Old West

Article on "Take Back the Night" March and Rally
"March against violence resisted in Quad" Article

On Sunday, April 10, 1988, students participated in "Take Back the Night"
rally and march, sponsored by the Women's Center, to protest and raise
awareness of rape.  Mike Dever reported on the event, describing the march route and some opposition the
marchers experienced in the Quad in the April 14, 1988 edition of the Dickinsonian.

Date: April 14, 1988
All terms: 1980-1989, Activism, Burlington, Jen, Dever, Mike, Dickinsonian, Dickinsonian, Domestic violence, Fulham-Winston, Deborah, Kwon, Helen, Lowe, Melanie, Old West, Quad, Romano, Mary, Sexual assault, Take Back the Night, Women's Center (student run), Women's rights movement
Persis Longsdorff Describes the Beginnings of Coeducation
Letter

In a letter to Dickinson College Historian Charles Coleman Sellers, Persis Longsdorff Sipple described the beginnings of coeducation. According to Persis, her father went to President McCauley and told him that he had "four daughters, who soon be ready to enter college somewhere. He finally prevailed upon him to make the decision to allow girls to be included in the student body." Thus, Persis and her sister Zatae entered the College in 1884.

Date: November 10, 1968
All terms: 1960-1969, Bosler Hall, Coeducation (arguments against), Coeducation (arguments for), Longsdorff, Persis, McCauley, James Andrew, Old West, Oratorical contest
Second Annual Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women at Dickinson College (1973-1974)
glaziera.jpg

In this report, the possibility of a Women's Center is mentioned. Opponents believed that this would be discrimination against men. While no center existed at the time, the Commission garnered its own bulletin board in the basement of Old West. , had an "open house" for its members and others, luncheons in HUB siderooms, and stressed the importance of getting all the Service Support Personnel who were women to be a part of the Commission.

Date: June 1974
All terms: 1970-1979, Affirmative action, Employment, Old West, Physical education, President's Commission on the Status of Women, Women's Center
Women at Old West
Girls at Old West

A group of five unidentified women enjoy nice weather on the steps of Old West.  Photo taken circa 1940.

Date: c. 1940
All terms: 1940-1949, Old West, Photograph
Dolly Destroys Dickinson Tranquility
Students Protest Coed Admission in 1880s

An article in The Dickinsonian's celebration of the college's 90th anniversary entitled "Dolly Destroys Dickinson Tranquility As Students Protest Coed Admission" explains the 1884 furor over the admission of a coed on campus. When Dolly Longsdorf became the first coed, writes the author, the Freshman divided over the "coed question." Dolly and the Board of Trustees stood their ground, and sixteen women were admitted to the college by 1890. The college needed to remodel Old West in order to accomodate female students.

Date: October 5, 1962
All terms: 1880-1889, 1960-1969, Coeducation (arguments against), Coeducation (arguments for), Dickinsonian, Old West
Pi Beta Phi Wins the President's Cup
Pi Beta Phi Wins the President's Cup

Pi Beta Phi won the President's Cup as the outstanding fraternal organization in the first year sororities were able to enter. Their victory was announced during the Homecoming Football Game in October of 1972. At the same time, the women from Drayer basement pulled off the traditional Homecoming prank and kidnapping of the duplicate mermaid which was located on the cupola of Old West. Second floor of Malcolm Hall retaliated by taking the original from the May Morris room of the library.

Date: October 20, 1972
All terms: 1970-1979, Dickinsonian, Drayer Hall, Greek life, Homecoming, May Morris room, Mermaid, Old West, Pi Beta Phi, Sororities, Sweetser, Vicki
The Fellahs in Fraternity Houses While the Ladies in Metzger Hall and Old West
OldWest.jpg

While the majority of the male population lived in fraternity houses on and off campus, their female counterparts resided in primarily off-campus establishements like Metzger Hall, which were located some blocks away from Dickinson. Due to the lack of housing and the influx of female students, the College began to house its female students in places such as Old West. Such was the case that was described by Sarah Andrews in her interview. Also, at the time there was no Sorority Housing in which they could have meetings and hold social events like the fraternities did. 

Date: April 11, 1990
All terms: 1940-1949, Andrews, Sara, Conway Hall, Metzger Hall, Old West, Oral history, Residence halls, Sharpe, Michael, Student housing, World War II