Girgenti (whom I did not know) were feeling their oats and trying to emulate some of what was being publicized all over the media in those years. IMHO it was probably when they realized how far and fast things seemed to be transpiring, that they ''offered the olive branch’’---but IMHO they also might have been seeking some sanctuary from either revolution or reactionary crack-down. But I wasn’t there.
I take umbrage at the sarcastic and condescending tone of the writer, especially his mocking exact quotation of various malaprops the students used. IMHO the whole thing---which I had heard about only vaguely at the time---was truly a ‘tempest in a teapot’, much ado about nothing. I was not even aware that Al Miles had been a dean. I still don’t know how long he lasted or where he went after SHU.
Donnie, IMHO it sounded much more dramatic than it probably was.
This post was edited on 3/14 10:54 PM by Old_alum
Life November 1969
