Our History

Brothers College opens with 12 students on a $1.5 million gift from Arthur and Leonard Baldwin. The Drew Theological Seminary becomes Drew University.

The Student Association is active on campus, hosting the opening program of the academic year.

President Brown asks the college student council to formulate an Honor System before final examinations “and to organize machinery to administer it.”

The student council is formally given the opportunity to study and criticize new academic regulations before their adoption.

The council restricts smoking at public functions to rooms designated by the administration — and pledges to enforce its own decree. Enforcement power, not merely advice.

A written student-body constitution is in force: an elected Student Body President, a council of four officers, and a clause requiring the council president to appoint the Freshman guide. Whitney succeeds Schroll in a closely contested presidential election.

Council referenda amend the student-body constitution and advance the election date by a month.

After two months of study, the Student Council drafts an Honor Code and submits it to the student body.

Brothers College becomes coeducational. A new constitution is drafted: elections standardised under a supervising committee, “machine politics” targeted, and the document reworded so that both sexes fall under its jurisdiction. The old constitution, the council president says, “has been outgrown; it was set up as a club affair.”

The new constitution passes the Student Council on 13 April and goes to the student body. Drafted by Spence Morris, George Mays, John Mullins, Carl Anderson and Oscar Hoffman — and defended as “a political constitution, not a club constitution.”

The council president amends the constitution by decree — posting it and holding a secret ballot instead of circulating it for signatures and calling a Student Association meeting, as Article IX required — then argues it is not unconstitutional because the text does not expressly forbid his method.

A further new constitution goes to a student vote on 31 March.

The constitution is amended by petition of 15% of the student body, adding a requirement that the council hold a mass meeting before drafting amendments. Also that month: a hazing referendum, a Commuter President seated on the council, and a standing food committee.

The administration imposes a dress code in the Refectory without informing the Student Council. The Acorn protests the bypass rather than the rule.

“Student Senate” is now the body’s name. The Senate presents an Open House bill to the deans backed by a petition of more than 500 signatures, and hosts the university’s Centennial Awards banquet.

The money architecture: ECAC — three faculty, one junior, one senior, and the Student Government President, chaired by the Dean of Students — controls $71,110 of the general fee and allots lump sums to four boards: Athletic, Academic Activities, Library, and Student Government. A referendum that autumn proposes adding three student members.

Bob Smartt is elected Student Government President in the spring. The abbreviation “SGA” enters campus usage by October.

A student referendum abolishes academic grade-average eligibility requirements for office — a loophole the Judicial Board had complained it was forced to rule around.

The Student Senate unanimously passes the General Dormitory Bill of Rights and approves a new dorm council structure, after the faculty tables the student legislative package and tells students to enact it themselves first. Judicial Board chairman George Blackford writes procedural standards guaranteeing “a hearing of grievances to every Drew college student.”

The Trustees approve consumption of alcohol on campus by students of legal age — a handbook change routed through the Committee on Student Concerns and the Trustee Committee on Student Life.

A new Student Association Constitution, passed by referendum, takes effect.

The Pub campaign. Students propose an on-campus pub in 1972; President Robert Oxnam refuses, citing discrimination against the two-thirds of students then under 21 and the risk of town opposition. New Jersey lowers the drinking age to 18 on 1 January 1973. Student Government puts the pub to a referendum in 1974 and it passes. Students incorporate the Center Pub Association and sell $1 memberships — 60 were required for a club licence. Madison’s council approves the by-laws in August; the licence follows in September.

The Pub opens at 4:30 p.m. The Acorn that week: “after all the talk about apathy on this campus… something has finally united the student body.”

A petition demands divestment from General Electric and disclosure of all South Africa-linked holdings. President Paul Hardin refuses. Students sit in.

The SGA Committee on Drew’s Investment Responsibilities raises a small sum — the OCR reads “nearly $50” — to buy stock in U.S. corporations in the student association’s name, so that students can vote shareholder resolutions directly on apartheid, environmental and disclosure questions.

The Investment Responsibility Committee is reviewing shareholder resolutions before the Trustees consider them; the SGA and Senate approve its recommendations first.

A student referendum asking the Trustees to divest from all corporations doing business in South Africa “easily passed,” though the Acorn notes it was strangely worded.

The SGA passes its own divestment resolution. President Stephen Foster presents it to the Board of Trustees in person.

The Board refuses full divestment, adopting only a Sullivan Principles screen. Students call it “a minor and unencouraging” first step.

The Drew Anti-Apartheid Movement forms. A day-long teach-in on 21 March marks Sharpeville. In April, 65 protesters with black balloons and candles line the trustees’ meeting and read a Divestment Declaration. In October, more than 130 march on Mead Hall.

The Trustees adopt a partial policy: no new stock in corporations doing business in South Africa, and divestment within a year of any holding without a top-two Sullivan rating. A Social Responsibility Committee is formed that winter.

The Trustees declare the portfolio “totally divested” of South Africa-linked holdings, with the exception of one pharmaceutical company.

The Board broadens the policy again. The Acorn calls it “one of the most far-reaching negotiated policies toward divestment.”

Activists note the university has still not divested completely. It never did so cleanly — but the campaign moved an endowment.

SGA President Sodan Selvaretnam’s constitutional committee, meeting weekly for over an hour a session, proposes a new constitution. Restructuring dominates the year.

SGA President Nelson Melendez signs the national student-presidents’ letter on clean energy legislation.

Weekly public summaries of Senate meetings begin appearing on Facebook, a transparency initiative of President Salma Mahmoud and Vice President Shehab Marzouk, run by Chief Communications Officer Nicole Albornoz.

After the defacement of a Black Lives Matter sign, the Senate passes a motion to plan a CLA-centred event and issue a statement, under pressure from students led by former Senator Richard Taylor.

A COVID Concerns committee is formed. The Senate Secretary role expands into public introductions of every senator and cabinet member on Instagram.

Nate Roark and Andrew Lora are inaugurated President and Vice President on 12 December, and resurrect the Constitutional Revision Committee.

The Textbook Lending Library launches, a need-based project of Senator Gabriella Ramirez. On 23 February the Senate unanimously passes a resolution, written by Senators Gabby Rizzolo and Rachel Papa, demanding transparency from President Thomas Schwarz over the potential sale of the Drew Forest.

One presidential ticket runs and wins with 47 votes. A former Chief of Staff later writes that senators routinely won with barely a third of their class voting, and that cabinets had to appoint senators rather than swear in elected ones.

President Brazil Brown is impeached on a charge of failing to comply with the constitution’s requirement that the president serve as spokesperson for the student body. She had offered to resign; the Senate chose impeachment and elevated Vice President Julia Satola to the presidency.

An act passes lowering the cost of student health insurance.

Commuter Senator Maks Coven secures a full-size refrigerator for the reopened Commuter Lounge after storm damage closed it for the semester.

BOB concludes budget interviews for more than 40 clubs against campus-wide cuts. Across the year the board fields $182,000 in requests and allocates roughly $90,000 to about 60 clubs.

A permanent Transfer Senator seat is created; Dejanayha Hill is its first holder. Zaire Wright and Daniel Ohr lead the Senate.

A town hall commits the administration to a designated campus mental health day and to under-21 access to the Pub at set times. A free period-products initiative is debated the month before.

The Drew Forest is sold to the Borough of Madison — preserved, but by municipal purchase rather than by the university conceding the students’ 2022 demands.

Commuter Senator Thomas Jenkins launches a 24/7 Student Complaints and Concerns hotline on Google Voice, with anonymised transcripts reviewed by senators.

The fall Senate election is invalidated and rerun on 25 September. Nine of twelve seats had been vacant; eight are filled. The reform coalition Students for Change wins six of them, taking the majority of the Guzman–Jenkins Senate.