"A lot of this [activism] was initially in campuses other than Harvard's, and Harvard was playing a catch-up game," he says.

Thomas J. Schneider '73 agrees that activism was not overwhelming during his undergraduate years.

"[Activists were] a minority in the class," he says. "Most of the class was probably less political than in the years preceding."

While they may have been less activist, the class of 1973 was devoutly liberal.

Schneider, who was the vice president of the Republican Club and an anti-war activist, says more moderate Republicans "were sort of nonentities."

"If anybody was conservative, they were really embarrassed," says Louise Reed Ritchie '73. "They stood out as being really different than the average student."

A small minority of pro-war students started Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). As anti-war demonstrators rallied to burn the ROTC building, formerly located on Francis Ave., YAF members stood on its roof.

Laszlo Pazstor Jr. '73, who founded YAF, recalls getting anonymous death threats.

"I definitely felt like a stranger and an outsider," he says. "It was a constant struggle."

Certain protests and strikes left their mark on the community. In response to the United States' bombing of Cambodia, a large majority of students stopped going to class, leaving many professors to cancel their final exams.

For some, this meant going to Washington for protests. Melvoin describes busloads of Harvard students who flocked to the capital, saying. "It was an amazing time."

The War

Much of the activism during the class' years at Harvard centered around the Vietnam War.

While few Harvard students fought in the war--many took student deferments in order to stay home--it still affected the lives of the class.

"There was a tremendous amount of guilt, [both] from people who were taking student deferments and from living in this society and feeling that our government was doing something wrong in our names," Morse says.