Evergreen's dedication ceremony took place in April 1972 and provided one of the earliest flashpoints in the town/gown war that would rage for the rest of the decade. Here is my eyewitness account. The ceremony afforded many Olympians their first glimpse of the school. And you have to remember that the 1960s never really happened here. We knew about it from TV, but basically life in this town in the 1960s was really an extension of the 1950s. Evergreen was like an alien ship that landed in our midst, and, as President McCann liked to say, the school, "dragged Olympia kicking and screaming into the 20th century."

On dedication day we arrived at the circle and the first thing we saw was the flag at half mast. The same flag that had been presented to the College a few days earlier by the local VFW. Why was it at half mast? By coincidence, this day was also a national protest against Nixon's Cambodian bombing. This half mast flag alone was worth, and I'm not kidding, a year's worth of angry letters to the editor in the Daily Olympian. Then we walked across Red Square where flamboyantly garbed students handed out flowers and wished us peace. The ceremony took place inside the lobby of the Library Building, with the landing on the stairs acting as a stage. President McCann, as part of the national protest, was wearing a black armband. This was also worth many angry letters from Olympians. Somehow, the fact that Dan Evans, our Republican(!) Governor was also wearing a black armband, was mostly overlooked. Gov. Evans spoke about the dwindling natural resources and our runaway consumerism and how he hoped TESC would be part of the answer in saving the planet. It was a good speech.

At some point in the presentation, students seized the microphone, denounced the War, and then hung an effigy of Nixon off the balcony. It was the first time I heard the words "Right on!" used in public (as I said, Olympia was a bit behind in those days). The city fathers and Olympia pillars of the community who were sitting in the front rows were having cardiac arrests. I enjoyed every minute of this and knew this was the school for me. That effigy of Nixon remained employed around campus for several years and seemed to go from one room to another. I often wonder whatever became of it.