Pioneer Girl Students Face Problems

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 2

Pioneer Girl Students Face Problems

(Newsweek Feature Service) It sounded like the answer to a maiden’s prayer when- Yale and Princeton universities—those prestigious Ivy. League bastions of blueblooded males—b ot h agreed to admit girls for the first time last autumn. And hundreds of young women competed for the honour of being the first co-eds at the two schools.

But the prayers of those who were chosen, it turns out, have not been really answered. When Yale opened its oaken classroom and dormitory doors to 576 girls in September, Priscilla Van Tessel eagerly transferred from Wellesley, mindful that there would be 14 Yale men for each new Yale woman. “I thought Yale would be a constant high',” she confesses. “But that hasn’t been the case.”

After several months, many of the Yale girls complain that they are still regarded as exotic outsiders. “We are treated as special gifts installed in ‘he classroom,” says Cindy Taft, who transferred from Radcliffe. The Yale women have counterparts at Princeton who share counterpar. complaints. Over the organised protest of some alumni, Princeton admitted 130 female freshmen in the autumn. The relatively small representation the ratio of men to women is 20 to I—makes the girls even

more of an oddity on the New Jersey campus than at Yale. "There’s a girl in my philosophy class,” explains a 20-year-old male Princetonian, “and she’s amazingly conspicuous—to me at least Everyone’s waiting for her to say something.”

And when a Princeton girl does say something, attests one of them, “you feel like whatever you say is supposed to represent the view of the entire female race.” One of the touted virtues of co-education is the de-empha-sis it is supposed to impose on frantic week-end dating patterns. But so far there has been a little bit too much de-emphasis to suit most Yale girls.

“There’s no dating her,” says Miss Van Tesscl, “it’s the buddy system.” The Princeton girls appear to be having a better time of it socially—perhaps because of their relatively greater scarcity. Some, in fact, feel the need to hide in order to get away from the Princeton boys. There is an almost constant stream of males through the girls’ dormitory on the campus, so many that the girls have taken to fleeing to the library to study. Not that the library is a fool-proof refuge. Julia O’Brian, a fetching 18-year-old from McLean, Virginia, complains: “There’s always some guy who comes up and sits next to you, or starts playing footsie with you under the table, or passing you notes, or saying, ‘Let's go over to the Student- Centre for a cup of tea.’” There appears to be little real grievance in such com-

plaints, however. “It’s really the greatest,” Anita Fefer of Brooklyn, told a visitor to her second-floor room in formerly all-male Pyhe Hall. “At Yale, they took in a whole slew of girls. But here, it’s fantastic. Nothing like this will happen for centuries.” Barriers Remain Some barriers, of course, remain. Yale fraternities, in spite of financial underpinnings, have not invited women to join. The tables down at Mory’s are open to the girls, but regular membership in the songfully celebrated institution is not. And Anita Fefer may think Princeton is the greatest. But when Miss Fefer, the first girl honour society president at Brooklyn’s Abraham Lincoln High School, ran for president of the college’s freshman class (on the slogan: “Are you man enough to recognise a woman?”), she came in a poor third with only 64 votes out of 470 cast. She is hopeful, however, as are most of the pioneering co-eds. A sampling by “Newsweek” campus correspondents indicates that most of the new co-eds who have the option are planning to return next year.

Two-way adaptation to be sure. For Princeton’s male population, says Anita Fefer, the change may have been “just too much, too fast We’ll have to give them a chance to adjust—they’re still a bit nervous.”