September 14, 1964, was our first official day at Boston College. That Monday began a week of speeches, panels, standing in lines, wandering about, meeting new people, and tracking down high school classmates. First, there was an assembly in McHugh.

This had no caption in 1965 Sub Turri, but it was in the section about freshmen arriving.

How many of us were enrolling? Hard to say: the September 19 edition of the Heights made no mention of enrollment figures. In our sophomore year, the September 26, 1965, edition of the Heights reported that BC enrolled 1,550 freshmen that month. The earliest BC Factbook available online — issued in 1971 — reported that Fall 1967 enrollment was 6,059 undergraduates in the “day” schools and 916 in the “evening” school.

Of the 6,059 day school undergrads in 1967

• 2,418 were in A&S
• 1,857 CBA
• 1,193 Education
• 591 Nursing

Of the total number of undergraduates, including evening college

• 5,191 male
• 1,784 female

(Also mentioned in that Factbook was that the median SAT scores of members of the Class of 1968 were 559 verbal and 574 math. Scores were provided for classes from 1961 to 1975. Among those 15 classes, only one had a higher median score in the verbal exam [1969, 565] than our class and only two [1969, 576; 1972, 578] had a higher math median score. The Class of 1973 tied our class in math. Just sayin’.)

For resident students, the weekend before was time for moving in and settling in, meeting roommates, finding one’s way around campus. The dorms for men were Fenwick, Xavier, Claver, Loyola, Cheverus, Kostka, Gonzaga, and Fitzpatrick, all on Upper Campus. Students also lived in O’Connell House, the old mansion nestled among these “modern” dorms, and Shaw House. Actually, the dorms weren’t that old. CLX was built in 1955 and the rest by 1960. (Roncalli, Welch, and Williams halls were not finished until 1965.)

Women resident students lived off-campus in BC-regulated, but not BC-owned, apartment buildings on South Street. These were facilities acknowledged by BC to have been “not designed to serve as dormitories.” In 1967, the women’s dorms were Kirkwood, Linden, Pine, Radnor, Chestnut, South, Greycliffe, and Alison. I’m not sure which were in play in 1964.

Personally
My roommate in Loyola was a surprise. I don’t think I had ever been informed prior to arrival as to whom it would be. Maury Wolohan was from San Francisco, definitely an outlier in the predominantly New England/Middle Atlantic student body. We were roommates for two years, moving to Kostka sophomore year, before Maury transferred to UC Berkeley to pursue a major in architecture.

Besides the usual bustle and bureaucracy of that first day and week, perhaps my strongest recollection was one of embarrassment. I had been told, after my acceptance in December, that I was on the cusp of being in the Honors Program. Grades in high school that spring would be one factor in the decision. Okay, I took a little off the pedal in the last couple of terms in high school. Not terrible grades, by any means, but not typical. I was heartened, then, to receive a communication in late August that made reference to me “in the Honors Program.” It was not a direct statement that I had been admitted to it, but I had not received anything saying I had not.

Wishful thinking. Freshmen in the A&S Honors Program were directed to a specific office for registration. That’s where I went. I stood in line and gave my name when I arrived at the table to receive my packet. “Your name again?” I was not on the list, of course. When I mentioned the communication that referred to the Honors Program, I was told, as I recall, “Oh, the secretary made a mistake. She included that in all the letters.” First day humiliation can quickly dissipate in the activity and fun of college, which it did. It can also, however, stick in your head for 50+ years. :)

Joanne Calore Turco (Nursing) was a commuter. “You had to live a certain distance away to be eligible for the apartments on South Street. I lived in Wakefield and being just down Route 128 was judged not far enough away. A boy from my high school, Harry Petrucci (A&S), was driving to and from BC. Bill Sammon (A&S), Jean Fitzgerald (Nursing) and I rode in together with Harry. (Jean died in 1990.) Back then, Route 128 wasn’t as crowded as it is now. And the ride down Route 30, Commonwealth Avenue, was always nice. I’m sure we were both excited and scared that first day!

Anybody else have fond recollections or memories of another nature of the “first days”?

In August, 1964, those who were about to become freshmen at BC received a memo with instructions about the beginning of school. As a student in A&S, I received the memo from Henry McMahon, assistant dean.

A&S memo August 7, 1964, page 1

Early on in the memo, there was the somewhat momentous statement “Your career (sic) in the College of Arts and Sciences will begin on Monday, September 14, 1964.” We were instructed to be seated by 9 am in McHugh Forum, where we would listen to some speeches, break for lunch, and then “plan on being kept busy by Registration through the afternoon.”

August 7, 1964 memo, page 2

Among those offering us welcome on our first day was to be Rev. John J. Long, S.J., the new dean of A&S. A small sheet of paper accompanying the longer memo, however, told us of a recent sad event — the death of said Fr. Long. It reported that Fr. Long “died suddenly on July 17.” The longer memo, the short note explained, had been pre-dated and printed “weeks ago at the Press.” And BC staff were on vacation in early August. Thus, Dean McMahon said, “In the interest of allowing you to make timely plans I am sending you the memorandum as it was originally printed.”

Addendum

Fr. Long was succeeded by John Willis, SJ, who was to serve as dean of A&S throughout our time at BC.

In addition to warnings about prompt payment of tuition and other bills, which were to arrive later in August, Dean McMahon also advised us to bring: “1) a ball-point pen for the completion of various forms; you should have the pen and a pencil with you throughout Orientation Week. 2) $3.25 for class dues and for the purchase of the Boston College Handbook.”

He advised us, too, to be prepared to purchase our first semester textbooks, which would cost “approximately $50.”

Orientation, the memo said, would continue through Friday. Afternoon sessions, except for Friday, were to “introduce us to the spiritual and intellectual life of the campus and to acquaint you with the facilities and services of Boston College.”

At some point, we must also have received instructions on how to be a “card section” in the season opener against Syracuse on Saturday, September 19. But that’s another story.