Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

Reed and the Sixties

By Chris Lydgate ’90 on June 14, 2013 04:16 PM
Prof. Marvin Levich talks about the sixties at Reed.

Dozens of alumni packed themselves into a little classroom in Eliot Hall today for a chance to hear Professor Emeritus Marvin Levich [philosophy 1953–1994] discussing that most perplexing of subjects, the sixties.

The dapper suits and plume of cigarette smoke that once signaled his presence were long gone, replaced by blue jeans, sneakers, and a flat cap. He walks slowly down the hallway and his voice no longer booms—in fact, it sounds more like the rasp of sandpaper. But his eyes—and his ideas—have lost none of their intensity.

Over the course of the hour, Levich and alumni ranged far and wide over the burning questions that convulsed Reed in the sixties, including the debate over “relevance,” the fight over Reed U, and the great schism over Hum 110.

Some trick of time had turned our bicycles into bifocals and our ponytails into walking sticks, but apart from that, the discussion had all the hallmarks of a classic Reed conference. Alumni who couldn't make it to campus for Reunions ’13: Reedfayre might enjoy reading more of Levich's thoughts in his latest book, Defending the Citadel.

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