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Home > Documents > Newspaper Articles > MMOC Contest: Nicest are Last Published on March 1974. There were charges of skullduggery and counter charges. President Grosh threatened to postpone graduation indefinitely (or until 1980, whichever came first); traffic tickets were issued for, among othe rthings, parking in the shade; the computer issued a statement in which it threatened, out of sheer orneriness, to eat student-produced programs; RPI sidewalks were declared one way leading to the center of campus; and one administrator, in a last ditch effort to inspire the wrath of the student body refused to condemn food served on campus. Except he did condemn the ice cream, and threatened to confiscate it.It was all part of RPI's Meanest Man on Campus contest, a week of comic relief when candidates vie for the dubious distinction of being voted "Meanest." The contestants were not all men. Mathematics professor Edith Luchins entered as "meanest person on campus", pointing out that women "can be just as heartless as men." And there was Godot, the computer. It was for a worthy cause. At a penny a vote, ballot box stuffing was encouraged. Alpha Phi Omega, Rensselaer's service fraternity which sponsored the MMOC contest, turned over the entire proceeds, more than $800, to RPI's library to add to the collection of journals. The meanest? Somehow, President Grosh, who campaigned in a makeshift uniform of white - to, as he put it, "denote pure meanness" - did not win. The "meanest" title went to chemistry professor Norbert Hepfinger, whose tests and quizzes apparently built him a reputation of insurmountable meanness. Dr. Grosh finished fourth of the nine candidates, but the real winner, clearly was RPI's library. |
