1970:
The Student Radical Caucus holds a series of anti-ROTC rallies.
The last Spring Carny takes place.
January: Linguistics program is added.
January 22: Seventeen students are arrested as they stage a sit-in in the placement office. They are protesting the presence of naval shipping system recruiters. The incident causes an uproar throughout the campus community.
January 23: Gary Puckett and the Union Gap play at the Memorial Building.
February 4: The VN office gets a rock thrown through a window with a note attached. At the same time, two crosses soaked in gasoline were found taped to a wall of the Administration bldg.
February 13: The seventeen are acquitted.
February 13: Dr. Benjamin Spock, authority on pediatrics and political activist, gives a talk on “Dissent and Social Change” in the student union ballroom.
March 15: Arson destroys the campus bookstore, which was then located in the basement of the Briggs Building.
April 4: Pete Seeger, Savage Grace, and Chobis Itch perform at the Memorial Building.
April 22: First Earth Day teach-in.
September: A new coffee house opens in the converted chapel in Reno Hall.
September 24: The Student Radical Caucus holds an anti-ROTC rally on the steps of the Union.
Fall: President Carron announces a moratorium on raises and granting of tenure as part of the university’s austerity program.
Doctoral program in clinical psychology is added.
Enrollment is 9638.
The Coffee House opens in Reno Hall, in the main lobby in a space formally used as a chapel.
September 25: Leonard Cohen performs at the Memorial Building.
September 27: Jazz Spectacular concert at the Memorial Building: featuring Grant Green, Gloria Lynne, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and Grady Tate.
October: VN reporters ‘invade’ the administration building to count the number of administrators floor by floor to find out who they are and what they do.
October 1: Buckminster Fuller visits campus. He is the first recipient of the R. Buckminster Fuller Chair in architecture.
October 17: Burt Bacharch plays at the Memorial Building.
October 19: Fr. Carron announces that the university is 4 million in the red.
October 25: Jesse Jackson speaks at the Memorial Building.
November 1: Jane Fonda visits the campus.
November 1: Iron Butterfly plays at the Memorial Building.
1971:
January: Two vice-president positions and one administrative department are eliminated as part of the economy drive. Cuts in other areas are on the drawing board.
January 31: David Crosby & Graham Nash give a benefit concert at the Memorial Building.
February: Fr. Carron announces over half a million in budget cuts and the layoff of non-tenured faculty and those 65 and over.
February 5: Chicago plays at the Memorial Building.
February 11: Further budget cuts are announced in academic areas--mostly non-tenured faculty and those over 65.
February 19: Three Dog Night concert at the Memorial Building.
March 13: 5th Dimension play at the Memorial Building.
April: The student government issues a statement protesting the University’s offer to give a President’s Cabinet Metal to Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s National Security Advisor).
April 16: Elton John plays at the Memorial Building.
April 18: History Professor Edward Cooper and five African-American students are thrown off campus after causing disruptions in the library and removing chairs from buildings following the university’s termination of contracts for Cooper and James Miller, faculty in the Black Studies Dept.
April 19: About 500 students and others rallied in front of the administration building in support of Cooper and Miller.
May 2: Ray Charles and the Raelettes appear at the Memorial Building.
June 1: Dr. Charles Wright, founder of the African American Museum, is the first African American appointed to the Board of Trustees.
Summer: The Stadium is razed to become parking lot D, later affectionately known as Lake DeGrasia, now known as parking lot F.
Summer: The fence begins to go up around the campus. (VN Oct)
Fall: Last of the club football games. Football is gone for good from the University of Detroit.
Enrollment is 9597.
The Board of Trustees authorizes the assessment of a parking fee--$20 per year.
September 24: Ike and Tina Turner play at the Memorial Bldg.
October: Mandella, the student run crisis center, moves into Janisse House.
October 18: Mandella Benefit Concert in the Memorial Bldg, featuring Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, Poco and Lazarus.
November 1-5: First vote for faculty unionization, this apparently included faculty from all three campuses.
November 5: Leon Russell plays at the Memorial Building.
November 13: Donovan concert at the Memorial Building.
December: U of D and Marygrove join forces to create the Performing Arts Centre on the Marygrove campus. The first real theatre space for U of D
1972:
Enrollment is 9308.
January: The Board of Trustees vote to convert SS Peter & Paul Church into a library for the Law School.
January 15: Conference on Youth & Community. Sponsored by the Student Government and WABX Radio. Notables such as James Groppi, Mark Lane, John Sinclair, and Jackie Vaughn are there. Also a feature performance by Cheech & Chong.
January 22: Gladys Knight and the Pips play at the Memorial Bldg.
February: A lawsuit is filed against the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus to keep the church open and out of the university's hands.
February 19: T-Rex plays at the Memorial Bldg.
March 17: John Sinclair speaks at Mike Whitty's "Critical Labor Issues" class.
March 21: Sonny & Cher appear at the Memorial Bldg.
September: Fr. Carron announces SS Peter & Paul will remain a church.
September: Petoskey is closed off at the south border of campus, as the fence goes all the way from Livernois to Dexter.
October 14: Gordon Lightfoot plays at the Memorial Bldg.
November 14: The non-renewal of 4 sociology professor's contracts and the demotion of the department head leads to student demonstrations.
November 20: Stevie Wonder plays at the Memorial bldg.
December 9: The James Gang and Tiny Alice both play at the Memorial Building.
December 9: First annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the Fisher Fountain area.
1973:
April 6: The Michigan Sociological Assoc. meets and unanimously passes a resolution condemning the actions taken by the Board of Trustees and administration.
April 14-15: Leon Russell plays at the Memorial Bldg.
April 16: Detroit personality George Pierrot speaks at the Faculty Lounge.
September: Enrollment is about 9,075 students.
September 20: The rock arrives on campus. It’s 6x6x8 and weighs 15 tons. A time capsule is buried underneath with issues of the Varsity News, a 72/73 Tower and a few other artifacts. It came from a quarry in Oxford and was given to the students of the university by an anonymous donor.
October 8-12: Second vote to unionize the faculty.
November 2: Mayoral candidate Coleman Young speaks at the Student Union Ballroom.
November 5: Jesse Jackson speaks on the topic of political involvement in the Student Union Ballroom.
November 20: Julian Bond speaks on Black political action in the Student Union Ballroom.
December 4: The Student Union is formally dedicated.
1974:
February 14: Fr Carron announces that faculty positions will be cut due to financial exigency. English, History, Language & Linguistics, and Physics are the rumored targets.
March 1: The university breaks ground on a 5.4 million restoration and expansion of the downtown campus.
March 11: "Streaking" debuts on campus in the early morning outside of Reno Hall. "A group of dormies air their wares."
April 11: Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers Union, is at U of D for the Freedom Seder.
May 11: Governor William Milliken is speaker at commencement.
June 5: The Psych Clinic (then located at 17350 Livernois) is robbed and terrorized at gunpoint.
June 30: Mandella ends the majority of its services as the federal grant has been terminated.
October 11: The Reno Coffee House officially becomes The Loading Dock.
November: Rev, Edward J. Dowling S.J. is named official archivist of U of D.
December 31: Three of the terminated professors file suit in Wayne County.
1975:
January: The Master of Engineering Management is added.
March: It is announced the Air Force ROTC will be discontinued by the spring of next year.
Summer: The School of Architecture moves into the Science Bldg. The Physics Department moves to the 3rd floor of Engineering.
Fall: Enrollment is 8268.
November 1: Graham Central Station plays at the Memorial Bldg.
1976:
January: The music and art departments of U of D and Marygrove cease to be jointly operated.
January: The McNichols Campus Library is closed on Sunday due to budget constraints.
January 30: Foley Hall is closed to save on "energy and maintenance."
January 19: The Wayne County Circuit Court rules against the University. The University must "produce all materials and information that played a part and/or promoted the University to make the decision of financial exigency." Also, the details of the criteria used to terminate 34 faculty.
April 18: The Temptations with the Masqueraders and Miss Melba Moore at the Memorial Bldg.
April 24: Roy Buchanan, Rare Earth play at the Memorial Bldg.
April 29-30 and May 3-4: Third vote for faculty unionization. This vote was triggered by the so called Christmas Eve Massacre the previous December, when thirty-five tenured and non-tenured professors were sent notice of termination. This is the beginning of the UDPU: the University of Detroit Professors Union.
1977:
The University celebrates its one hundredth birthday.
Science joins Engineering to become the College of Engineering and Science.
September: The Centennial Fund Campaign is announced. It's goal is to raise 33 million over the next five years to modernize and expand the campus, including a new academic building with a conference center and an athletic building with an Olympic sized swimming pool.
1978:
September: The Theatre moves back to campus after residing at Marygrove for the past six years.
September 21: Library stacks are opened to students.
October 19: Fr Carron announces the Memorial Building will be renamed Calihan Hall.
1979:
Fall: Enrollment is 7,264
August 27: Robert Mitchell, S.J. becomes president of the university.
