Professor Celia Chen '78 of the biological sciences department has had the gift (or curse) of experiencing two different Dartmouths: the 51-percent female campus we know today, and the male-dominated campus of her undergraduate years. A member of the third coed class (the last all-male class was in its last year at the College when she arrived as a freshman), Professor Chen relives the horrible, wonderful, and the shockingly mundane experiences of Dartmouth in the late 1970s.
How did you decide to come to Dartmouth?So the reason I came to Dartmouth was because I really wanted to be in a remote, kind of pristine, natural habitat. And the fact that it had just gone coed was more of a "Oh great! Now I can go there too!" I don't think as a freshman I had the sophistication to think "maybe they haven't quite made the transition yet." One of my best friends from high school was also excited, we thought our timing was great. It didn't end up looking the way we had thought it would look.
Were you hesitant about going to a school with such a gender imbalance?There you are, a freshman female just coming out of high school and I think that somebody might say why would you come to a place that's so male dominated? I couldn't really envision what that ratio looked like what does an eight-to-one male-to-female ratio look like on the ground? I don't think that any of us really knew and plus you pick an institution for many other reasons than just the ratio. If Dartmouth was like it was then today, would I want my daughter to go here? You know, probably not. That kind of a ratio just doesn't make for good, healthy social relationships between men and women.
So you felt like the male students treated you differently?So, the seniors here were all male, and some of them were very vocal about not wanting women here. You know, they had applied to an all-male college and for the women who were in the two classes ahead of me, they had even more outrageous stories about certain things that were said that were very unwelcoming, very mean spirited. The more hostile remarks I remember were in a more social context cause you'd have guys that had just gotten drunk and they'd let you know that they don't appreciate the presence of women on campus. Nobody ever felt in any way threatened, but it was just that unwelcoming attitude. It was the worst during our freshman year.
Any specific instances you can recall?I think the thing that was most shocking to me is that when we came as freshmen, when the women came up in buses this apparently happened before women came to Dartmouth too the men would sit there while the women were getting off the buses and sing cattle songs. It was just despicable. They also called the women "cohogs" instead of "coeds." But my sister is a class of '81, she's three years younger than me, and I don't think she'd ever heard anyone use the term "cohog." So it was changing rapidly during those years. We were the third class of women, and we saw the residuals of the all-male campus.
Did the gender imbalance foster more of a bond between the female students?We were certainly really bonded, I felt fortunate. I was in a female dorm, it was Hinman Hall. There were three all-female dorms then Hinman, Woodward and North Mass and then there were coed and all-male dorms. It did feel a bit like a safe haven.
Did you feel more pressure to prove yourself in the classroom?I think in hindsight it was a little intimidating in classes because we were so visible as women here and so you know going into a classroom, are you going to want to speak up? Participate? Because everyone's waiting for what the two or three women in the class are going to say. It was really challenging in those ways. I think that aspect wasn't that great for me as a student. It didn't feel like a supportive academic environment in some of my classes that were very male-dominated. I think that the maleness of the place was very pervasive. It made me feel less able to participate at that time. Now teaching at Dartmouth, I'm very sensitive to those students who feel they can't participate, who don't feel confident enough. I think you have a much better educational experience when you're participating.
Did you have a lot of male friends while you were here? Could you be as close with them as you could with the females on campus?It's not exactly the same, but I felt very supported and cared about by my male friends just as much as my female friends. And I don't have any brothers, and it felt more like I imagined it to feel like to have a brother. But it wasn't a great environment for people dating one another.
Why was it such a bad environment for dating?You know, the dating piece of Dartmouth was kind of dysfunctional because every guy assumed that every girl was already being dated by someone because there were so few [of us]. There were so many males, and you were so visible. In that kind of ratio, it's just unbalanced. And given that the social options are just so little, what would you do?
Coming back as a former student what do you notice is different? The same?The sorority culture is healthier than it was first starting when I was a senior. It seems like a great way for women to meet other women. And it's also just visually very noticeable. In our biology classes, we have a lot more women. Also, as an Asian, I find it incredibly refreshing. I don't know what the percentage was while we were here but I think there were maybe three or four Asians in my entire class. Not only was it so male. It was very white.
You said sororities started when you were a senior? What was that like?Well my impression at the time was that the women were acting like female fraternities. So some of these kind of not so positive behaviors were being exhibited by those sororities. It wasn't an issue for me to decide whether I wanted to join a sorority because it didn't seem like something I wanted to be a part of, plus we were already kind of on our way out. I think it's healthy, if we're going have such a strong fraternity system to have a sorority system. It was good they were starting I just don't think they had a good model for themselves at that time. But at least it provided a new place for women to be together.
