GROWING UP FAST

When I went up to Hanover in 1972,1 thought, naively, that coeducation was something everyone favored. During freshman week an African-American sophomore came up to me and said, "Why are you here? You are taking the place of a brother who ought to be here." I said, "What are you talking about? We're coed now, and I have the right to be here." I hadn't considered that the three classes ahead of me had entered a college that was unisex, and might have felt they'd been given a raw deal.

I remember coming back from band practice one day with my friend Judi Redding, also '76. We walked by a gas station on our way to campus. Some folks started throwing eggs at us. I remember thinking, What is going on here? There were a lot of incidents like that. Certainly, during my first couple of years, I thought a lot about leaving. The turning point came during my junior year when I decided I was going to stick with it. I guess it's hard for me to accept a challenge and then walk away from it. I stopped talking about transferring and got into the Dartmouth experience. I did a language study program in Mexico. I got more involved. I think most of us got involved. And over time the concerns lessened. By the time I was a senior there were still incidents a guy stood outside Thayer Hall one night wearing a Klan outfit, The Dartmouth Review was just starting up but there were more women on campus. It was beginning to feel a little more natural.

I wish I could relive those days knowing what I know now. I think I missed so much back then, just trying to survive day to day. But I'm glad that lentered Dartmouth when I did. The women who came in as freshmen in '72,1 think, all had to come of age very quickly. I had to deal up front with the issues of being African-American and a woman. Perhaps in other settings I wouldn't have had to grow up so fast.

If you had asked me when I was a freshman or sophomore if I would become active in alumni activities, I would have said, "Not on your life." I never did feelike an insider. But I've been active in College affairs almost since I graduated I was on the Alumni Council, and I'm active in the Dartmouth Black Alumni Association. Despite the heartache, I am who I am partlybecause of my Dartmouth experience, and am stronger for it. And I'mglad to still be involved, to have a voice in the direction Dartmouth takes.

Karen Turner, assistant professor of joumalism at Temple University, co-hostsa weekly radio talk show, The Way We Hear It, on WPHT in Philadelphia.