For here men are men ....

The topic of women at BC 1964-68 probably deserves an entire blog itself. So this post touches on only a few elements.

One image of women students here is conveyed by the photo at right. The Heights, as enlightened as it perceived itself to be, regularly ran photos of, dare I say, pretty girls who were BC students. Sub Turri, for a number of years, had a "queen," and one could vote numerous times each year for the "queen" of this or that dance or event, e.g., Homecoming.

This is not to say BC was so different from many other colleges at the time. Even public institutions and women's colleges in the day had policies and regulations probably intended more to "protect" women than empower them.

Looking back, however, brings you to some things that today seem humorous, bizarre, or both.

In October 1965, Bobbi McKuskie, ’69, became the “first girl to march with the BC band,” as she debuted at halftime of the BC-Penn State football game ... to twirl the baton. In March 1968, the Heights reported that approval had been received to add three "lithe, lovely majorettes" to the band.

As associate editor of the Heights in 1967, Mimi Hirsh was the only female editor. Three of the 22 members of the news staff were female, but all three of the "typists."

A "restaurant guide" in The Eagle's (sic) Handbook for resident men offered this advice: "The economy-minded B.C. man with a hungry date will appreciate the Beacon Hill Kitchen, 23 Joy St., or The English Room, 29 Newbury St."

The Resident Women's Handbook for 1966-67 includes the following regulations and statements:

"Each student must make her bed each day before leaving the residence...."

"The law requires that all dormitory shades be drawn as soon as the lights are put on."

"A student may not sleep in any bed other than her own unless permission is given by her housemother, and more than one student may not sleep in a bed at any one time." (!)

"If the student is more than an hour late and has not called her housemother, the latter will call the student's parents, collect, to inform them of her absence."

"When her residence is open, no student will be permitted to stay overnight in any hotel, motel, inn, guest house, or apartment within 25 miles of Boston unless she is with her parents or an approved chaperone."

"Shorts and slacks are worn outside the residence only when they are appropriate attire for the student's activities--as for picnics, the beach, etc.; and when leaving the residence in shorts or slacks, the student is expected to wear a knee-length coat."

Male students had some interesting rules and regulations as well, but nothing really as onerous as some of those applied to women. The women's residences on South Street were apartment buildings, which BC even described as "not designed to serve as dormitories." For several years, women complained of lack of privacy, no place to entertain guests, inadequate bathroom facilities, poor food, cold rooms, no recreation facilities, no televisions and no permission to bring one, and no options. The Heights in 1965 said, "It is surprising that BC, with all its beautiful new buildings on campus, can afford to let prospective students even see the women's dorms."

In November 1967, there was a Sunday afternoon open house at each of the eight women's dorms – Kirkwood, Linden, Pine, Radnor, Chestnut, South, Greycliffe, Alison. The event, the Heights reported, would "enable BC coeds to entertain guests in their rooms for the first time this year and to show visitors living conditions which many women believe are almost intolerable.”

And then there was the fact that no women could enroll in A&S or CBA. A petition to permit women in A&S, signed by 1,500 members of the campus community, was presented to the administration in March 1967. Three years and a few months later, women enrolled in any and all of BC's schools.

I had not been aware of this fact previously, but the female Bald Eagle is larger than the male. Today, the majority of students -- both undergraduate and graduate and in all schools but the Carroll School of Management and Woods College (formerly the Evening School) -- are women. And, while late starters compared to male students at BC, women now represent the majority of BC alumni.

The food 'riot'

We'll talk in another post soon about the impact of national politics on campus, but there were a series of events in 1965 and 1966 that struck at a fundamental element of the well-being of male resident students -- food. And it was an interesting early exercise in "student power."

On December 12, 1965, Sunday dinner at McElroy was the often volatile, as I recall, roast beef au jus. In the wee hours of the following morning, the bathrooms in the dorms were crowded with young men suffering from what the Heights referred to in its coverage as "intestinal disorders." Not a pretty sight. The Heights' headline on Dec. 17, 1965, was “Drury Commission to Study Christmas Dinner Sickness.”

In March, the following spring, after little if any improvement and perhaps to bolster confidence in the quality of the BC-run food operation at McElroy, the administration reported on an inspection by the Newton Board of Health. The board's report called the McElroy Commons kitchen ‘one of the finest kitchens in Newton.’” (A high standard, indeed.) As a possible clue to the "Christmas dinner sickness" and a portent of things to come, however, one board member suggested refrigeration in the meat preparation room would be a good idea.

Only two days following the board of health's report, and faced with a Sunday "dinner" consisting of a "sub" containing a breaded veal cutlet and tomato sauce, the male resident students expressed their own opinion. As the subsequent Heights article reported, "The riot, begun by a lone, soaring milk carton, immediately turned into a tray-throwing melee which, while no more than one minute long, left McElroy dining hall littered with un-eaten food and over-turned chairs.”

An ad hoc committee of students, including classmate Peter Driscoll, quickly established a series of orderly demonstrations to further the cause of better food. Again relying on Heights coverage for the details, a large number of students showed up for dinner at 5:55 pm, just before 6 pm closing, the day after the riot. The cafeteria had to remain open until 6:20 to accommodate. The following night, in an escalation, students formed a single line of approximately 600 students, disdaining the two other distribution lines available, near closing time, and that required the cafeteria to remain open until 7:20 pm. Wednesday night, students marched peacefully in the rain from Cheverus to St. Mary’s Hall and demanded better dining conditions.

By the end of April, a company called Saga was running the McElroy operation, with short-term improvements, at least. One perhaps unexpected result of the upgrade was that, according to the April 29, 1966 Heights, “The students are, at times, perplexed with the plethora of selections.”

Anybody have favorite memories of McElroy food back in freshman-sophomore years?