Activism

Cole, Harley and Peters Return from Africa to Share Their Experiences

Date
October 14, 1969

The Dickinson College Chaplain Paul Kaylor wrote a letter in October of 1969 to offer the presentational services of the most-recently returned Project Africa participants. 

Dorothy "Dottie" Cole worked with twenty other students in Sierra Leone "building a hospital in the village of Mabai which will, when completed, serve persons from a 50 mile area in that country." 

Kaylor endorses Dorothy Lynne Cole and Barry Eugene Taylor for Project Africa '68 Trip.

Date
December 27, 1967

Paul E. Kaylor, Dickinson College's Chaplain at the time, wrote this letter to the Operation Crossroads Africa headquarters in New York City in December of 1967 to endorse Dickinson's two applicants for the year, Dorothy Lynne Cole and Barry Eugene Taylor. Kaylor recommends both students enthusiastically, writing "they are, as the reference forms indicate, young people of the highest order and will [...] prove to be excellent Crossroaders."

Prioject Africa Participant Writes to Carlisle Area Churches for Support

Date
November 13, 1967

Barbara E. Hancock spent about six weeks during the summer of 1967 in Upper Volta, West Africa (present day Burkina Faso) where she lived with African students and helped to build a school.

Upon her return to Carlisle, Hancock became Co-Chairman of Project Africa and wrote a letter to the "clergymen of Carlisle Area Churches" in an effort to "refresh [their] memories about Project Africa" and to offer them a presentation where she would show her slides and give a brief talk about her experiences.

Project Africa Takes Off at Dickinson

Date
1966

OCA (Operation Crossroads Africa) was founded at Dickinson by Judy Rogers, '65. Rogers was the College's first representative in Africa in the summer of 1963. The following summer ('64) three other Dickinson students followed her lead.

Dickinson Student Involved in SCOPE; Committed To Anti-Racist Work

Date
October 15, 1965

Su Kenderdine, a Dickinson senior, spent 11 weeks in Barbour County, Alabama volunteering with SCOPE (Summer Community Organization for Political Education). Kenderdine joined other Northern college students in the South with the goal of helping "Negroes better their lives by arousing an interest in education and government." As part of their work, Kenderdine and other SCOPE volunteers set up schools in counties across the South and tried to "better job opportunities for Southern Negroes."

The F-Word

Date
October 7, 2008

The Extra Features on the Dickinson College website documents the creation and activism of the Feminist Collective. Formerly the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women, the Feminist Collective is the new student-led women's feminist organization on campus. The first women's center was created in 1984 as a support and research center, named after the first woman to graduate from Dickinson, Zatae Longsdorff.  With this new center, the members can "now focus on an inclusive agenda that addresses gender, race, class, and sexual orientation" because they are a feminist organization.

Women, why are you SILENT?!

Date
February 5, 1992

In what appears to be a tri-fold pamphlet, distributed by the STOP THE VIOLENCE anonymous group, students, specifically women,  are encouraged to speak out against sexual violence.  The pamphlet poses several thought-provoking arguments, asking the reader if they have noticed that "women's issues are not taken seriously" and why Dickinson "worries more about lawsuits than protecting [women] from rape."  The pamphlet hopes to compel women to "end the silence and stop the violence."

Free Speech & Concepts of Harm

Date
February 2, 2009

In response to the posters put up by an anonymous student in protest of the Roe v. Wade anniversary posters of the Women's Center, Susannah Bartlow of the Women's Center created this lunch forum sponsered by the Women's Center, Office of Campus Life, Office of the Dean of Students, and Institutional and Diversity Initiatives.

35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Poster

Date
January 22, 2008

On the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortions the Women's Center placed hangers hung with different phrases around campus to get student attention and make students more aware of the history of being able to choose and make decisions over one's own sexuality and the choice to bear children. This poster says "Don't Like Abortion? Get a Vasectomy!"

Reaction to Feminist Collective Celebration of 35th Anniversary Roe v. Wade

Date
January 22, 2009

After seeing posters attached to coat hangers put up by the Women's Center in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, an anonymous student put up a reaction coat hanger with this poster. Some of the Womens Center celebration awareness posters included phrases like "Don't like abortion? Get a vascetomy!" and "Keep your theology off my biology."  The anonymous student wanted to make it known that abortion and other female issues are much more complicated than narrowing them down to religion/politics and other aspects of opinion.