Nineteen year-old freshman Daniel O'Keefe ’75 was named ward chairman of the Town of Poughkeepsie's Fifth Ward committee. O'Keefe, a Democrat, was believed to be the youngest party official ever elected in Dutchess County.  An alternate delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention, in his junior year O’Keefe became the youngest person to be elected the Town of Poughkeepsie Common Council.