back then NMU,
class of
’68
Concerts, festivals, the Vietnam War: a look at a year at odds with itself By John Cebalo
“The idea of a co-ed dorm was a lurid novelty even as far back as 1968.” Tom Wolfe, In Our Time.
T
here’s so much that can be said about NMU in the late ‘60s, but perhaps this excerpt from a May 24, 1968 Northern News Letter to the Editor sums it up best: “I cannot begin to describe to you the horror, chagrin, and genuine disgust I felt as I witnessed Northern’s young adult students frolicking madly about in the mud created in front of Spalding Hall Tuesday night. Not only were individual rights infringed upon, but also their bodies, clothes and personal belongings. Roving bands of students preyed upon innocent bystanders and passerbys. They were subject to the discomfort of a mud
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Marquette Monthly
bath.” There were several threads which led up to this event that can be traced back to earlier in the year. What is there left to say about 1968? The year was energized. It wasn’t all negative energy either, and the positive energy ran across the entire spectrum from the ethereal to the goofy. Northern began the Spring Semester with an enrollment of 6,500. In January “ Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges” listed several Marquette County Northern students: Constance Hill (Ishpeming); Cheryl Anderson, Raymond Gudegast, Linda Heathman, Mary Jo Mulligan, Mary Pace, and Suzanne Somers (Marquette); Peggy Dompierre, Norman Munson, and Jan Sivula (Negaunee); Jean Coleman
September 2021
(Skandia). Mary Pace would later be named Northern’s Outstanding Senior Woman. All Events Week came the next month. Competition took place in sports, for Campus Sweetheart and in snow statue building. The guys vied in a half-dozen outdoor events, of which broomball, played on the field between Hedgcock Fieldhouse and Forest Roberts, was the most popular. Co-eds competed in Polar Bear Volleyball and “tobogganing.” Tobogganing was where several laughing, woefully under-dressed girls, clinging together on a cafeteria tray, slid down a snowy hillside toward the inevitable pileup at the bottom. However, for the automotive-inclined, there was the Volkswagen Race behind Spooner. Following a Le Mans Start, 11 girls pushed a