Springfield Technical Community College - Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

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The occupation begins President Garvey is evicted from his office. hal or to an instructor whose volume made him audible. Alternate routes from the classroom were also possible. At least one student is known to have left the room the hard way — over the wall. Despite these definite disadvantages, the school grew and more room was necessary. The houses on campus, once the homes of Army officers attached to the Armory, were converted for classrooms and laboratory use by the Allied Health Technologies until permanent quarters were established for these departments. The need for a larger and more modern physical plant is obvious when these figures, the approximate enrollments for each of the last seven years, are considered: 1967,600; 1968,1050; 1969, 1900; 1970, 2150; 1971, 2500; 1972, 3000; 1973, 3260. The physical expansion began in 1971 when Building 20 began to undergo a complete renovation and to expand by two full stories. In the midst of the noise and confusion, classes continued. Finally, in 1972, the building was complete and housed the bookstore, the cafeteria, the Nursing, Physical Therapy, Operating Room Technicians, Medical Lab Assistants, Radiology, Respiratory Therapy, Mental Health, Electrical, Dental Hygiene, Dental Assistants, Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Bio- Medical, Physics, and Social Sciences departments. While work was still being done on the first building, several of the houses were torn down, as well as a large wing

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Officer ' s Club - 1967. Quarters 4 5, 1966 Building 27 - 1966. Buidling 20 - 1967. were hardly ideal classrooms. It was necessary to alter the buildings, and much of the altering was done by faculty members during the summers of 1967 and 1968. It is hard to picture the corridors and soundproof rooms of Building 20 today as the temporary rooms of the early days. It is harder still to picture the vast spaces left by the departure of the Armory machinery and equipment. However, 600 students and 42 faculty members had to be put somewhere, and the needed rooms were renovated and completed by the faculty and staff in time for the opening of the school year in September. The buildings echoed the sounds of hammers and drills and the crashing of some existing walls and the building of others. Since, even then, it was known that these were only temporary measures, the existing heating and lighting fixtures were left in place or walls were constructed around them. Because, in part, of the height of the ceilings and the long strips of fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling, the rooms were only walls, eight feet high. The ceilings were higher and the divisions between rooms perforated to accommodate the lights. Faculty and students of this period recall that it was quite impossible to be bored in class. If the subject being taught lacked interest, the student could listen in to what was going on next door. He could also eavesdrop on conversations taking place in the 3

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of Building 27, in order to make room for the construction of the new Humanities Building and the Roger L. Putnam Physical Sciences Building. Both of these face the Green, part of the National Historical Site. The Humanities Building was occupied in September, 1973, and the Putnam Science Building is slated for completion in 1974. Pictures of existing structures, and statistics, are fine for citing one aspect of the way we were several years ago. It is not so easy to pin down the way we felt, the way we looked at STCC, and the way we looked at ourselves. For some, it was just a year, or two, of classes that had to be attended and courses that had to be taken and days that had to be gotten through. For others, it was the best time in their lives. For still more, it was an experience, an adventure. Certainly things have changed a great deal in the visual sense. One can see the difference in the comparison of the soundproof, well-lighted rooms, the lounges, the increased facilities for the comfort of the students. The other changes are not so visible, but they are as profound. There are more courses and they are improved. STCC ' s students are now able to apply to and be accepted at other colleges. Our faculty has grown proportionately with the student body. Our students are, according to most teachers, better than they ever were. There are more events which bring the students back to STCC for things other than classes: the movies, for 5