In my freshman year, it was the fall of 1969. I remember the freshman entryway there was a poster for SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] saying come join us in Chicago for Days of Rage. People went into Chicago and started beating up policemen and the policemen beat up the protesters. Those things were in the entryway. It was kind of mainstream to think about doing something like that. We had presentations when the Black Panthers came on campus and activist women’s groups and conscientious objectors and things. In the spring of 1970 was the strike, the days of the Cambodian strike. The college shut down. The debate was “Is a college education relevant?” The real world’s out there. Williams is an isolated bubble. It’s an unreal world. There’s nothing here that’s really going to be valuable to you later on in life. I mean that was debate across the campus — not about Williams-at-Home but a debate about the college’s mission. I was going to anti-war demonstrations. I went down to Yale for “Free Bob Seale Day.” To me that seemed to have more relevance and importance then going to Political Science 101 or Art History. And then when this program came up where you could get college credit for being off campus four months, it sounded like this is too good to be true. I don’t think I would have gone overseas. I think I was too immature or fearful. I hadn’t traveled much. I grew up in New England and had never really been outside of New England. But a U.S. program I thought was something I could handle