For decades before Dartmouth became coeducational in 1972, women filled the role of imported playthings bussed to Hanover for the social activities of the annual Green Key weekend. Fraternity parties, the Green Key Ball and the "Sweetheart" competition, among other events, included women invited by Dartmouth men to campus for the weekend, and after coeducation, included the growing number of female students studying at the College.
"If a pretty girl is like a melody, then this year's Green Key Weekend was a mighty tuneful affair," The Dartmouth reported in 1965, referring to the influx of women from nearby colleges who were bussed to Dartmouth every May.
Although it was a one-night event when it began in 1921, Green Key soon expanded to a weekend-long celebration and became one of the most anticipated happenings of Spring term. Dartmouth students invited dates from nearby schools usually women's colleges including Smith College, Wellesley College, Vassar College and Mt. Holyoke College.
The New York Times reported in 1935 that 700 female guests were expected in Hanover "for a round of weekend festivities." As part of the festivities, many of the then 26 fraternities would hold a series of private dances, leading up to the Green Key Prom, the featured event of the weekend.
In order to accommodate the growing numbers of women descending on campus, fraternity brothers vacated their rooms and parents enlisted as chaperones to enforce the College's restrictions on the hours during which women were allowed in male dormitories.
In a 1968 letter to parents who had volunteered to serve as chaperones, Dean of the College Thaddeus Seymour thanked them for their help and attached a list of precautions that the College took to ensure safety. "Two responsible men" had to serve as a "fire watch" for each fraternity for a certain number of hours during the night, and the College hired "roving fire watches" of campus police officers to ensure that the fire watch was awake.
The College also hired two women to inspect the upper floors of each fraternity on the Saturday afternoon of Green Key to ensure safety and cleanliness.
The arrival of women to campus was greatly anticipated by Dartmouth's student body, particularly by the sophomores, juniors and seniors who were permitted to invite dates. In fact, on the Green Key Prom program of 1939, train departure times were listed to ensure that male students dropped their dates off on time.
Pictures of men picking up their "imports," as visiting women were referred to in a 1960 article in The Dartmouth, show College students and their dates smiling, laughing and kissing. Some particularly joyful images from 1937 depict couples strolling around campus or lying on blankets outside.
One of the highlights of the weekend in the 1960s was the annual "Sweetheart" contest, which included a panel of judges to select the most attractive visiting female, according to a letter from a Sweetheart contest sponsor to a prospective panel judge. The panel consisted of seven judges from the faculty, administration and student organizations, and each judge nominated three female candidates.
Out of 21 candidates, the judges would select a "Sweetheart," who was crowned at the Green Key Ball, and four "attendants." In 1960, The Dartmouth characterized the Sweetheart as "an attractive young rosebud."
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Pat Berry '81 spoke of an "unofficial" ranking contest that men participated in after Dartmouth became coeducational in 1972. When Dartmouth's Green Key Society organized the "Freshman Mixer," some men held placards with numbers in order to rate women who passed by, Berry said.
Even after Dartmouth's switch to coeducation, College men continued to invite women from other campuses to come for big weekends, causing many Dartmouth women to feel neglected, according to Berry. Even in 1975, many men did not view women as "real" Dartmouth students, according to an article in The Dartmouth.
Although many attribute the rowdiness of Green Key weekend to men, Berry said that women could be just as "silly."
"To be generous, there was as much silly behavior in women as there was in the men," she said. "The problem was that men had greater numbers." Dartmouth had to work harder to equalize many of the aspects of Green Key weekend and other Dartmouth traditions, so that women could achieve "very small steps forward," Berry said. These steps included moving a song contest between Greek organizations from the steps of a fraternity to the more neutral steps of Dartmouth Hall.
In 1931, a female visitor's behavior even led to the cancellation of Green Key weekend. Although the historical record is unclear, the visitor, Lulu McWhoosh was said to have ridden around campus on a bicycle naked. Community members attending nearby church services complained to the College and the weekend's events were suspended, The Dartmouth previously reported.
In another incident that threatened the tradition of Green Key, a local newspaper reported that former College President Ernest Hopkins threatened to prohibit the Green Key Prom if students repeated the "impropriety" of that year's Winter Carnival.
Regardless of the events of any particular Green Key, the weekend's greatest purpose was to bring women to the College, The Dartmouth previously reported.
As a visiting undergraduate from Mt. Holyoke cleverly noted in The Dartmouth in 1951, "Harvard men have the brains, Princeton men the clothes, Yalies the conversation, but it's Dartmouth for the sex and stuff."
