They looked bettwe when I was an undergraduate, because there were more of them. The Great Storm of 1987 must have uprooted about a quarter of them. Also, many have since been chopped down because they were too close to footpaths and female students were afraid that men might be hiding behind them (which in at least one case was, I believe, true).
The trees also looked better because back in the 1970s, the Estates section didn't place unsightly green salt bins in view-spoiling locations.