Joseph Alexander Bennett (Class of 1894), wrote his commencement oration on the subject of co-education. He argues that instead of helping society, coeducation degrades it.

This memo outlines the cost of furnishing a female student's room in Drayer Hall. Interesting to note that in addition to a bed, mattress, a chair with desk, female students also had the use of an arm chair, two lamps, a waste basket and a pillow! The total cost is $253.60, which in 1952 had the same (2009) buying power as 2046.56 US dollars.

Drayer Hall, the first major building built by the college on the Benjamin Rush campus, was also the first building to be constructed with the women of the college in mind.  An unidentified newspaper clipping anticipates a successful celebration for the dedication of the women's dormitory.  The "celebration will be the first in the long history of the college arranged entirely for honoring Dickinson women."  The Women's Day festivities include high ranking guest speakers, a luncheon, the distribution of honorary degrees to "eight outstanding women" by co-ed student sponsors, and tours of th

Warren J. Gates, the Robert Coleman Professor Emeritus of History put together a Handbook for the Alpha Chapter of PA of Phi Beta Kappa. Included was this chart, showing the number of degree-seeking and class-attending male and female inductees over multiple decades. We can see that in many years, women rivaled men in earning this national honor.

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.

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."

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.

The STOP THE VIOLENCE publication includes numerous accounts of violence against women.  The accounts often deal with sexual violence and almost all of them include some form of humiliation and embarassment for the women who were invloved. 

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!"

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.

In a particularly gruesome experience documented in the STOP THE VIOLENCE publication, a student recounts a night at an SAE party in which violence towards women was the party’s theme.  She recounts  misogynistic posters and that the brothers tried to deny that this mentality towards women was the theme of the festivities.

Included in the STOP THE VIOLENCE publication, is Dickinson College’s definition of hazing as it appears in the student handbook.  It appears that “the breaking of these rules has become so routine on this campus that most people do not even realize it is against the law.”  On the same page, personal accounts of violent acts, some quite horrific, are included.  The names of all involved are withheld for safety reasons. 

 

A group of unidentified Dickinson students organized themselves and produced a pamphlet in hopes of bringing about awareness and stopping violence on campus.  “Its right here; RIGHT HERE ON THIS CAMPUS,” reads the headline on the first page, and is followed by the mission of the article/pamphlet.  Their demands include the investigation and end to all fraternity and sorority related hazing and ritualized violence and the investigation and prosecution of any act of hazing or ritualized violence by the college.  “Hazing has become painfully obvious,” and “detrimental to the social and intelle

Written by Martha Slotten, this history of Metzger explains the building's early beginnings as a Prep School for Girls. After Drayer was built in the early 1950s, only freshman girls lived in Metzger until it was sold in 1963 and later dismantled. The completion of Drayer offered a local housing option for female students who would no longer have to walk many blocks to classes.

Dating from around 1890, this photograph shows Lovers Lane on what is now the Academic Quad. Lovers Lane was a tree lined path from West St. and High St. to East College. Many of the trees were taken down in 1929 which makes it difficult to imagine on the present day campus.

Drayer Hall postcard advertising Dickinson College's all female residence, closer to campus than any prior female housing.

Jane Shenton, an alumnus from 1911, comments upon the required courses for the 1955 Alumni Questionnaire. Even though at the time Jane Shenton complained about the required courses, looking back she remains grateful for taking courses that were out of her line of interest. She was required to take a year of math, philosophy, two laboratory sciences-biology and either chemistry or physics and political science.

Mary A. Ranck, 1907 alumni, recalls her memories on Dickinson College in the 1955 Alumni Questionnaire. Mary Ranck remembers the German Professor, William Prettyman, urged her "to do advanced work in German," which she did while studyting at the University of Berlin in Germany. In 1914, Mary Ranck received an A. B. in German and in 1924 she received an A. B. in History and a teaching degree from Columbia University. She also remembers the Misses Morgan, McIntyre and Mohler who had "a very splendid influence on us girls" due to their "excellent talks at our Y. W. C. A.

Kathryn Kerr, a 1902 graduate, remarks upon her time at Dickinson in the 1955 Alumni questionnaire. She felt that the college's greatest strength was the "moral integrity of the members of the faculty." Ever since graduating from Dickinson, Kathryn Kerr had been an active member in the religious community as well as staying informed about politics and current events. Both Kathryn Kerr and her husband, Rev. Elmer Williams a 1904 graduate, have "always felt much indebted to Dickinson."

From the 1955 Alumni Questionnaire sent out by the Curriculum Committee, Mary Lou Sheets, an alumna from 1901, fondly recalls Dickinson memories. The greatest strength of the college, to Mary Lou Sheets, was the faculty who were "wonderful men in every respect and great teachers all of whom I remember with sincere admiration and love." On a more negative note, Mary Lou felt that the college's  emphasis on extra-curricular activities has been too great and that the college's present emphasis on vocational preparation is too slight.