College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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utslde influences intruded nce more in the winter months as nusually cold arctic weather ripped the nation in a strange old. William and Mary, like the illions of other innocent by- tanders caught in the fuel runch, could do nothing as emer- ency orders from the government urned thermostats down to a cool G5 degrees and firms in the area ere forced to slash their bus- ess hours. Students found it ard to believe that for the rst time in their lives they ad to Ht everyday activities uch as grocery shopping and rips to the deli around sched- les other than theirown. Despite the interruptions in daily routine, the collegecom- munity seemed to adjust. Admin- istrators adopted thrifty spend- ing habitsg debate publicity left our consenfative colonial image unscathedg the weather warmed, the snow melted, and bus inesses reopened for full-time service. For brief Bicentennial minutes the world recognized William and Mary as the Alma Mater of a Nation, founder of Phi Beta Kappa, and home of the oldestacademic building in use today. Nevertheless, students sunbathed in the Sunken Gardens, strolled down Duke of Gloucester Street on April evenings, and stole illegal swims from murky Matoaka, safe in their four- year artificial environment. Tmcks and workmen surround 'Phi Beta Kappa Hall before the Presidential Debate. . A cannon ensconced onfthe Wren lawn ipointstoward Duke of Gloucester Street. INTRODUCTION' 3

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eluged with over 5,000 applications in i975-76, the Admissions Office was faced with the task of selecting l,O4O freshmen from applicants all over the world. A state-supported school, William and Mary concen- trated on atttracting Virginia's best and brightest students. A required seventy percent ofthe student population resided in the Old Dominion, while out-of- state students mostly hailed from New jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. Labeled highly competitive by Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, the reasons for apply- ing to William and Mary varied from academic prestige to the colonial charms of 18th century Williamsburg to the relatively low tuition fee. Those accepted generally held SAT scores around 1200, ranked in the top ten per- cent of their class, and listed extracurricular activities from varsity team captain to newspaper editor. The people who inhabited the William and Mary campus, attended its classes, and crammed in its library were basically a homo- genous group. Characterized by high-achievement oriented per- sonalities, they, together with a superior faculty, created a highly-competitive academic atmosphere which per- vaded the campus, and often led one to believe that nothing in the world was more important than that G.P.A. I , ' l INTRODUCTION 5