Wellesley High School - Wellesleyan Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

Page 7 text:

Courtesy of the Boston Globe President Ford came in with great expectations. However, the energy crisis still stole from consumers’ pockets. However, even with his Whip Inflation Now (WIN) campaign. President Ford was unable to achieve a significant improvement of the nation ' s economy before the November elections, and, par¬ tially for this reason, the results heavily favored lib¬ eral, Democratic candidates. Faced with pressing foreign and domestic dilemmas, the rejuvenated Congress was to receive the test of crisis time. Although sheltered by our secure suburban com¬ munity from the turmoil of the world around us, we, too, felt its daily effect. Housewives were con¬ fronted by repeated increases in the price of sugar or meat or bread at the supermarket, and student ■ expe¬ rienced the spiraling costs of dating and other social activities. A new, post-Watergate morality inspired public scrutiny of political practices. Rven in Wellesley, a Republican stronghold, conservatism lost ground to the new liberal trend, as shown by the surprising strength of the Democratic guberna¬ torial candidate, Michael Dukakis among Wellesley voters. Wellesley’s traditions remain, but the events of 1974 have profoundly influenced our future. The sacred cow of India was becoming steadily more revered in America. 3

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Turmoil Was Evident on the National and International Scenes. Economic turmoil. Rampant terrorism. Energy and food shortages. The nations of the world were besieged by an onslaught of increasingly serious dilemmas. The Western countries were stunned by the Arab sheiks’ discovery of oil as a tool for political power. Skyrocketing cur¬ rencies disrupted the economies of Western Europe, the United States, and Japan and forced reevaluations of foreign and domestic policies. Terrorist violence claimed lives in Britain, Ireland, Israel and other areas; Cyprus was torn by civil war and subsequent Turkish interven¬ tion. Finally, the third world began to assert its majority control in the United Nations which helped lead to vigorous attempts to create a world-wide effort to relieve the endemic famine of poorer countries. The United States also experienced momentous domestic changes. As a result of increasing public outrage over the Watergate affair, the House Judiciary Committee’s lopsided vote for impeachment, and the forced release of incriminating tapes, Mr. Nixon became the first Presi¬ dent to resign from office. Inheriting the domestic woes of the Nixon administration, President Gerald Ford showed, at first, surprising vigor in his decisions to grant conditional amnesty and to nominate the con¬ troversial figure of Nelson Rockefeller as Vice-President. Courtesy of The Boston Globe Ex-President Nixon indicates successor. Wellesley Resident and Defense Counsel for Nixon, James St. Clair busied himself on a new client’s case. In the high school library, Rep. Heckler responded to questions Governor-elect Michael Dukakis seemed confident in debate with ex-Governor Frank Sargeant. with a smile. She was one of the few re-elected Republicans. 2

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Wellesley Senior High School Faced Loss of Accreditation After repeated failures since 1968 of the Wellesley School Committee to produce a viable plan for additional high school facili¬ ties, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. voted to rescind Wellesley High School’s accreditation, after December 1975, unless the town acted affirmatively to redress the inadequacies of the High School plant. The unexpected action of the accredit¬ ing agency was sparked by a July 1974 refer¬ endum in which the townspeople rejected the latest proposal for an addition by a four to one margin. Spiraling construction costs caused many residents to view the recommen¬ dation as too expensive and, for the first time in over thirty years, the public reversed an approved town meeting article. Ironically, the town spent $50,000 on preliminary plans and $395,000 on final plans for the renovation proposal. Industrial arts lacked adequate facilities. Children surveyed wreckage of Kingsbury fire. 4