On a September morning in 1972, College President John Kemeny began his address to the crowd of freshmen assembled in College Hall with the words, "Men and women of Dartmouth" for the first time in the Dartmouth's history.
The Class of 1976 gathered there, the first Dartmouth class to be coeducational for all 4 years and the first to follow the D-plan for all four years, will return to Hanover this week for a reunion on the 25th anniversary of their graduation.
While '76s acknowledged that there were many people on campus opposed to coeducation, they said the administration worked hard to fully integrate women into campus life.
Melanie Fisher Matte '76 remembers how President Kemeny's opening remarks set the tone for her four years at Dartmouth.
According to Matte, men did sometimes nastily tease women.
For example, she recalled that Thayer Dining Hall bought eggs from a company that printed the words "Co-Hens" on its boxes, and that the word was sometimes used as a derogatory term for "co-ed."
However, Matte added that such teasing was usually fairly easy to ignore, and that her experience as a female student at Dartmouth during the early years of coeducation was more positive than negative.
Administrators went out of their way to start up programs in women's sports, Matte said, noting that she was able to participate in a number of different activities on campus.
Matte was a member of Phi Tau fraternity and was the first female president of The Dartmouth.
She loved the exuberant atmosphere of Dartmouth, and recollects fondly how shocked a visiting friend of hers from Harvard was by the amount of school spirit the Dartmouth spectators showed at ice hockey games.
While Stephen Bell '76 remembers several letters angry letters about coeducation appearing in The Dartmouth while he was here, he said that most of his female friends were nonetheless able to thrive at Dartmouth.
"Many of the men there wouldn't have gone to Dartmouth if it hadn't been coed," he said.
He pointed out that approximately 80 percent of the committee planning this week's reunion are women. Many of the women whom he has worked with as editor of the Class of 1976 newsletter remember their days at Dartmouth fondly enough to remain active as alumni, he said.
Bell also remembers the introduction of the D-plan as a unique aspect of his Dartmouth years.
At that time, students were required to take a summer term in residence, but not necessarily the sophomore summer, he said.
Two of his fraternity brothers from Psi Upsilon fraternity, who were Olympic skiers, took all of their summers in residence so that they could spend their winters preparing for the Olympic competition.
Several members of the Class of 1976 remember the impact that national politics had on their Dartmouth experiences.
Richard Monkman '76 vividly remembers watching the Nixon resignation on television while sitting on a couch in Aquinas House, the Catholic student center.
Overall, Monkman remembers the campus as highly politicized. There were protests against war and nuclear power as well as avid debates about the Watergate scandal.
By contrast, current Dartmouth students seem to him more interested in academics and careers rather than outside politics, Monkman said.
Bell, who is currently the managing editor of the Buffalo News, said many of his ideas about journalism today were shaped by Woodward and Bernstein's famous investigation of the Watergate scandal.
The '76s were divided about whether Dartmouth has changed for the better since their graduation.
Matte worried that some faculty and administration have adopted too harsh a stance against Greeks. She finds many of the current stereotypes of fraternities to be unfair when her own experience with Phi Tau was so different.
However, Monkman said that many of the most important good things about Dartmouth remain unchanged since 1976.
"Students still make good friends, learn a great deal and enjoy the outdoors," he said.
According to Alumni Fund officer David Celone, the '76s did "wonderfully well" in fund-raising their reunion gift and broke the 25th reunion record.
