WSU: 40th Anniversary - Timeline 1970's

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1970 Hamilton Hall opens, housing the first 242 students to live on campus. Enrollment reaches 11,000. First WSU men's basketball game vs. Cumberland played on November 20.

1971 The first WSU October Daze is held. The three-day party features a battle of bands, nightly film classics, helicopter rides, and a flea market. C. J. McLin dedicates the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, which opens on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to promote understanding of the culture and heritage of black Americans. WSU officially becomes the Raiders.



		1972 WSU establishes its first women's intercollegiate sports teams: tennis and softball. Graduating class numbers 2,500. When President Golding leaves to become president of San Diego State University, vice president and "first employee" Frederick White becomes acting president.

		1973 Dr. Robert J. Kegerreis becomes Wright State's second president. The School of Nursing admits its first students. Ivonette Miller presents the Wright Brothers Collection to University Libraries. Raiders move into new PE Building. Dunbar Library, Creative Arts Center, Brehm Lab open.

1974
Students organize a drive to raise funds and gather food, clothing, and blankets for victims of the April 4 Xenia tornado. More than $3,000 and 69 van-loads of goods are collected.

1975
First Alumni Teaching Excellence Awards are presented at June commencement.
Biological Sciences building opens.


		1976 First students admitted to the School of Medicine. Controversy swirls around a student request to show the film, Deep Throat. Ironically, while the university seeks an injunction against the showing, Bob Woodward speaks at WSU about Watergate and...Deep Throat.

		1977 Governor James Rhodes responds to the national energy crisis by ordering businesses to cut their hours and public schools to close. Universities are among the few "essential" institutions allowed to continue regular operations in the 24-county area served by DP&L. Thermostats are lowered, hot water taps turned off, and lights dimmed across campus. WWSU hits the airwaves as an FM station (88.5) for the first time April 4. Enrollment reaches 14,362. President Kegerreis helps the campus celebrate the university's 10th anniversary by passing out hundreds of pieces of birthday cake to faculty, staff, and students.


1978 In January, the heaviest Miami Valley snowfalls since 1918 close the campus from January 16 through 18, and again January 26 and 27. WSU holds its first Campus Scholarship Campaign, with faculty and staff donating more than $39,000 to provide scholarships for continuing students.

1979 First students admitted to the School of Professional Psychology. WSU men win the Third Annual National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament. The first building in the Forest Lane apartment complex opens. WSU's' production of Look Back in Anger is invited to perform at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by the American College Theater Festival.

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