April 10, 1997
Civil rights activist and Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered a speech the night before about the “the American Dream,” addressing a jam-packed auditorium.
“Between black, white and brown, the gap is not as big as it is between have and have-not,” he said, The Herald reported at the time.
James asked young listeners to be the voice of change and to fight against the notion that the civil rights movement is dead.
James added that race must be a source of dignity, pointing to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., as people who fought for their rights peacefully, The Herald reported at the time. Through education, affirmative action and a unified voice, Americans may lessen the economic gap between races, he said, urging audience members to “challenge the powers that be and make them the powers they ought to be.”
April 10, 1992
The University was hit with a lawsuit for allegedly violating the Title IX amendment demanding equal opportunity for both sexes in collegiate athletics, The Herald reported at the time.
Nine members of the gymnastics team filed charges at the U.S. District Court in Providence and took up the case with the help of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.
At the time, females made up 49 percent of undergraduate athletes, a statistic higher than the national average of 39 percent, The Herald reported.
The lawsuit was filed in response to the University’s decision to reduce the women’s gymnastics and volleyball teams to club status, but the University refused to settle, The Herald reported.
Arthur Bryant, then-executive director of TPLJ, said the action signified that the University “has shown it would rather spend money fielding a team of defense lawyers than a team of female athletes.”
April 10, 1973
Faculty members met to decide the future of the University’s S/NC grading option. Each attendee voted on an Educational Policy Committee proposal that, if put into effect, would allow professors to petition to opt out of offering their classes S/NC.
Some faculty members requested a limit to the number of classes students could take S/NC. Student petitioners responded by offering their signatures and speaking out in defense of the grading option changes, The Herald reported at the time.
Surveys taken at the time indicated that the overwhelming majority of the student body favored the S/NC option, The Herald reported.
A study conducted at the time by then-Dean of Academic Affairs Lee Verstandig PhD’70 P’12 and Jon Rogers ’74 indicated that the grading option had no adverse effect on graduate school admissions.
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