David Schardt, '71 (BardCorps)
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Interviewee Role
Alumni/ae/x
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Class Year
1971
Academic Program
Historical Studies
Interviewer
Paul Margolis '76
Description
David tells of coming to Bard after a year at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He recounts the atmosphere on campus during the time of the Vietnam War. He notes that there was “a lot of unrest, a lot of opposition to the war, and people were trying to do something about it.” He recalls sitting in a dorm room with friends watching a TV broadcast of the US Selective Service System drawing lottery numbers to determine who would or would not be drafted, and the relief he felt that his number was high. David remembers the famous drug bust that occured in 1969 involving county prosecutor G. Gordon Liddy. His dorm was raided at dawn as part of the bust, but his name was not on the list of names of those the police were looking to arrest. He says that being at Bard gave him a great love of learning and that this encouraged him to pursue his interests. A memorable moment for David was his time as chair of “a joint committee of students and faculty that voted on whether to promote to tenure or to dismiss faculty.” Today, David is a nutritionist, translating scientific research into a format that is understandable by the public and publishing this writing at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Keywords
Bard; American Academy of Dramatic Arts; New York City; the Vietnam War; Washington D.C.; River Road; Annandale; Adolph’s; Robert Kelly; James Chevallier ‘72; Dutchess County; G. Gordon Liddy; Watergate; Poughkeepsie; Center for Science in the Public Interest; Reamer Kline; the Bard Observer; William J. Lockwood Prize; Cruger Island
Location
Bertelsmann Campus Center
Interview Date
5-27-2017
Interview Duration
15:25
Recommended Citation
Schardt, David, "David Schardt, '71 (BardCorps)" (2018). BardCorps -- All Oral Histories. 51.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/oral_hist/51
Rights Management
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Significant Quote
“This was a hotbed of opposition to the war. And in fact, we had rallies on the campus; anti-war rallies...I’m not certain how it was arranged, but we had two busses go down for one of the marches in Washington. So I remember going down and marching and getting tear gassed. This would have been ‘69 or ‘70.”