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127 8 NEW HOME, NEW CHALLENGES 1967–1971 Monro was so eager to begin his new job that he begged Phil to drive him to Logan Airport the moment commencement festivities were over. In the car Dreyer listened patiently while Monro, preaching to the choir, insisted once again that going to Miles was an enviable opportunity rather than a sacrifice (Long). The college was much spiffier than it had been when Monro arrived in 1964 with the Phillips Brooks House contingent in tow. Now the physical plant included a glass and concrete cafeteria–student union, the brand-new $500,000 Taggart Science Laboratory, apartment-style housing for eight faculty families, and three houses, one for the Pitts family, one for Dean Richard Arrington’s family, and one—still not quite finished—for John and Dottie. Venerable but decrepit Williams Hall had been renovated, several other old buildings had been given a cosmetic coat of paint, and the freestanding library was plump with forty thousand volumes (Pitts, “Presidential”). The college’s bottom line had also improved slightly, but Pitts still struggled to make ends meet, estimating that it would take two dormitories, a Health and Physical Education Building, a five million–dollar endowment, and ten thousand dollars of additional annual income to compete for gifted faculty and students (Pitts, “Presidential”). Even though the CME church spent half its budget on its educational affiliates (Kahn 45), the amount it gave to Miles scarcely covered a month’s expenses (“Miles’s Mileage”). As a private college, Miles received no regular government funding, and other sources of support were severely limited by its continuing lack of accreditation. Monro’s arrival almost immediately improved the bottom line with outside funding earmarked for his program. When Harvard law professor Mark DeWolfe Here he cast his lot. —lucius pitts JOHN U. MONRO 128 Howe, Monro’s co-advisor to the Southern Courier, died suddenly of a heart attack , his friends and colleagues donated $100,000 to Miles in his memory, specifying that it go to the Freshman Studies Program. This early infusion of cash was soon followed by a three-year, $346,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, with the stipulation that it go to the new program (McClung 349). TENSION OFF AND ON CAMPUS In addition to its financial and accreditation problems, life at Miles was complicated by the specter of racial tension that still haunted the region. Local landlords displayed little southern hospitality toward white teachers coming to Miles. On three separate occasions Merle McClung was shown apartments that suddenly turned out to be rented when he identified Miles as his source of income (354). White teachers who succeeded in renting apartments often encountered hostility once they moved in. In the working-class neighborhood where Bob Lowe moved into a two-family house, his neighbors began crossing the street to avoid him (telephone interview, 28 May 2008). Safety as well as convenience dictated Monro’s on-campus address, especially in view of the publicity he had received; as Jeff Zorn, who came to Miles in 1968, bluntly put it, “The Klan knew just who he was” (“Monro, a Great Educator”). As Monro’s administrative assistant, McClung got a close look at some of the racial pressures Monro customarily kept to himself. One day McClung was working on a report when he saw Monro, who was going through his mail, curse and toss a letter into the wastebasket. His curiosity aroused, McClung asked to see the letter. It read: “Such nigger lovers like you behind all this racial trouble does not help ’cause we in the South will overcome too. And when the revolution and shooting starts you may be in the top 10. We don’t have any more use for you dam Yankees than we do these dam niggers” (qtd. in McClung 354). McClung asked how often such letters appeared, and Monro replied that they were frequent but that he had “more important things to worry about.” Then he set about preparing for his English class (McClung, e-mail, 11 July 2003). Monro realized that unless he was careful, he could easily ratchet up the tension, because racial friction frequently coalesced around the young white teachers who were attracted to the Freshman Studies Program. One such controversy flared up shortly before Monro arrived, when social science professor Walt Draude was fired for ignoring the college stricture against inviting local [3.149.233.72] Project MUSE (2024-04-19 04:23...

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