1940-1949

Dean Ernest A. Vuilleumier reminds the Dickinson College Fraternities about the regulations against unchaperoned female visitors. According to the rule's creation in 1936, it is stated that, "women visitors shall be admitted to fraternity houses without chaperonage approved by the dean of the college." Suitable chaperones that are available without further formalities are mothers of fraternity members, mothers of guests, or faculty member's wives. Only in certain cases where other chaperones are contemplated then it is necessary to secure special authorization from the Dean of the College.

"Suggestions Considered Requisite by the Students of Dickinson College For the Improvement of the College," labelled the "Atrocity Sheet Circulated by Dickinson Students" in Marion Bell's 1941-1946 Scrapbook lists many student complaints including those against Dickinson's food, service, and need for a President, but most notable are those against the Women's Dean, Dean Josephine Meredith.

Included in Marion Bell's scrapbook is a song composed by the Metzger Girls about their Dean, Josephine Meredith:

I.

"We are the girls from old Metzger Hall,

We might as well be within prison walls,

For the "Creep" is always there,

Lurking behind each door and chair,

She never laughs and she never smiles,

She disapproves of us and our styles,

As we girls go screaming by

She utters with a sigh:

"Nice girls don't scream."

II.

In Metzger Hall we ain't got no mice,

Found in Marion Bell's personal scrapbook from her years at Dickinson College (1941-46), this document of six pages outlines female regulations in dress and socialization in games, bars, dancing, and dining, with a special section regarding social possibilities on Sundays. It also includes rules regarding curfews, tardiness, noise disturbances, and distinctions between freshman women and upperclassmen not "on rules- those having a 75 average." It even provides a section for transfer students.

Clipped from a newspaper between 1941 and 1946 and placed in Marion Bell's personal scrapbook, this snippet shows the rules and regulations regarding women's attire at Dickinson. Marion Bell was known to wear slacks and this made her quite a rebel against this school rule. See Marion Bell, the Anti-Anti Bifurcationist.

Circa 1942, The Metzger Council divided itself into three new councils in addition to a fire drill committee to better provide for Dickinson's female students. A fire drill committee was created of Helen Kretschmar, Arline Mills, Nancy Tatnall, and Nancy Person in which regular drills would be planned.

"Personal Adventures in Race Relations" by Esther Popel Shaw (class of1919), Dickinson's first African American female graduate, was published in 1946. It addresses the sources of prejudice and racism, and she urges in her introduction that cooperation is necessary to overcome these detrimental assumptions regarding African Americans. "At a time when all our energies are needed to meet and solve together the crucial problems of the postwar period, we find a large element of the population torn by resentment, suspicion and hatred.

This letter, dated September 5, 1945, was written by Esther Popel Shaw, the first African American female graduate of Dickinson College 1919, to Mr. Boyd Lee Spahr of the Board of Trustees. Writing from her post at the National Association of College Women, Esther Popel Shaw defends herself and her race against Spahr's "apparent lack of awareness of what constitutes acceptable designations when racial references are involved" as well as racial injustice when it comes to college housing for African American students.

The Dickinson Dramatic Club revived their fraternity, Tau Delta Pi, in 1938 in order to “recognize higher accomplishments in dramatic art.”  The 1940 Microcosm notes Dorothy Sandrock's notable presence in the organization and her election into the prestigious  position of President.

According to an article in The Dickinsonian, Josephine B. Meredith will retire from Dickinson's faculty after serving the college for 29 years. The former dean had graduated from Dickinson in 1901, received a masters in English, and married Arthur Meredith. She became the dean of women of the college in 1919 and served as an English professor as well. Meredith's interests included knitting, chatting with friends, and studying John Wesley. She also travelled to England, Canada, and the European continent.