My first week on campus, my roommate, Duane, and I were exploring the student union and noticed a junior girl who was turning in some signatures nominating her as class president. We asked her what it was about and she said there was nothing to it, all you had to do was turn in six signatures and you were nominated. Duane said, “OK, Bill, I’ll sign up for you and you can run as a Sophmore.” Somehow he got the signatures and in five minutes I had my place on the ballot.

The next week, I discovered I was elected president of the Sophmore class. We had a little swearing in ceremony at the student union. Anxious to start out my term of office doing something, I suggested to the Junior who had also won her election if she would like to have a Sophomore/Junior Ball. Of course, I had no idea how to organize a ball like this—there were some 10,000 Freshman and Sophomores. I assumed that as a Junior, she would know the ropes. She agreed to think about it. The idea never went any further, and I don’t recall any very important action that I took all year as president of the Sophmore class. Nor did I see the other classes doing anything, but it was a great honor to be class president, or was it?