Hum Drum

It happens, or so it seems now, every spring. The crocuses bloom, the duckboards are stowed away, and young men's hearts lightly turn to the Fraternity Hums competition.

Last spring Theta Delta Chi turned an old nursery rhyme into a song called "Our Cohogs," singing up a furor and setting many of the women of Dartmouth to wondering whether they were, in fact, welcome members of the College community.

The incident was not forgotten over the year or buried beneath the winter snows. "Our Cohogs" was satirized in the opening of You Laugh, a production that dramatized the role of women at the College, and Parkhurst Hall watchers were curious to see what shape Hums would take this year.

The Theta Delts included "Our Cohogs" in their performance before a preliminary Hums judging panel the Thursday before Green Key weekend. Their show, however, was characterized by assistant dean Jack Thomas '74, one of the judges, as "by far the best" and they were invited to perform in the final round of the competition. "There is a common misconception that by putting them into the finals we were condoning the singing of 'Our Cohogs,' " Thomas said. "This is wrong. We were not condoning this song."

Frank Smallwood '51, vice president for student affairs, mused a while and then concluded that the College could not permit Theta Delt to repeat "Our Cohogs" in front of a packed Webster Hall audience. "There are certain standards of decency at an institution such as this," Smallwood said.

Apparently College officials spent most of Friday morning engaged in what the economists call "jawboning." "We did not coerce them, but we did not gloss over it," Thomas said. "We were asked to convey to them that certain people were upset. We appealed to their good judgment in their performance of the next day."

Curious students anxiously awaited Theta Delt's performance. Dressed in suit coats and ties, they presented a rousing and clever performance emphasizing the decline of traditions at Dartmouth. They issued an apology to those who were offended by "Our Cohogs" before launching into a new version of the song called "Our Coeds," with more felicitous lyrics.

"The significant thing that happened was that reason prevailed," said assistant dean Barbara Campbell, another member of the judging panel. "The people of Theta Delt are perfectly capable of reason.

"On Thursday we were concerned with expressing ourselves the way we wanted," said John Gleason '76 of Theta Delt. "On Friday the overriding factor was what was better for the College."