Five Freshmen

In the fall of 1999, I bring my son to enter the new freshman class at Cornell University- just the way my parents had delivered me to that strikingly beautiful campus some 34 years earlier. It is the beginning of September, a quintessential early autumn day, also the first day of orientation. As the band and glee club deliver a stirring rendition of Cornell's famous alma mater, "Far Above Cayuga's Waters," I start to drift back to the time when I was an entering freshman more than three decades earlier- on the eve of a campus revolution. Five Freshmen: a Story of the Sixties- chronicles the lives of five of us from totally different backgrounds who set out together in what turns out to be the most turbulent period in American college history. As entering freshmen, our biggest worry is following the proctor's edict to have "three feet on the floor" at all times when entertaining co-eds. How times had changed! By senior year, our very lives are on the line and we couldn't care less about those rules. From fraternity house hi-jinx to draft card burnings and building takeovers, the juxtaposition of a fun-filled campus existence, coupled with life and death issues, is startling. What happens to each of the five of us over the next four years is a riveting tale of comedy, drama, friendships, romances, relationships, reminiscing- and reflects the sights, sounds, history, and music of this incredible decade. Through an odd twist of events, the members of our "fearsome fivesome" gain front row seats to a revolution in the making- and then each in his own way becomes entangled in it. We enter one Cornell in 1965 and leave a very different university in 1969. What happens to us individually and collectively over those four years is a fascinating story and reflects an amazing period in American history when the War in Vietnam, Civil Rights, and Women's Lib cause the country to take a 180-degree turn in direction. All of this-- is set against the background of the sizzling sixties and the backdrop of the majestic Cornell campus.
About the Author: Steven S. Kussin was a high school principal for 21 years. Currently he is the education reporter for WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York, an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, a weekly columnist for the Herald chain of community newspapers, and an educational consultant for many school systems. This book is his second; his first was a manual for school administrators: How To Build the Master Schedule in Ten Easy Steps. He looks forward to turning this novel into a screenplay-- and then beginning work on a second one. Steve received a Ph.D. from New York University, an M.S. from Brooklyn College, and a B.A. from Cornell University. He and his wife Sharyn live on Long Island. They are the proud parents of three sons (Todd, Eric, and Lonnie)-- all of whom graduated from Cornell as well... two daughters-in-law (Alyssa and Laura)... as well as the grandparents of two granddaughters (Rebecca and Kaylee).