In her essay on the "Women at Dickinson College," Dean of Women Josephine Meredith included the following section titled "Why Women Come Here," listing motivating factors/reasons why students chose to attend Dickinson. Her account illustrates the minimal role Dickinson played in proactively seeking to attract even more 'superior' women students; yet she concludes that this could be remedied by being more selective and insisting on personal interviews.

Trends of reasons for attending Dickinson:

In her essay, "Women at Dickinson," Dean of Women Josephine Meredith included a section entitled: "Value of Types." In it Meredith defines three types of students that attended Dickinson College. The description of each type briefly accounts for the value each group brought to the campus.

 

Types of Students:

At the close of her sophomore year, Judith Rogers, one of the first African Americans to receive campus housing at Dickinson, had received two distinctions.

Lawrence A. Bradshaw, the advisor to the Afro-American Students of Shippensburg State College wrote a letter to Dickinson's Dean of Students, Harold R. Gillespie concerning the limited social life Black students of Shippensburg experienced. In his letter he inquires about the possibility of joint programming for Black students between the two colleges, saying that his students "express a desire to be more fully acquainted with the black students at nearby campuses."

The Congress of African Students (CAS) circulated it's first issue of their group's publication, "NIA-PURPOSE."

In both the 1970-'71 and '71-'72 academic school years lists of names of Black students at Dickinson were compiled. By whom and for what purpose is unknown.

The list for 1970-'71 contains 59 names: 9 seniors, 4 juniors, 26 sophomores, and 20 freshmen.

The '71-'72 list shows an enrollment of Black students of 55, without a class-year breakdown.

The introductory part of her report is entitled "Historical." In it she briefly accounts for the reasons women had not been admitted into Dickinson College up until 1884 and outlines the various developments that arose from that year on. Developments addressed include: additions to faculty and trends in enrollment.

Trustees deemed admission of women prior to 1884 inadvisable due to the saturation of recitation rooms, but co-education for Dickinson had been discussed for some time before housing conditions allowed women to
be admitted.

Sponsored by the Congress of African Students (CAS), the 3rd Annual Black Student Union Conference was held at Dickinson on September 27, 1980.

The Conference's keynote speaker was Dr. Marion Oliver, who spoke on the topic of "1980's: Challenge to Succeed" in the Social Hall. After Dr. Oliver's address, attendees of the Conference broke off into small discussion groups, ate a buffet dinner, and then had a "Disco" as a closing social event.

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." 

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."

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.

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.

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."

Beta Theta Pi, one of Dickinson's earliest fraternities, considered admitting Zatae Longsdorff into their fraternity. According to the minutes of April 17, 1885, "Miss Zata Longsdorf was discussed as a fit subject for the bond of fellowship but her case was dismissed." The discussion of her admittance was brief.

Maureen Newton (Class of 1965) is featured in the 1965 Microcosm as its Business Manager.

This association promoted Co-Education. It demanded that every member call on the Ladies Hall twice a week and would ensure that doors would be opened for female students, as well as providing them with escorts.

The December 1949 Dickinson Alumnus documents a fellow alumna, Frances L. Willoughby '27, who was awarded a commission. However, Willoughby was not awarded just any kind of commission, but she received the honor of being the first woman doctor to receive a Navy Commission. She entered the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant in 1944, and appointed to permanent staff only 4 months after and in 1946 she achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After graduating from Dickinson, Willoughby went on to receive a medical degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.

The Dickinsonian suggests a "Woman's Page" in order for Dickinson to be truly co-educational, and also since female students excel!

This five stanza poem by W.P.S. demonstrates his sadness when Miss Lillian Sara Marvel, the first female law student at the College, does not return his advances.

"Alas! the world has gone away / Since Lillian entered college, / For she has grown so learned, I / Oft tremble at her wonderous  knowledge. / When'er I dare to woo her now / She frowns that I should so annoy her , / And then proclaims, with lofty brow, / Her mission is to be a lawyer."

Miss Martha Barbour was hired as an instructor in physical culture (read, P.E.) for the female students at Dickinson. She was a graduate of the Boston School of Oratory and was not an alumna.