1971

With this issue focusing on women of Dartmouth, it seems appropriate to reflect on the first stirrings of coeducation which occurred "on our watch" so to speak. The College's exchange program for women began with the "Magnificent Seven" in 1968-69 and expanded to as many as 60 temporary transferrees (including one Meryl Streep) in 1970-71. One of the Seven, Carol Louise Dudley, who claims honorary membership in the class, wrote a "bio" for our 25 th Reunion yearbook, which serves as the basis for this month's column:

"A special student at Dartmouth College in 1968-69 (one of the Magnificent 7: the first seven women at Dartmouth), I was also at Dartmouth quite a bit during 1969-1971, and audited Joseph Losey's course in film, courses in Acting III and Gabriel Chodos's course in piano music. The B.A., however, was from Vassar College in 1971. "I was in Europe in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and decided to move there for a variety of reasons: there was a resonance between 1789 and 1989 that I felt I should listen to, more individual freedom and tolerance free from PC, less hatred and ethnic division, and less crime and thus less bunker mentality. Most importantly, I wanted to be where the winds of change were blowing; where artists had been shielded for 75 years but then set free.

"I was fortunate to be a student at Dartmouth at a crossroads of the school. Shedding its chrysalis of '50s pep rallies and boot-and-pass entertainment, Dartmouth seemed to be alive intellectually while classes at Vassar were full of students regurgitating what their professors had lectured to them. I was happy to be a beneficiary of reverse discrimination. I have a feeling that Peter Bien's memorable Comp Lit Seminar would not have been open to me had I been a male student. In the drama department under the auspices of Errol Hill, we inaugurated 12:30 Rep, which brought new plays to a group of students who would have never set foot in the Center Theater. Errol also flunked our class in the first trimester of a twotrimester course in Acting 2. It woke up a whole group of very talented but rather smug thespians and launched many of us into successful professional careers. Rod Alexander brought a professional level of directing and coaching which produced, among other things, a breathtaking production of e.e. cummings's him. The dance department came alive and produced the embryo which would become Pilobolus.

"Academics were intense but there was a war raging in Vietnam and the draft loomed over the heads of all my friends. A choice had to be made, and it was not just a matter of spouting some pseudo-progres- sive-but-actually-socially-acceptable-gospel and then carrying on with getting ahead and making a living as usual. The late sixties is now reviled as a time of excesses. I felt as a student at the time that we lived what we believed. People did not have fancy cars or live extravagant lifestyles even if they could afford them. It was a time unequaled in social mixing of the classes if only because we all wore jeans and Tshirts, drank cheap beer, and smoked cheap pot. After graduation, students joined the Peace Corps and VISTA, worked in legal aid, taught school, or just hung out even though the golden path to quick success was wide open to them. Despite what one reads in the press, the years 1967-71 left an indelible mark on us and we have carried on believing many of the things we discovered then.

"P.S. Lest this get too heavy, my best memory is of Binky Wood Rockwell's (another '7') and my apartment on Allen's Alley. We just left the door open all the time. Friends brought pizzas up from Tony's and most of the band Tracks hung out there. And anyone else who felt like it."

Carol Louise Dudley, London, England.

20 Den Road, New Hartford, CT 06057;

bedding its chrysalis of '50s pep rallies and boot-arid-pass entertainment, Dartmouth seemed to he alive intellectually. Carol Louise Dudley '71