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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE At no time during the late sixties and early seventies did a majority of Gettysburg students engage in what has here been referred to as activism, although most of them did adopt their own version of the hair and dress styles often associated with that phenomenon.338 Some who were as disturbed as any by the war in Vietnam and injustice at home took the position that their highest immediate priority should be making progress toward completing their College work. Accordingly, they opposed any interruptions in their scheduled classes. One of the ideas current among college students at this time was that the American economy had developed to the point at which, almost automatically, it could produce enough for all. The problem then was simply to assure that all got a share, which would permit as many as wished to spend their time on more important things. This may help to explain a switch in interest on many campuses from economics and business administration to fields deemed to be more (to use a much overused word of the time) relevant. At Gettysburg these two subjects all but held their own, including 17 percent of the graduates between 1963 and 1967 and 15.6 percent between 1972 and 1976. Grade inflation was a national phenomenon at this time. Undoubtedly for several reasons, the grade-point average for all Gettysburg students increased from 2.61 during the first half of the sixties to 2.71 during the second half, and then to 2.86 during the first half of the seventies. In the fifties and sixties the College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa elected an average of 6.5 percent of the seniors to membership. For several years in the early seventies the number chosen reached or slightly exceeded 10 percent.339 The fact that the campus was a happier place in the early 1970s did not mean that the problems of presidents and others were now things of the past. Administrators continued to be concerned about campus security. As early as 1968, Arnold Hanson began appealing to the faculty and students for help in preventing fires, theft, vandalism, and assaults on students. He tried to limit access to many campus buildings after normal working hours. In 1971 he increased the security force, hired its first professional chief, and announced that the security budget had been tripled. In 1972 he began telling the trustees about the phenomenon known as the "stop out." While more students were turning to economics and business administra- 338Polls of presidential preferences give some indication of student sentiment. Of 875 responding in 1968, 62 percent favored Nixon, 22 Humphrey, 6 McCarthy, 4 Wallace, and 6 percent other candidates. Of 150 asked in 1972, 58 percent favored Nixon, 37 McGovern, and 5 percent other candidates. Four years later, Ford gained 69 percent of the vote and Carter 22. 339Durjng the first half of the eighties the grade-point average was 2.63 and about 6 percent of the seniors were being elected to Phi Beta Kappa. 101