Project 10

A Brief History of Project 10

Beginning

During a trip in a UMass van, John Hunt and Emanuel White discussed residential colleges and nice it would for UMass to have a real residential college. Southwest was then called Southwest Residential College, but it was not a residential college. The two agreed that a real residential college would be a good idea. From that discussion the Project 10 Experimental Program was born. It was initially designed as a Living -- Learning Experience for freshmen and sophomores, in which they would be able to take many of the classes in the dorm with people they knew.

It was to be located in Moore and Pierpont Houses, in the last section of Southwest to be built, the architectural designation of that section was "Project 10". For lack of a better name the architectural designation became the name of the program.

To make it more interesting, faculty was recruited from those who were most receptive to new ideas, and the students were to be recruited from those entering freshmen with the highest SAT scores. Without any other input the faculty and students were sure to create an interesting mix, but, in addition, the program was started for the fall semester of 1968, a time when student activism was at a high.

In preparation for the first incoming students, 28 staff were selected. During the summer of 1968, 342 incoming freshmen/women were selected for the program, and in September they were housed in two dorms (this was before coed dorms were permitted), together with various non-Project 10 people. The dorms were to be governed in the ordinary way this year, since about half of the residents were not part of the program, but the program was to be governed democratically.

During that first year the director of Project 10 was John Hunt, and the Heads of Residence of Moore and Pierpont were involved in the administration and planning of the program. Governance was also directed by the community at large through community meetings. The tradition of community meetings was continued for most of the time when Project 10 existed, with a major exception in 1971.

From fairly early on it became clear that Project 10 people were active, intelligent, involved, and unwilling to be stepped upon. Although the program lasted only until 1975, four Project 10 members were elected student body or student senate presidents, and Project 10 people made themselves felt in many other ways at UMass.

During the 1969-1970 academic year, John Hunt declined the honor of continuing as director of Project 10, although as Master of Southwest, he retained authority over Project 10. The program was governed by the community that year, and specific details were carried out by volunteers. The Heads of Residence were also involved in governance, but they generally were involved only in issues that related to residential life. A few of the faculty of Project 10 courses also became involved in the community, and relationships were made and retained with some academic departments.

In its first two years, Project 10 became known as a center for student activism and drug use. The university wasn't too greatly opposed to student activism, especially since most of that was against the Vietnam War, which was opposed by most of the faculty and staff; but the drug use was frowned upon. Dealing with those issues was more for residential life staff than for academic personnel, but in a living -- learning environment those sectors are so intimately intertwined as to be indistinguishable from each other. During some periods the Head of Resident was important and very involved, while other heads of residence were less involved. During the first two years of Project 10, Jackie Delaney was head of residence of Pierpont. While she was very involved during the first year, during the second year that involvement diminished. The head of residence of Moore was so little involved that the name of the person can no longer be recalled.

Middle

During the Summer of 1970, things changed: a new head of residence for Pierpont was hired, and Charles Adams was chosen to direct Project 10 and to rein in the more extreme elements, and Dave Hoffman was hired as the Assistant Director. The reining in was to be followed by eliminating the program. The new head of residence, John Filiatreau, turned out to be almost completely uninvolved in the community, but Charles Adams quickly started making his mark, and helped to expand the academic offerings of Project 10.

It quickly became clear that John Filiatreau was not appropriate for the position, a new search was begun, and Charles Guyotte was selected as head of residence. In addition, Dave Duncan and Denise Bisailion were selected as assistant heads of residence. Mr Guyotte was a pleasant, friendly, interesting character, who was very involved, but he didn't do much for the health or well-being of the residents or the program. Dave and Denise were also very pleasant, friendly, and interesting, but they were very nvolved, and they were the people who actually got things done, along with an excellent collection of student staff. During that semester, Mr Adams worked to improve the academic offerings, while Dave and Denise worked on the living standards. In many ways that was an unpleasant time, because criminal elements from the Springfield area were using UMass as a staging ground for activities, and there were people enrolled in UMass for the sole purpose of having a relatively safe haven from which to engage in crimnal activities. Dave and Denise, and their staff, tried to make Project 10 a more difficult place for those people.

The following academic year, 1971-72, saw a greatly improved academic offering, and an even more improved social environment; the criminal elements had not returned. Together with Assistant HoR, Bob Brick, and other staff, Sandy Blount and Jim Gilbert, Dave and Denise proceeded to make the social environment more conducive to academic and social activities. It also helped that the incoming fresh persons were are really wonderful group of people. The expanded academic offerings included a large number of courses in English, Comp. Lit., and Education.

During that year the split between the director and the community became clearer. The community wanted Project 10 to be student run with a staff administrator and to allow greater academic freedom. Self-directed majors were quite new, and it was seen by most of the community as the direction in which the program should be headed. Mr Adams was of a more traditional stance and desired there to be more academic rigor, while allowing substantial freedom. The Long Range Planning Committee, headed by Dave York and Reb Howe, developed a plan for a program that would allow maximum individual freedom in courses and program. Mr Adams developed a plan for an integrated first and second year program that would cover the university's requirements in a less institutional style. In the Spring of 1972, the Academic Matters Committee of the Faculty Senate approved Adams' plan and rejected the plan by the Long Range Planning Committee. That spelled the end of Project 10, because Adams' plan was not a Living Learning plan, but the end was not immediate. The annoyance of the community with the failure of the community's plan was so great that a motion was made and passed that Mr Adams was not to call his program Project 10 or use any facilities of Project 10 for his program. He immediately ignored the second part, and over time some people came to call the Inquiry Program Project 10. It became so absurd that Charles Adams has been called the founder of Project 10, although he had nothing to do with it until the third year of its existence.

That semester came to an end with a fine social environment and a relationship between the community and the director, which had never been completely positive, steadily worsened. The following year was easier for Adams, because many of the people who had opposed him, including, Howe, York, Connors, and others, left the dorm.

End

The 1972-73 academic was another fine time with Adams and Hoffman still pushing their academic plan, which had come to be called the Inquiry Program. Mr Brick had moved into the head of Residence position. And there was another truly wonderful group of incoming students. The academic offerings were further expanded, and some of the courses were taught by Project 10 personnel.

Although the Inquiry Program only accepted its first person in the Winter of 1973, the program came up for review before the Academic Matters Committee of the Faculty Senate. Since a member of Project 10 was a member of the committee, he, Peter Lewicke, was asked what action should be taken. He answered that there was nothing to review yet, because there were no courses, and only one person had been accepted. The committee accepted that, and began their regular break for beer at that point.

The 1973-74 academic year was one with some interesting controversy. Gerald Jabobs was selected as the new Head of Residence. He had already served as a counselor for two years and was well known as a fine person. For some reason that has never been made clear, he was accused of misbehavior and removed from the position. A committee of three, including John King, was installed in place of the head of residence.

In the following year Project 10 was declining while the Inquiry Program was gaining ground, and Charlotte Lettis was hired to be HoR. While she was a pleasant person, she didn't bring the active spirit that had typified Project 10. For the following year no people were accepted to Project 10, only to the Inquiry Program, and the Inquiry Program became non residential, so it lost what connection it had had to Project 10. Charles Adams had succeeded in his goal to eliminate Project 10, and it was done without protest.

Notables

Notable members of Project as students included Students Senate Presidents Larry Ladd, , Bruce R. Balboni, and Lee Sandwen; Student Body President Henry Ragin; student senator and Academic Matters Comm. member Peter P. Lewicke; Columnist Ed Bryant; Activists M. T. Sprigs, Mark Rosoff, Richard Dinkin, William F. Abbott; and hundreds of others who made Project 10 felt throughout the UMass community.

Noted members today include: the late Robert J. Connors (former professor and one of the leading forces in the new rhetoric movement in college composition, for whom the writing center at UNH was named); authors Patricia O. Kearney (AKA) Pat Cadigan), Melvin J. Bukiet, Robert Chalfen; Educators Denise A. Bisaillon (Harvard), Robert K. Brick (Pioneer Valley School for the Performing Arts), Robert W. (Reb) Howe (Providence College), Joanne Yaffe (U. of Utah); Politicians and activists Judith Leblanc (Senatorial candidate CPUSA), Timothy E. Ney (Open Source activist); film/television producer Joe Martin, formerly a policy staffer on Capitol Hill for Cong. Barney Frank; Dr. Richard Druyetis; and hundreds more who have made substantial contributions in a wide variety of fields from semiconductors to zoology.

Summary of major leaders of Project 10

Year Director Ass't Dir. HoR Ass't HoR

1, 68-69 Hunt none Delaney

2, 69-70 none none Delaney

3, F70 Adams Hoffman Filiatreau

3, S71 Adams Hoffman Guyotte Dave & Denise

4, 71-72 Adams Hoffman Dave & Denise Brick

5, 72-73 Adams Hoffman Brick Lewicke

6, F73 Adams Hoffman Jerry Jacobs

6, S74 Adams Hoffman Committee

7, 74-75 Adams Hoffman Charlotte Lettis

8, 75-76  ?  ? Charlotte Lettis HoR

9, 76-Jan 77  ?  ? Deanna Mason HoR