Coeducation Becomes A Reality

"To the young women who today for the first time in over two centuries become freshmen members of The College, the Class of 1926 bids you a warm welcome. Not less sincere are our congratulations on your admission to an institution which half a century ago introduced us not only to a college education but also to a way of life.

"With this flower for each of you we bring our affectionate greetings and our hope that we shall see all of you graduate in 1976. We'll be in Hanover then too for our 50th Reunion.

"And after that our prayer for you will be that often you will recall, as we do, the lovely words of DARTMOUTH UNDYING:

"Seen by the light of many thousand sunsets Dartmouth like a vision starts The gleaming, dreaming walls of Dartmouth Miraculously builded in our hearts."

So — with a handsome scroll and a corsage awaiting each in her room — the women of Dartmouth were welcomed by their predecessors of half a century. And so, as 177 freshman women, joined by 74 women transfer students, matriculated as regular Dartmouth undergraduates, coeducation became an actuality after several years of bring an "issue."

The implications of coeducation may be discussed at club and class meetings for years to come, but the implementation of last year's historic decision is here and now, its manifestations ranging from the mundane to the philosophical. Are the women of 1976 freshmen, freshwomen, or freshpersons? What will be the long-range impact on course offerings, distribution of majors, faculty appointments?

The class profile of the women of '76 bears a strong resemblance to that of their male counterparts, statistically if not visually. More than a quarter are Dartmouth daughters. They share roughly the same geographical, ethnic, and socio-economic distribution and the same 70-30 ratio of public and private school background. Together with the exchange students here only for a year, they make for a female presence of about 350 on the campus.

A key figure in carrying out the Trustees' mandate for giving these young women an education matching in excellence that which the College has accorded its young men for more than two centuries is Ruth M. Adams, first woman Vice President of the College, who assumed her duties in July after six years as President of Wellesley College. Officially a Dartmouth alumna as an adopted member of the Class of 1935, Miss Adams made her debut last month before an alumni group when she spoke to the Westchester Club on the topic "Eleazar Wheelock and His Women."

Although she was pointedly not named Vice President for Women's Affairs, Miss Adams' experience as chief administrator of a distinguished women's college makes her an invaluable adviser during the crucial interim years as successive coeducational entering classes bring Dartmouth to its full projected enrollment of male and female students. She herself declines credit for the smooth operation of the opening weeks of the landmark 1972-73 academic year, insisting that "all the good things that have been done in anticipation of the coming of coeducation have not been done by me or this office." She credits particularly Lucretia Sterling of President Kemeny's office, Assistant Provost Marilyn Baldwin, Assistant Dean Katherine Ragone, and Assistant Dean Britta McNemar and their assistants with the hard work that has made the orderly transition possible.

Evidence of the thorough and thoughtful preparation for the assimilation into the Dartmouth community of the first women candidates for baccalaureate degrees permeated every phase of the complex operation that is the College as the freshman class arrived in Hanover.

The DOC-sponsored Freshman Trip was divided this year into six sections, three coed and three all-male, with the first starting out September 9 and the last returning in time for Freshman Week. A seventh all-female section was tailored for the exchange students. Just under 500. about half of the men and half of the women, participated in the traditional initiation into the outdoor living that is a unique feature of the Dartmouth Experience. Each section was divided into groups of five or six, with options available for fishing expeditions to the College Grant; mountain climbing on the Presidential Range, the Franconia Notch area, or less challenging slopes to the south; or — an innovation this year — bicycling northward up the Connecticut Valley. Biking edged hiking slightly in female preference, but four of the women chose the fishing option.

On the third night of each of the trips, the entire section of some 85 freshmen and transfer students and their group leaders convened at the Ravine Lodge on Mt. Moosilauke for a woodsman's banquet and an evening of orientation talks, movies, tall tales, and — another Dartmouth "first" — square dancing for the coed groups. President Emeritus Dickey, an accomplished angler, led one of the fishing trips to the Grant and later spoke to the new students at the Lodge. President Kemeny met with one of the coed sections the final night out at the Moosilauke base camp.

Orientation week in Hanover followed traditional patterns, with no special provision made for the women of '76. Academic advisers of freshmen had been given the choice of all-male, all-female, or a mixed group of advisees, but otherwise orientation was "across the board" as it has always been. Conferences on class schedules and distributive requirements, proficiency testing, library tours, meetings with administrators, and discussions of the range of personal counseling services available were on the week's agenda.

Miss Adams reports that increased emphasis was' put this year on orientation for transfer and exchange students, including most of the ingredients of Freshman Week plus others appropriate to the state of their progress along the academic trail. As majors or near-majors, they were received at departmental open houses. A panel discussion by women faculty members on "Why I Teach What I Teach" and a luncheon with women faculty members and administrators were part of a special effort to instill a feeling of community among upperclass women. Miss Adams puts high priority on this interaction of the Dartmouth women. Women faculty members are important as "role models" for female undergraduates in a predominantly male institution, and "upperclass women are very consequential in providing stability, information, and experience for the freshman women," she believes.

Dartmouth's coeds are housed in dormitories scattered from one end of the campus to the other, to avoid a separate enclave of women. Each was given the choice of all-female or mixed dormitories, and the preference was met in all cases. North Massachusetts and Woodward are being used exclusively by the women, who also occupy one floor of Hinman, French, McLane, Butterfield, and North Fayerweather and two floors of South Topliff. In what might be called "segregation by plumbing," women students are housed in separate suites on mixed floors in Cohen, Bissell, Little, and Brown (the four Choate Road dormitories) and Middle Mass.

Minimal adaptation of dormitory facilities was required to accommodate women students, according to William Crooker, director of student housing. The only changes were the addition of inexpensive full-length mirrors and small shelves in the bathrooms for storage of toilet articles, minor modifications of showers for more privacy, better outdoor lighting in remote areas of campus, and slightly more attention to the condition of window shades.

The only construction necessitated by the advent of coeducation was new dressing-room and locker facilities added on to the southeast corner of the gymnasium. Complete with sauna baths and such unprecedented female accoutrements as full-length mirrors, vanity tables, and hair dryers, the new wing provides separate access to the swimming pool and the gym floor.

Physical education classes are coeducational in all instances, with the exception of field hockey, a new offering open only to women, and handball and soccer, which will remain exclusively male, Wilbur Volz, director of physical education and intramural sports, reports. Dance is another curricular addition, but both sexes are welcome. Even intramural touch football is set up as a coeducational activity, Mr. Volz says. The physical education staff has been augmented by one woman instructor, Agnes Bixler, who arrived in Hanover at the start of Freshman Week after a summer touring Australia and New Zealand with the U. S. Women's Squash Team.

The full impact of coeducation on the academic program of the College will be some time in emerging, and departments are waiting and wondering to learn what different directions, if any, the women students will take in choice of major fields and elective courses from those their male predecessors have preferred in recent years. Some departments are reportedly ecstatic about changes they anticipate, others apprehensive. There are few clues to date, however, either from the predictably malleable pre-registration of this year's freshmen or from the curricular patterns of the women exchange students who have been a familiar part of the Dartmouth scene since the fall of 1969.

Miss Adams' experience with male exchange students at Wellesley was thai they tended to follow the normal patterns of regular Wellesley students, even to gravitating toward offerings in those departments with reputations for particularly distinguished teaching or stimulating curricula.

Of vast and long-range importance to the implementation of coeducation and the promotion of excellence of education for women at the College, in Miss Adams' view, is the increase "with all due rapidity" of the numbers of women in the tenured faculty ranks, as models and support both for undergraduates and for their junior colleagues. She considers the addition of 15 women faculty members this year, which brings the number of women instructors to 25 full-time and 15 part-time, "an encouraging start," but she points out that there are only four women in the senior full-time faculty ranks. Two of them, she adds, are off campus for the fall term, while she herself, a "titular Professor of English," will be teaching only one or two courses a year because of her demanding administrative duties. An essential facet of Miss Adams' responsibilities as Vice President is to work toward alleviating this situation — as the announcement of her appointment last winter put it, "to increase the employment opportunities for women at Dartmouth in both faculty and administrative positions."

Although some of the academic nuances of a coeducational Dartmouth remain in the crystal-ball department, the girls are here and the transition to date has been smooth and uneventful, with none of the dire trauma prophesied by a fearful few. The Class of 1976, male and female members alike, has settled in as Dartmouth students, much as entering classes have for 203 years. And the mood on campus, echoing alike the happy gallantry of the Class of 1926 and the equally enthusiastic though more contemporary reception of fellow undergraduates, seems to be:

Vive la difference! Vive les freshpersons!

A new look in the Freshman Book: a page from 1976's Who s Who from Where.

Julie Miller, left, a freshman fromGlencoe, Ill., pins a Class of 1926flower on classmate Margaret Busch ofNew York City, fellow Hinman resident.

Vice President Ruth Adams enjoys thefall sunshine on the steps of ParkhurstHall with Harley, a large poodle whichis her constant office companion.

Thomas Charles Ruegger / Tom / 23 Rayle Court, Metuchen NJ 08840 / Metuchen HS / National Honor Society / Class VP 2; SG Pres 4, Rep 3; Boy's State / Newspaper 2, 3, 4 / Football 2, 3, 4; Track 2, 3, 4, Capt

Kyle Steven Sadlon / Erdoni Rd., Columbia CT 06237 / Windham HS / National Honor Society / SG Rep 4; Boy's State / Football 2, 3; Gymnastics 2; Hockey 2, 3, 4; Track 2, 3, 4, Capt

Edward Anthony Rufus Jr. / Wa//y / 311 Hillcrest Dr., New Cumberland PA 17070 / Trinity HS / National Honor Society; NMSQT Commendation; Kelliher Medal / SG VP 3 / Yearbook 4; Dramatics 3, 4 / Basketball 2, 3, 4, Capt; Football 2, 3, 4; Track 4

Use Ann St. Amant / Lisa / RFD 1, 373 Jericho Rd., Berlin NH 03570 / Berlin HS 71-72; Notre Dame HS / National Honor Society; Cum Laude / Class VP 2 / Newspaper 2, 3; Glee Club 2; Rock group 2, 3, Leader; Singing group 2, 3, Leader; Debate 2, 4; Dramatics 3, 4; Religious conferences 3, 4; Study-discussion club 2, 3, 4, Leader / Skiing 2

Elizabeth Scott Rumely / Betsy / 207 Abbey Rd., Birmingham Ml 48008 / Kingswood / National Merit Scholar / Service Clubs / Glee Club 2; Dramatics 3, 4 / Field Hockey 4, Mgr; Lacrosse 2, 3; Skiing 3, 4

Paul Maurice St. Pierre / Herman / 26 Mountain View Dr., Plainville CT 06062 / Plainville HS / National Honor Society 7 Yearbook 4 / Football 2, 3, 4; Track 2, 3, 4

Mark Milton Rumohr / 3038 March St., Grissom AFB IN 46970

Robert Michael Saltzman / Rob / 1302 Longwood Dr., Bloomington IN 47401 / Bloomington Sr HS S. / NMSQT Commendation; National Honor Society / ISG VP 4, Rep 2, 3, 4; Service clubs / Dramatics 2, 3, 4; Study-discussion club 2, 3

Alexandra Myers Rynkiewicz / Lexi / Neversink District, Danbury CT 06810 / Danbury HS; St. Mary's College, India / National Merit Finalist; National Honor Society; Valedictorian; NSF Award; Rotary Club Study Abroad / Debate 2; Dramatics 2, 3

Vincent Dante Salvatore Jr. / Vince / 3701 Williams Ln., Chevy Chase MD20015 / Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS / Service Clubs / Newspaper 3, 4; Debate 2, 3, 4, Leader; Dramatics 4