Metzger Hall
Automobiling
This document, provided by Dean Josephine Meredith, details the regulations for "automobiling." Regulations were implemented for daytime riding, evening riding, driving to distant places, and finally on maintaining vehicles at Dickinson. Female students were allowed to travel without securing permission during the day, as long as there were a minimum of two female students, and during the evening (as long as it was within city limits). Special permission was needed from the Dean of Women if female students were traveling long distances during the day.
Microcosm Looks into the Crystal Ball and Sees New Women's Dormitory
The 1949 Microcosm discussed the "Ten-Year Development Program" that President William W. Edel presented on the 175th Anniversary of the college. The yearbook reproduced excerpts from the speech. In one excerpt, President Edel admits that the female students' living quarters are old and that the college has provided no dormitory for the students since the institution became co-educational in 1884.
Dean Meredith Speaks
Interviewed by the staff of the Dickinsonian, Dean Josephine B. Meredith is quoted as saying that she liked "teaching students who provide me with such a unique response." According to the article, the dean could not analyze the reason for the students' responsiveness. She congratulated the newly-formed Chapel Committee on its chapel programs. She advised the men to organize their own student senate separate from the women's student senate. The dean's interviewer also asked whether or not she would do anything about the "eleven o' clock rule at Metzger," or the women's curfew.
New Fad Sweeping the Nation
An issue of the Free Dickinsonian called for the college administration to tear down East College, or "Old East;" to require resident students, including women, to eat in the cafeteria; and to create a smoker's lounge. According to the Free Dickinsonian, there was a "new fad" during the 1940s: female smokers. Other colleges, like Williams College and Penn Hall School, had recognized this "new fad." The Free Dickinsonian argued that, in the next decade, the college should install a smoking lounge in Metzger Hall for the co-ed students.
Thrown Out Lock, Stock, and Barrel
Miriam Riley Weimer (Class of 1940) recalls in an interview that she knew only one student who was thrown out of school: Bes Jones. Weimer calls her "a rebel in her time" who was caught sneaking out of Metzger Hall on multiple occasions. Dean of Women Josephine Brunyate Meredith threw her out of the college. According to Weimer, Jones became a librarian, presumably having finished her education.
Defamation
Distributed to faculty and trustees on December 15, 1945, "Suggestions Considered Requisite by the Students of Dickinson College for the Improvement of the College" calls for the appointment of a new dean of women. The document cites the numerous occasions on which the dean "defamed the character of the women students" by ridiculing them and calling into question their moral judgement.
Suggestions by Students for the Improvement of the College
A document entitled "Suggestions Considered Requisite by the Students of Dickinson College for the Improvement of the College" was distributed to faculty and trustees on December 15, 1945. The first "suggestion" was the appointment of a "recognized educator" as president to replace the committee of three ruling the college at the time. According to the document, the "lack of individual authority prevents decisions." The second and longest suggestion asks for the appointment of a new dean of women. The document calls Dean Josephine B.