Alumni Association 135 Years

1960s - 1970s

The rise of the new University Library

The master plan for the expansion of UMass Amherst, which followed the postwar surge in birthrate, brought many new construction projects to campus. As of 1957, the UMass Building Association (founded and staffed by alumni) had already constructed 17 buildings valued at over $8 million. This expansion came just in the nick of time—only a few years later UMass Amherst President John W. Lederle reported that the student body had increased 70% from the previous four years to 10,497 in 1964. President Lederle was a champion of the campus expansion and the university’s transition to a research institution. He called higher education “essential” to civilized society.

 

Classes continued while construction
took place
In turn, the Associate Alumni was viewed as essential to the continued growth of UMass Amherst. Associate Alumni officer John W. Swenson ’40 said in the June 1970 Massachusetts Alumnus that, “As far as the alumni association is concerned, [President Lederle] has done more than any previous president to meld it into the University. The Associate Alumni and its staff are now part of the University structure, and I, for one, am delighted. Now everybody can pull in the same direction; we are bound to be effective.”

Although there was a strong sense of pulling together to continue building the university, the 70s saw the rise of activism against the Vietnam War, which pulled the campus apart across political lines. Feelings ran high on both sides among students and alumni, but strong arguments for freedom of speech prevailed at UMass Amherst, and the violence experienced at other campuses did not happen.

 

Protests on campus in the 1970s

The expansion program of the Lederle years eventually succumbed to the state's fiscal downturn toward the mid-70s. According to The Alumnus in February 1976, the Associate Alumni responded to these difficult fiscal circumstances by channeling aid to students and academic programs.

“More than $40,000… will be funneled directly into UMass scholarship programs, including a new alumni-initiated program in which forty $500 grants will be awarded to juniors with outstanding academic records at the University. The program was initiated by the Associate Alumni especially to award students of high academic achievement, regardless of financial status, according to John O’Connell Jr., acting director of Alumni and Annual Fund.”

The Associate Alumni also made a donation of $5,000 to the Film Studies program in 1976. “The alumni funds have been used to purchase a number of films for a permanent library, thereby eliminating the high costs previously paid in order to rent such films. … We couldn’t teach some of our courses without it,” said Prof. Dick Stromgren, of Communications Studies.

The Alumni Association continued to grow and develop as an influential force. In our next installment, we’ll look at the role the Association played in UMass Amherst history during the 1980s and 90s.

Read about the Alumni Association’s beginnings as we celebrate 135 years of service to students, alumni and the university.
1874 - 1920s
1930s - 1950s

Special thanks to the Special Collections & University Archives