By C.G. Lynch
Northeastern has slowly transitioned from a commuter school to a residential campus over the past 20 years. For one student, who attended the university in the 1960s, it has become a different place entirely.
Carol Garant, who attended Northeastern while President John F. Kennedy was in office and Martin Luther King, Jr. was fighting for civil rights, remembers an urban environment with few classroom buildings and even fewer residence halls.
“When I was there, it was a small campus,” Garant said. “Now when I go to visit, I notice that it’s gorgeous, huge.”
She also remembered the different programs the university once had and the way it was viewed by the rest of the world.
Garant attended Northeastern as a nursing student in association with Massachusetts General Hospital.
She used her experience at the school, from which she earned an associates degree in science, as the precursor for many of her life experiences.
As a student, she wrote an article that was published in The Northeastern News on Dec. 8, 1964 that highlighted her experience when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
“In the article, I talk about how I saw an NU student crying, as if his heart had just broke,” Garant said.
At an early age, Garant was exposed to politics and knew the Kennedy family on a personal level. Her mother, Stella, served as a ward captain in all of JFK’s campaigns and established, along with Rose Kennedy, the Democratic Women on Wheels.
Garant remembers Kennedy coming to her home for dinner when he was a Massachusetts senator.
“My mom used to make meatloaf and mashed potatoes,” she said. “From the time he was in the Senate, right until he became President, he’d come for dinner, to have a good home-cooked meal.”
Aside from her exposure to politics, Garant went on to pursue a career in nursing. After obtaining her associates degree from Northeastern, she enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1969. From there, she went on to Yale University, where she received a Master’s degree in psychiatric health in 1973.
First and foremost an NU alumna, however, she praised the growing accomplishments of the co-op program, something which Northeastern has prided itself on for many years.
“I think the co-op is great, especially in this economic market,” she said. “You’ve had some experience. It teaches you about life.”
Just over 100 years after the private institution was founded, it was named the number one school for cooperative education by US News and World Report in 2002 and again in 2003.
With the announcement of the 2004-05 university budget, plans for continuing improvements are in the works.
Garant will see an even more celebrated Northeastern campus, as the university sets to open West Campus buildings G and H in the fall. Other improvements to existing buildings and plans for West Campus building F are additionally in the works.
