Manhattan Students Want Change (1968-1971)

The longstanding comic Jasperman received a new character in February of 1968, a counterpart for him at Mount St. Vincent, the Amazing Mountie. "Jasperman" by Jerry Breen, Jasper Journal, February 21, 1968.

Manhattan College in 1968 was different from the institution it had been at the turn of the 1960s, as was the educational landscape of higher education in America. The dress code for students was rescinded in the fall of 1968. Other institutions of higher education that had been all-male were beginning to go coeducational and the Jasper student newspapers were taking note. In December of 1968, a Quadrangle editorial called for coeducation at Manhattan College, though the form the writer thought it would take would be through a merger with Mount St. Vincent. He argued that Manhattan was in need of expansion, that the co-op program had been growing and "made life more livable for the Manhattan Man." The sex barrier to him had already been broken at Manhattan, with the Quadrangle printing articles from MSV students and most importantly, with the impending graduation of Manhattan's first female student in Engineering, Patricia Ruback, who'd started out at the Mount. She graduated in 1969.

Patricia Ruback in the Manhattanite Yearbook, 1969, among the other engineering degree recipients

Manhattanite, 1969

In 1969 and 1970, the Co-Ed Committee continued coordinating student activities between the two campuses and academically more Mount St. Vincent students were attending Manhattan classes than Manhattan students taking Mount St. Vincent classes. There was some grumbling in student newspapers about the inconvenience of the shuttle bus schedule for Manhattan students. The two schools collaborated on beginning a Sociology program. The Mount had gym facilities and biology classrooms useful for Manhattan College physical education and science students. Mount students used the chemistry labs at Manhattan.

Manhattan College students had a lot of conflict with administration in 1970, culminating in an occupation of the administration building's lobby over an increase in tuition when there was still no student voice in government, with the slogan "No Say, No Pay." This was part of the reason that the discussions to form the College Senate escalated.

In 1971, controversy continued with the College's decision to censor the yearbook after the proofs were returned with students' names replaced with their Vietnam draft numbers due to an editorial decision. Enrollment numbers being down frustrated students with the changes to their campus that resulted. A Jasper Journal op-ed proclaimed that new life would be brought to the campus by the addition of coeducation. The Quadrangle printed an article from Mount St. Vincent students discussing the pros and cons from their point of view of taking Manhattan classes, and they wound up concluding that the program was likely only to expand. Fraternization between campus members was different for Mount St. Vincent students, as they had very strict rules about curfews and visitors in their dorms.

Recruitment Ad as printed in the Manhattan College Community News, November 24, 1971.

The official stance of Brother Gregory Nugent, the president at the time, in 1971 was that all the benefits that the cooperative agreement with Mount St. Vincent could give Manhattan would need to be exhausted before Manhattan College would consider going coeducational. However in the fall of 1971, the Manhattan College Community News printed the recruitment advertisement the College planned on publishing in many newspaper and it featured the possibility of associating with girls rather prominently in the photos for the College still being all-male.