But there was Pushback...

As with any period of change, there was discord. In this campus wide pursuit of excellence, students’ hobbies such as binge drinking were regulated, faculty was judged and retained according to higher standards than ever before, and staff were pressured to keep everything spotless and running smoothly. Calgaard remembers one demonstration where manure was thrown at his door (“Calgaard Interview”, 2019).

One of the most well documented outlets of complaint for students was the Trinitonian. While everyone acknowledged how hard Calgaard worked to accomplish his mission, the writers of the newspaper accused him of purposeless infringements on their freedom. One student wrote a satirical letter to “Daddy Calgaard,” indirectly complaining about a specific incident that they found ridiculous (1979). Others took to more creative means of attack, such as one Christmas themed cartoon. Here Calgaard is visited by three ghosts who try to remind him what the overall goal of his changes should be: to benefit the students. By the end, Calgaard completely misses the point; he triumphantly gives a crippled student a keg and marches off. The accent given to Calgaard in the cartoon, the way he begs the ghosts to return home, and the way he foolishly misses the point are indicative of the author’s opinion of Calgaard (The Trinitonian, 1979). In a highly disrespectful tone, the author claims that the president is not smart or competent at his job. Those around him are depicted attempting to reason with him civilly; this stands in contrast to some of the violent protests and demonstrations that Calgaard remembers from students. These negative opinions of the president dominate the Trinitonian itself, but letters to the editor are proof of a divide in opinion. Some wrote letters defending the Trinitonian’s willingness to speak its mind in opposition to administration (McDaniel, 1980), while others were sympathetic to Calgaard and called out the newspaper for being overly harsh (Duschatko, 1979).