1970: Head Shop Advisers Assist Students with a Drug Education Program

In fall 1970, students asked four female staff members to help them create Head Shop, a student-planned program to educate students about drugs. The main goals of the program included:

• maintaining a 24-hour hotline for students to call when they were “on a bummer” and needed help; and
• facilitating speakers and seminars to educate the community about the effects of drugs.

Head Shop played an active role in the college community throughout the 1970s by organizing and widely advertising its services and setting up aid stations at events like the Harrisburg Rock Festival.  Below are the staff members who helped students create the Head Shop.

Patricia “Pat” Murphy: Started as Assistant to the Dean of Student Affairs, later the Residence Living Coordinator.

Capitol Campus hired Murphy in 1969.  Prior to this, she received her M.S. in guidance and personnel services in higher education from the State University of New York Albany.  She and Iris Prager advised the original Drug Awareness Committee, which became the Head Shop.

The college administration announced that Murphy would no longer have a job effective July 1, 1971, because of a restructuring of the Activities and Housing Departments.  This generated controversy among students who expressed their concern and fought to keep her employed by writing editorials and speaking with the campus director.  The college proceeded with the restructuring, which made Ms. Murphy’s original job obsolete.  But she continued employment as the first Residence Living Coordinator.

Iris Prager: Physical Education Instructor.

Prager received her M.A. degree from the University of Maryland.  Prior to working at Capitol Campus, she was a graduate assistant in physical education and was a physical education teacher at an elementary school in Maryland.  She and Pat Murphy advised the original Drug Awareness Committee, which became the Head Shop.

Antoinette “Toni” Jennings: Financial Aid Counselor.

While she was as an undergraduate at Capitol Campus, Jennings worked on campus part-time preparing information for financial aid resources.  After she graduated in June 1970, she was immediately hired on July 1, 1970, as a financial aid counselor on campus.

Marian Kreiger: Started as Counselor, promoted to Staff Psychologist.

Kreiger completed her M.Ed., as well as some doctorate work in counselor education from the University of Pittsburgh, and then began working at Capitol Campus in fall 1970. While completing her degrees at Pitt, she served as head resident and as a counselor/tutor in Upward Bound, a project that helps students prepare for college.