For a first-year who had never taken a collegeexam, the possibility of a mega-final wasnone-too-appealing, Haynes says, and she stumbledout of UHS, a pink Band-Aid covering the placewhere the fluid drip went into her arm.

"It was the worst health experience and theworst academic experience of my life, all rolledinto one," she says.

On Feb. 23, a state police helicopter hoveringabove the Charles River plummeted 400 feet fromthe sky, crashing into the Harvard Yacht Club,home of the undergraduate sailing team. While theonly casualties were the four passengers, Harvardgrandmothers across the country panicked as thenational media reported the accident as if tosuggest that an aircraft had hit a building oncampus.

Just one week later, bullets flew through acrowded Harvard Square as an armored car drivertried to choke an attempted heist. The onlyvictims of his gunfire were two of the assailants.But the March 2 shootout made it an eventfulafternoon for passerby.

"I was just walking out of a gate atWigglesworth when I heard the shots go off,"recalls Guy V. Cimbalo '98. "I hungaround...stupidly I guess."

April was dominated by the Gina Grant debate.The young woman had been offered early admission,but her acceptance was quickly rescinded when theFAS Standing Committee on Undergraduate Admissionsreceived word that Grant had killed her mother in1990.

The national media followed these developmentsalmost obsessively until word was leaked thatGrant had lied to her alumni interviewer. Grantwent to Tufts University, but the spotlight didnot follow her to Somerville.

The eventful year ended on a tragic note when,on May 28, Sinedu Tadesse '96 fatally stabbed herDunster House roommate, Trang P. Ho '96, 45 timesand then took her own life by hanging herself inthe shower.

Victor Chiappa '98 was Tadesse's lab partnerthat year. In a recent interview, the senior saysthat incident gave him some reason to ponder overhis first college summer.

"You develop roommate trust, especiallyfreshman year, when it is the first time on ourown," he says. "When you hear about something likethat, it just throws off everything you've builtin your mind."

Like many in his class, Chiappa says his firstyear was a wild ride.

"One day you wake up and all your friends areill, another day your friend is walking throughthe Square and there's a shootout," he says. "Itmade our parents ask, `Where the hell are you?'"

Getting Down to Business

The Undergraduate Council's spring session of1995 was winding down in typical fashion. Anotherscandal had arisen--not unusual for a group thathad seen accusations of everything fromballot-stuffing to embezzlement over the previousyears--and as usual, a group of war-hawks from thejunior and senior classes was pushing for theimpeachment of the council president.

The First-Year Caucus--a group that gainedcohesiveness with the entry of the Class of1998--was not yet ensconced in the bitter partisanstruggle being waged above. It had other things onits mind, from finding ways to give student groupsthe money they wanted to pushing for popularelections of council officers.