A packed Collis Commonground audience fell silent Tuesday night in front of a panel of Dartmouth senior women, as Tricia Shalka '05 told her story of being trapped in a fire while in Lyon, France. Shalka, who praised the administration for helping her after her near-death experience on a language study abroad program, was one of seven women who shared their Dartmouth experiences.
Shalka said she was touched by "the profound goodness of the human spirit" that the Dartmouth community exhibited. She spoke of faculty members who called her parents and the professors who offered to fly to France to be with her until her parents could secure emergency passports. Shalka acknowledged that most other Dartmouth students complain about the administration.
"You'll never hear anything bad out of my mouth. They were just phenomenal," she said on the two-year anniversary of the fire.
The panel, titled "Will The Women of Dartmouth Please Stand Up?" featured seven Dartmouth senior women who shared stories of frustration and celebration from their last four years.
"Every generation of Dartmouth women and every year is getting stronger and stronger," Clementine James '05 said of what is often called the school's male-dominated culture. Many of the panel members discussed the struggle of being a woman at a party-hard college with an active Greek life. Robin Rathmann-Noonan '05 spoke of being a confused freshman who was unable to accept responsibility for feeling lost.
"It wasn't my fault that frats were scary," Rathmann-Noonan said, describing the time she spent "denying and avoiding" the problems she faced.
Rathmann-Noonan also spoke of using negative experiences to her advantage.
"I was called a fem-Nazi by the Dartmouth Review, and I learned from it," she said.
While some women expressed feelings of threat or discomfort by the fraternity system's prevalence at Dartmouth, other women found the College a haven for femininity and embraced their femininity once here. Laura Jorgensen '05 said she spent high school hating girls and hating all of the feminine things about herself.
"Then I came to Dartmouth," she said.
During her freshman year, she was invited to a fraternity formal and her date took her out to dinner first.
"[He] pulled my chair out and I didn't understand," Jorgensen said with a smirk. "I thought he was commandeering my chair!"
But not everyone found themselves so quickly at the College.
"I don't think I knew what it meant to be a woman until this year," Kimberly Marable '05 said. Marable depended on male attention during her freshman year, wearing mini-skirts to frats and showing skin during her Sheba performances, she said. Now, as a recent convert to Islam, Marable has traded in mini-skirts and skin for modest clothing and head coverings. After a long search and adverse reactions from some students, Marable said she feels comfortable with her femininity.
Another panel member who needed time to develop a role at Dartmouth was Liz Tunick '05. Tunick spoke about founding "Speak Out," a sexual violence awareness event. She stressed that you do not have to be a "prominent figure" to effect change at Dartmouth.
"I had gone from feeling powerless to feeling like an agent of change," Tunick said.
Each of the women, regardless of their backgrounds or activities at Dartmouth, and regardless of what they chose to speak about, had one thing in common. They had advice that they wanted to bestow upon the Dartmouth community before they leave the institution. At times, this advice was hidden in personal anecdotes, while at other times, the advice was stated outright.
"Demand that you be treated with the respect you deserve," Rathmann-Noonan said.
This tradition of senior women sharing their experiences occurs each spring and began in the 1980s.
