Rubendall, Howard L.

President Howard L. Rubendall responded to Chauncey M. Depuy's inquiry about the Social Opinion Survey of the Women's Group. According to Rubendall, this survey represents the "first evidence" of the Women's Liberation movement at Dickinson College, but he assures Depuy that "this will have little impact on our campus, which in the main is a campus of serious students getting their parents' money's worth...." Rubendall writes that the campus has been able to adapt to the lives of students while not giving into pressures or demands.

The new members of the Alpha Delta Epsilon Sorority received much support and praise for their courage in creating a new organization. President Howard L. Rubendall wrote to Diane Obersheimer, ADE’s President, congratulating her and her sisters on the courageous and honorable steps they took “to maintain the high integrity of the group.” The Dean of the College wished to the new sisters “a successful future” as a locally autonomous sorority.

 

An article in a local newspaper documents the end of Dickinson College’s association with the national fraternity, Phi Mu. The article says that the Beta Delta Chapter of Phi Mu voted unanimously on September 25 to disassociate with the national organization, and the former chapter “will continue as a new local women’s fraternity, Alpha Delta Epsilon.” The article includes comments from Diane Obersheimer, Alpha Delta Epsilon’s president, Dean Gillespie, the Dean of Students, and Dickinson’s President, President Howard Rubendall.

 

The Women's Group drafted a proposal for the hiring of a gynecologist "to serve in the Health Center at least once a week." They sent it to President Howard L. Rubendall for action by the college administration. The Women's Group ascertained from the 39 percent response they received from their questionnaires that 40 percent of the women surveyed currently used birth control and 28 percent had used the Family Planning Clinics in Carlisle or Harrisburg.

President of the College Howard L. Rubendall responded to Samuel W. Witwer's letter in regards to the Social Opinion Survey of the Women's Group. He assures Witwer that Dean of Women Mary F. Carson had nothing to do with the survey and was offended by it. He adds that the Women's Group is not part of the mainstream or the sorority group at Dickinson College and was considered by peers to be "stupid and ridiculous." The president also tells the story of a Commencement speaker who inquired after the presence of the Women's Liberation Movement on campus.

The president of the Board of Trustees, Samuel W. Witwer, wrote to the president of the College, Howard L. Rubendall, in regards to the Women's Group "Social Opinion Survey." Witwer had heard complaints about the survey but had ignored them until he received a copy of the questionnaire. He referred to the survey as "cheap, tawdry, ill mannered, and bad taste [sic]." He suggests that members of the Women's Group "must be totally preoccupied with matters of sex." He insists that the College does not permit a wide variety of sexual conduct.

Paul E. Kaylor reported his meeting with Dean Mary Carson regarding the Women's Group Social Opinion Survey in a memorandum to President Howard L. Rubendall. Kaylor gives the background of the Women's Group, stating that students "not normally in the 'mainstream' of campus life" formed it the previous year. As a student organization, the group does not fall under rigid administrative control, though, according to Kaylor, the administration had been working to channel the group's efforts.

President Howard L. Rubendall responds to Vincent Schafmeister's second letter of March 23 on behalf of Mary Frances Carson. Rubendall does not specifically cite the Social Opinion Survey or the Women's Group in his response, instead writing that Schafmeister's choice to inform the President of the Board of Trustees about his concerns was "most appropriate."

Dean of Women Mary Watson Carson sends a memo to Dr. Rubendall regarding the "Social Opinion Survey" of the Women's Group. She explains that she did not give permission for them to attach her name to the survey. According to the dean, the Women's Group distributed the questionnaire in residence halls and mail boxes. Dean Carson reports that the group formed early in the fall and invited some faculty women to meet with them. The same week that Carson wrote this letter, Student Senate officially recognized the group as an organization.