1960s

1962

Mother Cottey's House Razed

The old Cottey house, where V.A.C. Stockard's mother lived, is razed to make way for the new library.¹ It was 71 years old, having been built in 1891.

Students carry books across the highway to the new library, 1963.²

1963

Ross Memorial Library

The Blanche Skiff Ross Memorial Library is built where Mother Cottey's house used to stand, finally replacing the library in Main Hall.

1964

First Black Students

Black students attend Cottey for the first time. Dr. Dow tells the Lions Club (with typical rhetoric for the time), "The college struggled in theory with integration for years and now has two Negro students from Arkansas. Both students are fine citizens and do excellent college work."³

Senior officers Pam, Barb, Bev, Judy, and Jan stand in front of the retired D.J. case in 1965.⁴

1965

Traditions Ban

February: 75% of the senior class votes to "retire the duck and the duck jacket as symbols of senior superiority," although this number does not seem to reflect the general opinion of seniors on traditions and the duck.⁴ Most duck jackets are confiscated and shipped to the Appalachian mountains, although a few are saved by alumnae. Hermann the Duck, the class mascot, is banned from campus until 1971.

Quad-C Week

Students vote to replace Cottey’s World University Service (WUS) participation with a "Campus Chest Fund."³ Thus, WUS Week becomes Quad-C (Cottey College Campus/Community Chest) week.

1966

Student Protest

Students protest the removal of Cottey's trees along Austin Boulevard (Highway 54), which is being widened from two to four lanes. A handful of seniors discuss chaining themselves to the trees, but decide to picket at the front of P.E.O. Hall instead. They are ignored, though, and the paving continues.

The second BIL Lodge, c. 1968.

Students look over the charred remains of BIL Lodge, 1966.⁶

Lodge Burns Down

February: B.I.L. Hill Lodge mysteriously burns down, and a new one is erected the following winter.

Improvements

Improvements are made all over Cottey campus.⁵ A projection booth is constructed in Rosemary Auditorium for Sunday night movies. P.E.O. Hall's parlors are decorated in blue and white. Iowa, Pope, and Cal-Weller suites are redecorated and refurnished. "IBM machines" are installed in Main Hall, and a new biology lab is opened.

Mary models the new powder-blue fcc sweatshirt, c. 1967.

Juniors Become Freshmen

Cottey juniors become "freshmen." The cSc (Cottey senior class) and fcc (freshmen Cottey class) acronyms and insignia are adopted. The new class colors are navy blue for seniors and "baby blue" for freshmen.

1967

Cottey Sign Torn Down

November: Vandals tear down the sign at the entrance to B.I.L. Hill ― the second occurrence in six months.¹⁰

Semester Change

Cottey changes its calendar so that first semester ends before winter break.

Students Protest the Ousting of Professor

Mar. 10: President McCarrel fires psychology professor John L. Kostoryz for unknown reasons.⁷ Kostoryz is given his "reassignment" notice on Friday, requiring him to leave campus within 24 hours. Upon hearing the news that evening, students gather in the chapel basement, but are quickly told that they cannot assemble on Cottey campus. The students, numbering 150, relocate to the Armory tennis courts on West Cherry Street to discuss their next actions.

To dissuade a possible protest, McCarrel agrees to meet with students Saturday morning, but refuses to give a reason for the dismissal. McCarrel’s statement, which he regurgitates to students and press, is that he acted upon "the recommendation of the Administrative Council."

Kostoryz did not attend the meeting, but later circulated a mimeographed letter among the students. He offered neither explanation nor defense, stating:

Although such a meeting might remove the air of suspicion overhanging the dismissal, it would also serve to further alienate many of the students from the administration. . . . The effects of a public meeting with the students might also conceivably harm the petition of my case to [an] organization concerned with professional ethics – an appeal which I assure you will be made.⁸

[Editor’s Note: No record of such an appeal has been found to date.]