Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

A Class Project of GWS 280 - Fall 2011

Orient: Fraternity Rush Nets Ample “Pledge” Yield

On September 22, 1972 the college’s student newspaper, The Bowdoin Orient, printed an article regarding the 1972 fall fraternity rush (Document SS, 45).  The article details the number of new students who pledged the different houses as well as issues with that year’s fall rush.  The article states that 54% (196) of the freshman class were involved in rush with 36% (29) of the freshman women and 60% (167) the freshman men participating.  Of the nine fraternities, only two did not admit women in any capacity.

The article says that “Bowdoin [was] in a somewhat touchy transitional stage,” and attributes it to several things, including the advent of coeducation.  Problems with rush stemmed in no small part from the presence of women on campus and increasing class size.  Along with twenty cases of dirty rushing, the primary problem was dining.   Bowdoin dining was dependent on the fraternities, and the fraternities’ dining facilities, because the dining halls could not accommodate the entire student body.  Since the student body grew through the inclusion of women, and not many women rushed, the dining halls were stressed.

SS45.1 - Orient: Fraternity Rush Nets Ample "Pledge" Yield
SS45.1 - Orient: Fraternity Rush Nets Ample "Pledge" Yield
SS45.2 - Orient: Fraternity Rush Nets Ample "Pledge" Yield
SS45.2 - Orient: Fraternity Rush Nets Ample "Pledge" Yield

Orient: Beta Girls at Home, Brookie Trust Busted

Prior to coeducation, Bowdoin men often socialized with women from Westbrook College, located in Portland, Maine.  The Westbrook women, known as Brookies, were not always well respected, and Westbrook College was given negative labels that included “Bowdoin’s Bedroom.”

This article appeared in the October 9, 1972 issue of The Bowdoin Orient, Bowdoin’s weekly newspaper (Document SS, 46).  It reflects the transitional period that the college was in, as Bowdoin men began to socialize less with women from the community and more with their female peers on campus.  It describes the process of including four female pledges in the Beta Theta Pi house, “a traditionally jockish fraternity.”  The women rejected claims and rumors that the Betas were unwelcoming towards Bowdoin women.  The Orient quotes the women saying, “‘the people are great,’ [they]‘feel at home,’ and [the men are] ‘really nice.’”

The article also details the feelings the four pledges had about the Brookies.  There was certainly the potential for conflict, as Bowdoin’s female students were searching for their place on campus and the Brookies were Bowdoin men’s traditional social.  The Bowdoin women’s responses ranged from stating that the Brookies presence did not matter, to saying that the Brookies were their equals, to dismissing the Brookies.  One woman chose not to comment.  These responses show that the early Bowdoin women faced numerous challenges in the Bowdoin social scene.

SS46 - Orient: Beta Girls at Home, Brookie Trust Busted
SS46 - Orient: Beta Girls at Home, Brookie Trust Busted

Orient: AKS Headed for Armageddon

This Orient article (Document AW, 47), published October 13, 1972, considers Alpha Kappa Sigma, the last all-male fraternity, which the author jokingly compares to “the hordes of Genghis Khan” and “the Brunswick Municipal Zoo.”

Although the article is ostensibly about Kappa Sig’s reputation as a particularly raucous house, much of the discussion hinges on its status as the last remaining all male fraternity. The link between its unique characteristics as the only all-male fraternity and the fraternity with the wildest reputation (whether or not that reputation was deserved) suggests that the two were correlated, at least in the minds of the student body at the time. This conceptual link between “male” and “rowdy” recalls much of the conversation leading up to coeducation, including the Pierce Report, which argued that women would have a civilizing influence on the campus social scene.

Particularly interesting is the allegation that Kappa Sig mistreated women students during rotational eating. The article sums up the fraternity’s response as such: “Consensus of the interviewed believed that the coeds came to Kappa Sig with preconceived notions about the house and that the allegations of mistreatment was [sic] in the least an exaggeration and mostly sheer fantasy. One brother replied, though, that mistreatment could have occurred, but this did not have the sanction of the house.”

There are no further references to this alleged hazing incident in that year’s Orient.

AW47 - Orient: AKS Headed for Armageddon
AW47 - Orient: AKS Headed for Armageddon

 

Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks

Before they were phased out, beginning in the late 1990s, fraternities were an important part of Bowdoin’s social life. This article, which outlines the history of Greek life at the College, ran on the front page of the Orient on September 28, 1973 (Document AW, 49). It notes, “fraternities at Bowdoin have never been quite as exclusive as they have been at other schools. By and large…any student who had the inclination could belong to a fraternity.”

Even before the advent of coeducation at Bowdoin, however, there were some flaws in the fraternity system: “most, if not all” Bowdoin fraternities discriminated against black, Catholic, and Jewish students, in part as a result of the national fraternities’ regulations. A local fraternity, Alpha Rho Upsilon (whose letters were chosen to stand for “All Races United”), was founded in 1936 in response to this exclusion.

While over 95% of the Bowdoin student body was composed of fraternity brothers in the late sixties, by 1971, only 50% of freshmen joined a fraternity. In the late 1970s, however, years after this article’s publication, fraternity membership once again rose, and comprised a solid majority of the student body.

The article notes, “coeducation presented the most serious threat to the fraternities’ dominance at Bowdoin.” At the time of this article’s writing, “most fraternities” accepted women, and “a large percentage of women” chose to join them. Even so, the very word “fraternity” suggests some fundamental incompatibility with a coeducational institution, particularly since there were no sororities on campus. Although women students did pledge as brothers, they were often limited to local or social memberships rather than full voting memberships.

The essentially exclusive nature of fraternities was an important factor in the College’s March 1997 decision to phase them out.

AW49-1 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks
AW49-1 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks
AW49-2 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks
AW49-2 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks

Fall 1975 Rush Booklet

Bowdoin’s Interfraternity Council issued annual rush booklets (Document SS, 50), which served as an introduction to the college’s fraternities.  After an introduction and some rules, the booklets gave individual fraternities the opportunity to describe themselves to the students.  Most of these features are about three paragraphs in length.  John Cross ’76, the then Interfraternity Council president, wrote the introduction to the fall ’75 rush book, in which he states, “The image of small, snobby clique does not apply to Bowdoin’s fraternities.”  This blanket statement of inclusivity is interesting as, in 1975, women were still quite new to the college.

By 1975 the fraternities as a whole were not single-minded in their approach to women.  The institutions range from praising themselves on remaining single-sex (Alpha Kappa Sigma), to devoting several sentences to women and stating that women could live in the fraternity houses and be full members (Delta Sigma).  Most fraternities fell somewhere in between.  Most felt the need to mention women in their profiles, but would not grant them full membership.  They limited women to social membership, which meant that they could engage fully in social activities associated with the fraternities.  Social members typically did not live in the fraternity houses and were not permitted to vote on fraternity matters.  The way these fraternities addressed women shows that the Bowdoin social scene, in which fraternities predominated, still did not grant women the same privileges as it did men.