In Washington, "anti-riot" bills aimed at clamping down on college protest made further progress. President Johnson signed one bill that would cut off Federal aid to students who "contribute to substantial disruption of an institution's administration," while a more stringent measure received final approval in a House-Senate conference committee.
October 18: Richard Nixon visited Boston and faced student crowds more hostile than those who had greeted Hubert Humphrey. While Nixon told campaign workers inside the Somerset Hotel that he was "The One for Massachusetts," student picketers from Harvard and B.U. marched outside to protest Nixon's opposition to the California grape boycott.
October 19: There was a light spot in the Harvard sports day as Vic Gatto set a new career rushing record and led the Crimson football team to a 10-0 win over Cornell. But in Mexico City, a tired Harvard crew came in last in the Olympic rowing finals. After watching West Germany win the race and Australia come in second, Harvard coach Harry Parker said "the other crews were just faster and better."
October 20: Members of the Soc Rel 148 teaching staff said they were asking the Federal government for an $11,000 grant to help pay course expenses not covered by the tight Faculty budget. If the government decided to give the money, it would come from the Labor Department's "Coalition for Youth" fund and would pay teaching fellow salaries and guest lecture fees.
October 21: Despite Martin Peretz's printed comment that the Democratic National ticket was a sign of "the worst of times" in American politics, vice-presidential candidate Edmund Muskie brought his campaign to Boston. In introducing Muskie to a crowd of 3000 at B.C., John Kenneth Galbraith said that the real election issue was "Richard Nixon--not the new Nixon, not he old Nixon, but the same unreliable Nixon that we have come to know."
October 22: Spiro Agnew followed Muskie into town. After passing through a crowd of student picketers outside the Sheraton Plaza Hotel, Agnew told his campaign workers that student dissent was the result of "a lack of contact between teachers and the industrial-business establishment."
The SFAC continued its ROTC deliberations, hearing representative from Harvard's Air Force and Navy ROTC units. Captain Thomas Moriarty of the Navy said that if Harvard took away ROTC's academic credit, the Pentagon would cost the college $50,000 a year to make up for lost ROTC units. Captain Thomas Mori-campus.
October 23: The move to elect an opposition slate to the Coop Board of Directors failed when too few people showed up at the general election meeting. Because only 950 Coop members--500 short of the required quorum--came to the meeting, the stock holder-nominated slate of Direc...from engaging in their duties or pursuing their studies." The House had already approved the bill.