Lawrence University

TIME AND TRADITIONS: 1960s


John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon campaign at Lawrence.


1963 Sharing the dream

Lawrence students and faculty support the civil rights movement by sponsoring a Civil Rights Week of lectures, raising money for the United Negro College Fund, collecting clothing for Mississippi blacks who tried to register to vote, and petitioning Appleton residents to support a boycott of national chain stores by Jackson, Mississippi, blacks who are demanding equal rights.

1963 Knight to Duke

President Douglas Knight leaves Lawrence to assume the presidency of Duke University.

1964 The consolidation

Lawrence College consolidates with Milwaukee-Downer College to become Lawrence University. The university symbolically continues to separate the identity of each institution by designating a Lawrence College for Men and a Downer College for Women. The consolidation is precipitated by a decline in enrollment at Milwaukee-Downer -- a trend occurring at women's colleges throughout the country. The M-D campus is sold to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and, as a result of the consolidation, 53 students and 21 faculty members, along with M-D's endowment of $13 million and items of historical and sentimental value, come to Lawrence. The sundial is moved to the south side of Main Hall by the M-D Class of 1932. A large grandfather clock, a favorite meeting place for M-D women when it stood outside the chapel in Merrill Hall, now chimes in the Seeley G. Mudd Library. A 1750 English Blond Oak clock ticks away time in Mursell Education Center, and a glass-sided timekeeper rests in Wilson House. The beloved Teakwood Room is removed piece-by-piece from the Chapman Memorial Library on the Downer campus to Jason Downer Commons as it is being built on the Lawrence campus. The rare book collection from the Chapman Library now rests securely in the Milwaukee-Downer Room of Seeley G. Mudd Library, along with treasured pieces of memorabilia.

Milwaukee-Downer's sundial is moved from Merrill Hall and
installed above the south entrance to Main Hall in 1976.

Milwaukee-Downer memorabilia, including the Flanders Clock, a collection of works by Charles Dickens
in original serial form, and a painting by M-D Professor of Art Emily Groom, are transferred to the Lawrence Campus.

1964 Buried boulder

Wearing sweatshirts saying "The Rock. We Saw. We Took. We Kept. Plantz Hall. 1967," Plantz residents pull the prank to end all pranks -- they bury The Rock near their residence hall.

1960s The wall


Appleton area residents and the Lawrence community are kept guessing, as they are today, at what students will memorialize on the Drew and Lawe streets retaining walls, which carry everything from slogans to program announcements to murals.

1965 G.E. and Banta Bowls

Lawrence University's College Bowl team brings fame for the college when it retires as a five-time winner of the General Electric College Bowl on CBS network television

The first football game is played in the Banta Bowl. Lawrence wins 26-21 against St. Olaf College.


1965 Trivia mania

Lawrence's first Trivia Weekend is initiated by J.B. de Rosset, '66. The campus radio station, WLFM, airs the questions while students organize teams, stockpile soda and snacks, scour the library for answers, and scribble notes on every conceivable subject. A year later, Lawrence opens the trivia contest to the Appleton community. Aired by WLFM, Lawrence's Annual Midwest Trivia Contest is the nation's oldest.

1967 Guten Tag!

Lawrence establishes its first overseas study center in Boennigheim, West Germany. It is replaced by the London Study Center and language department seminars in Munich, Paris, and Madrid or Mexico in 1969.

WLFM begins full-time stereo broadcasting. Student volunteers broadcast a wide range of music 12 hours daily on 91.1 on the FM dial. Three daily newscasts, many Lawrence athletic events, and educational programs also are aired.

1967 Vietnam War protests begin

Lawrence students protest the Vietnam War throughout the late '60s and early '70s by fasting for 48 hours, jamming draft board operations, holding a candlelight procession for Kent State shooting victims, picketing recruiting offices, and organizing a march to the local courthouse.


1969 Other objections

A group of nearly 100 dissident Lawrence students take over Wilson House, the administration building which houses President Curtis Tarr's office, to protest the university's dormitory visitation and drug policies. They seek a nonpunitive drug policy and open dorms. Although their demands are not met, they peacefully leave after 17 hours.

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