Two Tales of the Harvard Patriarchy and Its Exploits

Part three in a series of articles on women at Harvard appearing periodically over the next month in The Crimson

When Harvard Professor of Philosophy George H. Palmer went to Wellesley College for a visit in 1887, he fell in love with his future bride, Wellesley President Alice Freeman.

Harvard-Wellesley relations haven't changed very much since then. Harvard men still visit the women's college in Wellesley, Mass., primarily to find girlfriends.

"The only reason to go [to Wellesley] is to socialize," says Paul S. Slawson III '89. The Matthews Hall resident says he visits his girlfriend at the 1200-student campus once or twice a week.

Some Harvard men say they chose to make the half-hour trip because they want a change from Cambridge social life. Going to Wellesley "is a great way to get away from things here," says A. Cab Vinton '88.

"The social scene there is a little more old-fashioned. My girlfriend cooks me dinner. It's not like going out to dinner where the guy's paying and he's expecting something," Slawson says.

Through the years, Harvard and Wellesley have maintained very close social ties, according to Wellesley spokesman Anne O'Sullivan, who graduated from the school in 1957.

In fact, Harvard men sometimes pretend that they attend Wellesley. In 1939, a Harvard student dressed up as a girl and entered Wellesley's annual hoop rolling contest. In the race, members of the Wellesley senior class determine which one will marry first by rolling old-fashioned wooden hoops. The Harvard man won.

Historical Harvard-Wellesley ties sometimes beget new ones. "My parents met 25 years ago because my mother went to Wellesley and my father went to Harvard. I was curious so I thought I'd give it a shot," Vinton says. Did he succeed? "I went to a party and met a girl," he says.

Wellesley and Harvard continue to maintain close familial ties: many Harvard students have sisters at Wellesley. However, when the siblings get together, they usually meet in Cambridge. "I have a sister at Wellesley, but I don't know much about the place. I don't go there much; my sister comes to visit here," says Dan Klingensmith '88.

Coeducation at Harvard has had some effect on Harvard-Wellesley relations, according to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. Although Wellesley women had traditionally attended the annual Harvard freshman picnic, Epps decided to stop inviting them in 1979.

"It just struck me that [that the reason] we were inviting Wellesley students to the freshman picnic was to provide enough women for the men," Epps says.

When the president of the Wellesley student senate called Epps to complain, he stood firm. "The whole business was fundamentally wrong, and we weren't running a social service up here," he says.

Although Harvard and Wellesley no longer schedule joint social events, the Wellesley student government continues to run buses which drop students off at Johnston Gate.

However Wellesley students say that visiting Harvard is not the only reason they take the bus. "Most people on the bus are coming to the Square or to Boston, not to Harvard. More Wellesley students socialize at MIT," says Stephanie H. Goldman, a Wellesley sophomore.

"A lot of people laugh at the busloads of women who come up to Boston, but don't forget that busloads of men come down to Wellesley," says Connson M. Chao '87, who transferred from Wellesley after her freshman year.

Harvard-Wellesley relations have had rocky moments recently. Wellesley police arrested three Harvard students, members of the D.U. final club, for disrupting a Wellesley dance in December. However, Wellesley Dean of Students Molly S. Campbell describes the arrests as "a really isolated incident."

The official response to the incident demonstrated that Harvard and Wellesley continue to have close ties, Campbell says. "It's great that I can pick up the phone and talk to Epps. That's cooperation and teamwork," she says.

Although Harvard students occasionally socialize at Wellesley, some Wellesley women say they wish more formal ties existed.

"I am very disapointed. There are many more ties between Wellesley and MIT. I was expecting it to be Harvard," says Wellesley freshman Clare Franklin.

Closer Ties

"It would be nice if the relationship [between Harvard and Wellesley] were expanded beyond the social," Campbell says. Wellesley "students would like academic exchanges [with Harvard.] We already have cross-registration with MIT," she says.

Both Wellesley students and Harvard women who visit the college noted that coeducation makes the atmosphere at their respective schools very different.

"It's all very amusing. When you walk in [to a Wellesley dorm] there are normally three to four dozen roses waiting for people to pick them up," says Dean Brewer '89.

"I really miss having guys as friends. Not having guys around makes the atmosphere in the library much more intense," Goldman says.

"Because Wellesley women are so isolated from men, that's all they talk about. Their whole lives revolve around finding a boyfriend," Brewer says.

Some Wellesley women criticize what they perceive as Harvard students' snobbery.

"Harvard people look down on everybody, and the fact that Wellesley is a women's college makes it easy to create stereotypes," Chao says.

"A lot of Wellesley upperclasswomen don't come up [to Harvard] because they think Harvard women hate them," Goldman says.

However some Wellesley women say they help perpetuate the snobbery and the stereotypes.

"There are people at Wellesley who fit the stereotype, and those are the people that come to Harvard," Chao says.