In an interview, Phoebe Jane Dixon (Class of 1940) comments on the quota system for women. When asked how women felt about the quota system, she answered that she did not know because they never talked about such topics.
As illustrated by Margaret MacGrefor in her interview she stated that in dormitory life, rules and regulations were implemented and monitored by proctors. Members of the opposite sex were not allowed inside the female dorimitories only in the parlors prior to curfew. When the womens relatives or acquaintances would come to pay them a visit the ladies were allowed to leave with them for the day only upon signing in and out. If you intended on staying out late or leave for the entire weekend special permission was required to be obtained.
Being a former member of Chi Omega sorority Margaret MacGregor reported in her interview that in order to govern and monitor student conduct across campus, sororities
had what were called patronesses, ladies from the area who were a part of that
Greek organization or were simply interested in volunteering their time towards
that sorority. Visitations to these chapter patronesses were required and
entailed formal wear in which the ladies had to "get dressed up with white
gloves and hats..." with "... their best finery." If for some
As expressed by Margaret MacGregor in her interview she evoked that during the Second World War the great majority of Dickinson College women were extensively involved in social service deeds. As a result of drastic nurse shortages brought about by the global effort overseas, dozens of women would take the Red Cross nurses aid course and for several hours a week worked at the Carlisle Barracks, the Army War College, and the Carlisle Hospital.
The Little Theater group was a special interest group who under the extensive support of English Professor John C. Heppler congregated and acted and directed plays. According to Margaret MacGregor who during her interview explained that if a student was an active member of the theater group who consistently helped out or performed in plays then they too would eventually become a part of Tau Delta Pi, an honorary dramatic fraternity.
Once again the infamous iron fist of Dean of Women, Mrs. Meredith was mentioned by Margaret MacGregor in her interview as she touched upon the strict regulations implemented at the college. There was no smoking, drinking, curfew was very strict, the essence of anything coeducational was nonexistent, as well as the women were not allowed to wear slacks or shorts. To consolidate this rule of conduct, Dean Meredith instituted a Bifurcation Edict which established that "no female could wear trousers", a judgement that was opposed by a group of individualist women.
Dorothy F. Nagle (Class of 1946) reports in an interview that the departure of male students during World War II had an immense impact on the campus community. After they left, there were no football or basketball games and only a few "intramural attempts." Many of the female students who had boyfriends in the service waited to receive mail, and female students kept track of friends and followed war campaigns.
As dozens of incoming first years arrived on the Dickinson Campus for their orientation ceremony and activities there was a distinct factor among the men. As was explained by Margaret MacGregor in her interview by Renee Leszczynski, during orientation only the new male students were required to wear red beanie hats called "dinks", a tradition that undermined the presence of first year women.
Mary Louise Shuman, who attended Dickinson during World War II, reports in an interview that Dickinson College had difficulty when it moved female students to East College. According to Shuman, the dean of women was concerned because the building, which had not previously been a women's dormitory, had fire escapes; she worried that men would enter the dormitory via the fire escapes.
Jane Myers Sellers (Class of 1955) describes in an interview how women achieved the effect of soft waves, a hairstyle popular during the 1950s. She reports that female students used pin curls with bobby pins and slept on them every night. Sellers explains that it was "terribly uncomfortable" and that "before you went to bed, no matter how late you stayed up studying, you would have to do those pin curls." According to Sellers, female students did not want the men in the dormitories during panty raids because they did not want the men to see them in pin curls.