the same time, residential housing was expanded to 3,000, the Stony Brook Union opened in 1970, and in 1971, the massive expansion project for the campus library (named in memory of Frank Melville Jr., father of philanthropist Ward Melville) was completed.
Despite the fast-paced growth, campus infrastructure often struggled to keep pace: overcrowding, expansion, landscaping, lighting, and safety were persistent problems at the university, which led to multiple protests and growing tension between the student body and the administration. In January 1968, the infamous "Operation Stony Brook" drug raid resulted in the arrest of 29 students, and in the fall of 1968, tension climaxed as the administration and students decided on a three-day moratorium to bring together the entire university with the goal of improving communication between the students, faculty, and administration.
The 1970s witnessed the growth of the university and its transformation as a major research institution within New York's public school …
