Comments on: Whispering Pines: ‘The Nurturer of Men, and Now of Women’

By: Benet Pols

Benet Pols — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:28:37 +0000

I remember a lot of supper time conversation about this as a child. My father, a Bowdoin professor who favored Smith for his own daughters, had concerns about the advent of women at Bowdoin. The most worrisome was how he would deal with all the crying if they didn’t do well. It proved to be no issue at all. They didn’t cry and they did well.

As a nine year old boy, I was most concerned that women would dilute the pool of talented hockey players. This also proved to be no concern: Bowdoin hockey powered through the 70’s and women’s sports flourish.

By: Patricia "Barney" Geller '75

Patricia "Barney" Geller '75 — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:05:00 +0000

Nice article John. As the first woman to be President of a fraternity at Bowdoin, I was also sad to see them go. While I fully understand that the college needed to deal with the alcohol problem, having students eat together in small “families” was one of the most important parts of my Bowdoin experience. My son is at Bowdoin now and I can see first hand that the life-long bonding and sense of belonging to a subset of students is missing from his life. He has great friends but doesn’t have the place to gather to get to know students from every class of both older and younger students. Closing the frats hasn’t ended the alcohol problem, which Bowdoin shares with every college. Fraternities provided a unique living experience and a sense of belonging to a community within a community. I don’t believe the house system has worked. I liked that you included how unprepared Bowdoin was for woman students. I could go on, as many of us could with stories that would shock today’s students. Instead I will behave myself:) P.S. Liza Graves and I also founded the Women’s Association so clearly women in the early years of coeducation needed to be supported and promoted to help Bowdoin enter a new chapter. Thanks John for a great over-view.

By: John Isaacs '68

John Isaacs '68 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:44:37 +0000

Many of us still sing “Rise Sons of Bowdoin” (and a few of us still have “Bowdoin Beata” and “Phi Chi” rattling around in our brains). Most of the members of my class with whom I have spoken, myself included, greatly lament the end of the fraternity system, which was so unique and beneficial to Bowdoin in many ways. Yet I am proud that women as well as men are now nurtured by our wonderful Mother. Late in my senior year soon-to-be President Howell called a few of us into his office to ask informally what we thought of admitting women to Bowdoin. My answer: “Why didn’t you ask me this four years ago?”

By: John (Jack) J, Woodward

John (Jack) J, Woodward — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:57:13 +0000

Hi John : Very enlightening article. Had no idea of the careful and thoughtful step-by-step adoption of co-ed at Bowdoin,including the cross-breeding of Bowdoin men attending womens’ colleges. Very nicely written with your last paragraph having particularly beautiful language.

Thanks for sharing. Jack ’57

By: Steve Cavanagh '83

Steve Cavanagh '83 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:32:16 +0000

By the time I matriculated 10 years later, the transition to a fully coeducational institutional was nearly completed. Wendy Fairey was Dean of Students. The Women’s Resource Center had come into existence. The Fraternities, however, were a mixed bag. Alpha Rho Upsilon had a woman president (Jennifer Lyons, ’80) and full membership for all. Yet this was the same fall that Zeta Psi reverted to an all-male institution from one that had included women.

It was also a time where what had been the primary social institions of the College, the Fraternities, suffered from an administrative attitude that ranged between benign neglect and necessary evil, for housing and Dining Service reasons. The status of women was very different at different places, and the College did not force any house down a certain path at that time.

The forced demise of the fraternity system was an unfortunate outcome of the resolution of issues associated with coeducation, and to be fair, alcohol. The lessons learned from a self-governing organization are not replicated in a system of College-owned houses where membership is automatic and responsibility is limited.

By: Al DeMoya '72

Al DeMoya '72 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:51:37 +0000

I’m sorry if anyone takes offense at the following: Despite the passage of 40 years and the fact that I like Callie Boardman Curtis (in the photo) and her husband Randy, I still lament the adoption of coeducation at Bowdoin. I fell in love with the place and everything about it when I visited on a subfreshman weekend in the winter of 1968, my senior year in high school, including the fact that it was an all-male institution. I was heartbroken when all that changed, and to this day I still sing “Rise Sons of Bowdoin” at reunions, not that contrivance that now passes for the Alma Mater. As far as I was concerned this was a completely unnecessary bit of “progress”.