1970s University Culture

May 14, 2009 01:09

Setting: early 1970s [1970-1974], West Virginia, North-central area, at a rather large University ( Read more... )

usa: education: higher education, 1970-1979, usa: west virginia

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Comments 9

felila May 14 2009, 18:40:14 UTC
Setting is small liberal arts college, but try reading Pamela Dean's book, Tam Lin.

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shanghai_jim May 14 2009, 20:56:37 UTC
Sounds like you need to look for people who were in Morgantown during the 70s. That's a lot of little details to look up.

The recent movie We Are Marshall was set during the 70s, at Marshall obviously in Huntington, not WVU, but that's based on a true story in the state and the time period, and the Mountaineers show up in one of the games (or was it during the recruiting period?)

You can never go wrong bringing in athletics--football or basketball--one way or the other.

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hellaweasels May 14 2009, 21:22:15 UTC
True, after all the Coliseum had just been built in 1970, so basketball would probably be bigger [than it is now].

The 'eers show up when the Marshall coaches go to get their plays [because WVU had experience with manning a primarily freshman team] and are in the play-room, chatting to the coaches, when a couple members of the team come in, wearing a green stripe on their helmets. [As the teams didn't play each other that season, that was the only time the team actually showed up, aside from video.]

Yeah, that's going to be great fun.

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dustthouart May 14 2009, 23:43:55 UTC
A wealthy West Virginia family?
Mining would seem to be the obvious choice.

They would hate the University of Pittsburgh! LOL! I go to Pitt and the Backyard Brawl is a Big Deal.

From 1970 to 1973 Pitt won 2 times and WVU won 2 times.

If they're like most students, the "hate" would be a lot of good-natured ribbing. Like, if someone mentions that he's dating someone from WVU, people might go "Ewwwwwww!" in a teasing manner. Or if someone mentions that she's thinking about going to WVU for grad school, people might make jokes about dating your cousin or something. I don't know what WVU people say about Pitt people but I can imagine that they'd have similar sorts of reactions. (When I was dating someone from Penn State, I put up with teasing too.)

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hellaweasels May 15 2009, 00:11:32 UTC
Indeed we do. Though they're a bit less, ah, polite. [It's not our fault your school rhymes so well with a four-letter word. ;)]

Mining would be good, and fairly in-character. [Now to connect that to Witnes Protection.]

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corvideye May 15 2009, 01:30:45 UTC
Illegal disposal of extraction chemicals, perhaps? Poached claims, monopolies?

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hellaweasels May 15 2009, 01:43:47 UTC
I was originally thinking cocaine but I suppose that could work as well.

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wpenrose May 15 2009, 00:21:49 UTC
Much like today, except:
- fewer students from overseas (esp. China, Soviet Bloc, India, Arab countries)
- not a lot of black students yet, and a tendency to self-segregate
- fewer students going into heavy debt for tuition
- heavy drug use, especially at big city schools, mostly MJ, some coke and LSD, exotics like mushrooms
- more returning vets, ie, a subgroup of older and more serious students
- last of the hippie generation, now looking kind of ridiculous
- many students highly politicized in the last days of Viet Nam, including protest marches
- strong town vs gown antipathy, especially in college towns
- sudden disappearances of drafted classmates
- many students knew someone killed in VN
- heavy traffic of students to Canada to escape the draft

These differences were greatly affected by which university your story is set at. The Viet Nam War was a major factor in the differences between then and now, followed by the fallout from desegregation.

Dangerous Bill

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cmar_wingnut May 16 2009, 14:16:20 UTC
The student culture will vary by school, but in general college kids at that time were very liberal, very anti-Vietnam war, and drug use was prevalent. Male students would have been afraid of being drafted. Sex was pretty free, too, depending a lot on the individual person's attitude. This was pre-AIDS and pre-herpes scare, so condoms (which we called 'rubbers' at the time) were strictly for pregnancy prevention ( ... )

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