To the Editor:
I am writing to respond to questions raised by Amy Mikolajczyk'99 in her recent column in The Dartmouth. She implied that women have not held leadership roles in many coed organizations on campus including The Dartmouth, the Green Key Society, the Student Assembly and the Outing Club, to name a few.
For the record, the first woman to head up The Dartmouth was Ann Bagamery '78, and since 1995 women have led The Dartmouth in alternate years -- the most recent being Erin Loback '99. As for the Green Key Society, six of the past seven presidents have been women; Kelly Heaps '00 is the current president. The Dartmouth Outing Club has had women serving as presidents beginning with Genevieve (Viva) Hardigg '84 and most recently Megan Currier '97. Within the division of the Outing Club, at least five women have served as chairs of Cabin and Trail, and women have been directors of four out of the past six DOC Trip Programs.
The first woman to lead the Student Assembly was Wendy Becker '86, and in 1995, Rukmini Sichitiu '95 served as its president. Over the past nine years, eight women have served as co-chairs of the Programming Board. Other student organizations have also had women in leadership positions. For example, in the past three years five of the six co-chairs of Palaeopitus have been women. Last summer women led the African American Society, La Alianza Latina, the Dartmouth Asian Organization, The Dartmouth, the CFSC, the Programming Board, the Green Key Society and the Student Assembly.
This is not to say that it is always easy to be a woman leader on this campus, but I am proud of the extraordinary contributions women make to campus life (in single-sex and in coed organizations). The contributions of women to these student organizations and to the larger Dartmouth community are cause for recognition and celebration.
