Binghamton University - Colonist / Pegasus Yearbook (Vestal, NY)

Page 10 text:

The Oasis Tea Room The vets were tough and town-gown relations were often strained, but their reputation as guys who could eat spiked shoes was severely hurt when a twenty-three year old freshman was stabbed by some punks from Union-Endicott High. After that, the college roughs could never gain back the psy- chological edge they had gained when the punks knew that these were men who had swallowed shrap- nel somewhere in the blue Pacific. Town-gown relationships were often strained About the time of the stabbing, the State Uni- versity of New York grabbed the foundling from Syra- cuse and T.C.C. became Harpur College, Queen of the Liberal Arts. Now that the State ruled over the Endicott fire trap, the Provost, Glenn Gardner Bartle, could see his dreams realized. It was Dr. Bartle who coined the phrase I have a dream. It was Mr. Belniak, then an Instructor in Citizenship, who coined the phrase those who don't know his- tory are doomed to repeat it. Bartle's dreams were almost shattered by the Korean War which brought with it the fear that Harpur's males might be drafted. He said at that time: even if mobilization should remove all male students, we shall carry a full program. However, the American people placed Dwight Eisenhower s into the White House, and a just and honorable peace was made. SRR . and if they are all drafied In 1951, the school was officially dedicated and Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, former candidate for President of the United States, came to the Triple Cities to dedicate the school. The campus police and all the dignitaries greeted the governor. People who had wondered how Mr. Dewey had been able to capture the hearts of all Americans in 1948 wondered no more when they heard his extremely moving speech. I dedicate. Harpur College this solemn night, pledged to truth. I dedicate it pledged to the idea of free- dom on this earth, pledged to the concept that the dignity of mankind is more important than any other course, pledged to faith in the nght and the sure knowledge thal fauth in the nght will triumph in the end. These noble words did not alter the life on the dingy Endicott campus. The overhead pipes were still gathering rust. The school had a continually large turnover of faculty, but was becoming less vet-orien- tated.

Page 9 text:

The dining facilities were overcrowded and drafty The thaw caused flooding and three feet of Gods own water in the parking lot caused general distress. Noise continued as high school bands started practicing on the football field bordering the E. J. clubhouse and a new dimension was added as a family of skunks established residence underneath the Colonial Building and was never, ever removed. By the end of the first year it was clear that the pre- fabs were shoddy and that the dining facilities were overcrowded and drafty. Some of the faculty we had a real bunch of screw balls were found to be wanting and the mortality rate among profs was staggering. Thirty young profs left en masse and went to California and formed a Harpur College in exile. By the end of that first year, many would echo the sentiments of a veteran teacher who de- clared it was a depressing place. I wouldnt go back for anything in the world. Flooding caused geneval distress It is thus clear, dear reader, that Triple-Cities College was, in a physical sense, an academic out- house. If this is so, what explains the fondness which many misty-eyed alumni and glassy-eyed faculty mem- bers look back upon those somewhat tossed-salad days? Because, things were simpler then. Familiarity was bred, to a point almost beyond endurance, in the womb-like environs of T.C.C. Things were simpler then For the students, it was a rugged life. The stu- dents had a rough and ready enthusiasm: they drank hard, played hard, worked hard and, as far as exist- ing data permits to conjecture, loved hard. Students had rough and ready enthusiasm The students found that local dives were with- in walking distance and the Main Street Bar and Grill, now fabled in song and story, was a second home to many. If legend is correct, however, nothing could compare with the Oasis Tea Room, where lilt- ing, inscrutable odors of the East mixed with the occasional flash of a diamond to create an atmos- phere which even in memory paralyzes the senses, and makes mice out of the strongest men.

Page 11 text:

was going to be picked up and brough$to anfacademic mecca. The students were happy with the he the townspeople were happy. It has beetis this mutual happiness was due to a shared reason: the Harpur people wanted to get out of contact with the good burghers of Endicott, and the feeling of the Endicott people was similarly inclined toward a parting. So a site was picked - an idyllic, rolling area where the student could communicate with na- ture and the universals the kind of school Henry Thoreau would have attended, or Rousseau, or Joe Louis. Midst mooing cows, and cooing doves, where the grass was tall, and children small, a place where dogs were wont to run in the summer sun - here the State University of New York decided to dump its bricks. Here would Bartle's dream be built, here would the settler's lives be staked. The verdant pastures of Vestal? Construction began and the buildings, done in stately brick, began to rise. The move from the Colonial Building was done with great ceremony and all knew that if an old era were passing then cer- tainly, inevitably, logically and irresistably, a new era was coming. . Men and materials . . . Men and materials began to be moved over to the new campus and a gym began to rise. When the dormitories were constructed, students rode back and forth in the bus going to classes and having meals in Endicott and sleeping in Vestal, where there was nought but a great sea of mud. The old-timers were a little uneasy in the antiseptic dormitories having gained an affinity for the earthy home life in historic old Endicott, and the entering students were struck by the schizo- phrenia of a split campus. The hardest hit groups, according to observers, were the students who had lived off-campus in Endicott where practically every- thing wasoff-campusor who had participated in good times at James dormitory, a sort of latter-day House of the Rising Sun. For them, the sterile quarters in Vestal came as something of a cultural shock and the apathy of the period can be traced to the trauma of those who had known the Endicott campus where things were simpler. . . began mouing The gym was dedicated by Harriman in 1958, and by the fall of 1960, the move was complete good-by to Endicott, the home of the Square Deal. Midst the bands playing and the people lining the street to wave good-by to the students and adminis- trators, faculty and friends, tears could be seen in the eyes of the crustiest observers. Farewell to the home of the Square Deal