Coeducation in Dartmouth College began in 1972 when president Kemeny installed a year-round program ensuring women’s admission to the college. The admission of women created a large amount of controversy among the alumni and the male students. As of 2015, women’s admission to the college is around fifty percent and they are given the same benefits as their male students.
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Beginning admission and Kemeny's Year-Round Plan
Coeducation began with the addition of a fourth term in the summer of the 1961-1962 academic year. Women were allowed to take classes during the summer term that would count for degrees in their own schools. In 1971, the college’s president started a committee in which women would be included in a year-round plan. In 1972, the board of trustees voted on and approved the admission of women for year-round operation of campus.
Resistance to Coeducation
With the complete coeducation of Dartmouth in 1972, there was much resistance by the male students. The female students attending were given the demeaning name of “co-hogs.” This name derived from both the term coed and the “quahog,” which is a clam indigenous to the area. The name was meant to be a derogatory reference to female genitalia. Though many of the undergraduates were in favor of coeducation, in 1975 the song “Our Cohogs” won a competition judged by the dean of the college Carroll W. Brewster. The song consisted of vulgar references to women in college to the theme of “This Old Man.”
They were also sent several letters claiming women to be “the enemy” as well as sexual objects. One of these letters written in 1973 addressed four demands. The first being women’s upper bodies must remain naked in the dining hall. The second being that the women’s “services be available at all times,” implying that they would openly willing to sleep with them. The third demand in the letter demanded the “co-hog softball team must also play naked in the green. Women with large floppy tits may wear bras. The brush area must remain uncovered.” The final demand was that one of the women give the president of Dartmouth a blow job, in hope that it would remove his “faggy” tendencies. The women of Dartmouth were also subjected to violence and open criticism. Butterfield Hall, a mixed sex dorm at the college, was frequently vandalized as well as its residents disrupted by screaming of drunken Dartmouth men.
These attacks and many more like it were used in an attempt to continue to isolate the women at the college. It was an attempt to continue the traditional gender roles that existed in Dartmouth before coeducation. This isolation made sure Dartmouth men, particularly fraternity men of Dartmouth, could assert their dominance over the women.