Affirmative action

In the February 23, 2006 Dickinsonian, Lizzy Price opines that gender does not belong at all in the admissions selection process.

In 1972 on October 5, 6 and 8, Dickinson held a seminar on women in
coordination with the Bicentennial Homecoming the same weekend.  The
seminar was "designed to examine the political, educational, legal, and
social conditions in our society which sometimes tend to reduce women's
participation as full partners with men in many aspects of life."  It was the first seminar on women ever held at Dickinson
and included a play by the Mermaid Players, speeches, workshops and
exhibits.  C. Delores Tucker, Secretary of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, was the major speaker. 

In this Dickininsonian article from March 1992, the issue of percieved gender roles for professors and staff at the College is discussed. The need for not just more women professors but women professors across all academic disciplines is addressed.

This Progress Reports includes changes and plans to change College policy regarding female students. Most notably is the mention of the 1973 Spring semester and the success of the movements to "rescind the 'sex quota,' by action of the Board of Trustees, so that henceforth Dickinson College will strive for an approximate ratio of 1:1 in admissions of male and female students; and to omit singing at College functions the last verse of the Alma Mater, with its references to 'men' and 'sons.'"

"Recommendations and Report on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession at Dickinson College" documents the information from a survey done from 1962 to 1972, which included a study of student enrollment during those years. In these ten years, female enrollment increased from 33.3 % to 43.2 %. On the other hand, male enrollment had increased as well. The downside to this information was that there was an increase of female students, but no increase in female faculty.

Data from a survey done from 1962 to 1972 about Dickinson College faculty revealed information about female faculty in the "Recommendations and Report on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession at Dickinson College" document. They discovered some interesting results, both positive and negative. Some negative aspects found from the survey were that women were underrepresented on the faculty, in the upper professional ranks and on the standing committees of the faculty.

In this report, the possibility of a Women's Center is mentioned. Opponents believed that this would be discrimination against men. While no center existed at the time, the Commission garnered its own bulletin board in the basement of Old West. , had an "open house" for its members and others, luncheons in HUB siderooms, and stressed the importance of getting all the Service Support Personnel who were women to be a part of the Commission.

While the national average for male female ratio is 45/55, at Dickinson in 1999, it was 36/64 and in 2003. 43-57. Dickinson wants to combat this increasingly female trend by emphasizing Dickinson's strengths in athletics or sciences, more "masculine" fields. It was stressed in the article that admissions decisions were NEVER based on gender and no one that was unqualified for Dickinson would be admitted even if they were of a lacking gender. That is why Dickinson is never 45/55 exactly. The decrease of male applicants created this upsurge in female matriculation.

Around Campus questioning about affirmative action bringing more men to campus in 2000 brought some interesting comments. Ayree Koh '04 said that "People should be able to choose where they go to school without an outside force compelling them." A male student, Chris Daubert had no opinion:"Honestly, it's not that important to me," he said .Melissa Laureau '03 said "It would be nice to have more men on campus. I would prefer that the school keep the standards up." Why standards would need to be "kept up" is unclear.

The members of the Women's Group composed a letter to professors calling for more female faculty at Dickinson College. The Women's Group writes that the foundation of coeducation  presupposes that it is valuable to have both men and women students participate in the educational experience. They explain that this concept should be applied to faculty as well and cite the ratio of male to female faculty of 10:1. The male to female student ratio, by contrast, was 4:3.