"At some point you become a local," says Feldman. "You view things differently--you start reading the [Boston] Globe and Cambridge Chronicle every day."

Watching Changes

These five members of the Class of 1966 have vivid memories of their undergraduate years at Harvard, and have had the opportunity to watch things change. One such change is the integration of Harvard and Radcliffe in 1977.

Feldman remembers herself as a timid first-year in 1962, on her way to the first session of a freshman seminar. The seminar was being held at the Faculty Club, and women were not allowed in the front door.

"I had to go in the basement door," Feldman recalls. "Today, I can't even believe that was the case."

Brandenburg recounts the policy of 'parietal hours,' where Harvard students were allowed to sign a woman into their room during certain designated hours.

"The house master would come check," he says, if the students weren't signed out by the right time.

As Radcliffe students, Field says, "we weren't allowed to wear pants in Harvard Square." In addition, women weren't allowed to set foot into Lamont Library, she remembers.

Having seen Harvard both before and after the change, the alumni all praise the integration.

"The complete freedom of exchange was totally unheard of," says Feldman. "It's the healthiest thing that could have possibly happened."

Friedman cites diversity of the student body as another important change.

"The place has benefitted enormously from the racial diversity and integration," he says. "There are more non-white undergraduates in my class of 150 this semester than were in the College when I was here."

Also, students 25 years ago weren't as politically conscious as they are today, the alumni say.

"Students are much more involved in political issues than they were then," says Brandenburg.

He recalls "probably the most radical thing we did": one warm spring night, after the Metropolitan District Commission announced that it wanted to tear down trees along Memorial Drive to build overpasses, a group of students walked down to the river and began chanting "Save the Sycamores" in protest.