This is an undated photograph of former Rice Food Service Director Joyce Rubash:
When I took a closer look at the paraphernalia on her desk I knew just how to date it. Remember that doomed effort to get us all on the metric system in the 1970s? It also occurred to me that I’d once heard a KTRU interview about this very topic and a quick check turned up a 1977 broadcast of “To The Point,” which features Mrs. Rubash herself talking with Rob Wilds about the effort to standardize the “cup.” You can listen to it here and let me just say that it is fifteen absolutely delicious minutes long, just an incredibly Rice conversation.
Bonus: The High Holidays approach.
Your date is also supported by the small Liberty Bell item on the counter (left of her head) so it is after the bicentennial year of 1976 when those things were everywhere. Also note the adding machine to her right, the 6-key phone behind her, and the absence of any computer or terminal in her office.
It is so amusing that, even as recently as 1977, they speak of housewives being the people whose recipes would be affected by the size of the measuring cup.