Vassar Yesterday
A VW bug, a demonstration, a bull horn: it’s the ’60s. 1968 to be exact. The issue: Charges of excessive use of force by local police during drug raids on Dutchess County campuses. (One sign reads “We need protection from police.”) The 1969 Vassarian recalled the controversy in this quote from Timothy Leary, then a well-known enthusiast for hallucinogenics and a county resident: “The real question is one of individual freedom, and the right for each person to select from alternatives, to do his own thing...Love is where it’s at...The best hope is dope...Drop out or cop out…We’ve got the sheriff surrounded by youth, love and beauty: Vassar on the East, Bard, Marist and Dutchess on the North, and New Paltz on the West, so we ought to win out.”