Dickinsonian

From her time here at Dickinson, a female student of the class of 1961, recalls the restrictions women still faced on campus in the "Women as Leaders" survey. Women's social life was restrictive in that "Freshmen girls had to be in by 9:00 p.m. on weeknights, etc." The women's Freshmen dorms were also "terribly far away" from campus. Women's sports were also downplayed, which she experienced firsthand.

In March of 1885, the Dickinsonian published a piece illustrating early "co-ed's" experiences in the classroom. The Dickinsonian wrote: "Scene, the German class; Miss L translating, 'Alas! I am only a woman; if I were a man I would do something better than this.' Wild applause from the rest of the class."

In 1884, a toast to the new female students at Dickinson College was published in the Dickinsonian. The toast read, "The Ladies of Dickinson! May they add learning to beauty, and beauty to learning, subtract from the age of wisdom, multiply cheerfulness, divide time by industry and recreation, reduce idleness to its lowest denomination, and raise scholarship to its highest power!"

According to an article in The Dickinsonian entitled "WIC Revises Dorm Rules for Freshmen," the Women's Interdormitory Council voted to extended freshmen women's curfew to 11:30pm Sunday through Thursday. Freshmen women, reports the article, had complained that it was difficult--nay, nearly impossible--to return from Mermaid Players rehearsal, see a late movie, or go to the snack bar if they needed to return to their dorms by 11pm.

In a letter to the editor for The Dickinsonian, David I. Thompson, M.D. discussed the availability of the Pill as the reason for greater "indulgence" in premarital intercourse but explained that most local physicians would not prescribe the Pill to unmarried women. Thompson claimed that "bastardy with its many ramifications of mother, father and grandparent agitation frequently gives the child a hard start in life and a hard start in emotional aspects...." He also reported a serious problem with venereal disease.

Many of the Letters to the Editor in an issue of The Dickinsonian addressed the censorship that the president of the college practiced by preventing publication of the newspaper in response to the cartoon on "The New Morality." Susan Jagielio complained of the outright censorship the president had practiced, and John Exdell called the action the "height of bureaucratic callousness."

A one-page article advertising the upcoming Public Affairs Symposium in The Dickinsonian featured brief glimpses at the views of the symposium's speakers on "New Morality" and included a cartoon that was intended to capture some of the issues under discussion. In the cartoon, a man approaches a woman, saying, "Look baby, you are living during the modern Sex-u-al Revolution. This is the New Morality! So take of fyoru dress and smile, sweetheart, you're in the Pepsi generation!" The woman counters the man, explaining that women have needs as well.

The 1966 Public Affairs Symposium, writes Barry Rascover in an article in The Dickinsonian, would investigate the "rapidly changing value system of today's generation" from February 6-9. Rascover emphasized Betty Friedan and Evelyn Duvall's dialogue on "Feminine Fulfillment in a Changing Morality" as the highlight of the symposium. While Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in order to critique the myth of marital bliss, Dr. Duvall defended premarital chastity and consulted to social and religious agencies.

The Dickinsonian reported that the upcoming symposium would address the topic of "The New Morality" and would feature Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, among other speakers. The symposium was designed "to allow the student to come to grips with himself...."Betty Friedan would partner with Dr. Evelyn Duvall in order to discuss "Feminine Fulfillment in a Changing Morality." The article calls Friedan's book a "controversial bestseller."

The report of the Student Senate Committee on Social Rules to the Faculty Committee on Social Rules was published in The Dickinsonian. The report addresses social rules that pertained to drinking downstairs in fraternities while female students were upstairs, privacy (or, as the reported defined it, the the separation of two persons of the opposite sexes from others), and what other college policies were regarding visiting hours for women. The report listed rules at other colleges, including Swarthmore, Stanford, Reed, Oberlin, Yale, and Haverford.