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Transcription: STUDENT-FACULTY DISCUSSIONS
7:30 P.M. – SUNDAY EVENINGS
CAMPUS TOPICS January 13 – The Need for Psychiatrist [sic] At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Brown[3] – 207 E. College
January 20 – Liberal Education in the Modern World At the home of Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Cole[4] – 94 S. Cedar
January 27 – Racial Practices At the home of Miss Hope Hibbard[5] – 366 Reemer [sic] Place
CURRENT TOPICS January 13 – Compulsory Military Conscription At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Seaman[6] – 158 S. Prospect
January 20 – Is our Economic System Abreast with the Times? At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond de Roover[7] – 4 Prosser Court (Between 41 and 49 N. Pleasant)
January 27 – Labor and Strikes At the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Kennedy[8] – 104 S. Prospect
MAN MEETS THE TIMES
January 13 – Are We Meeting Our Responsibilities Toward War Sufferers? At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wolfgang Stechow[9] — 260 Oak St.
January 20 – Is Man Equipped to Handle the Atomic Bomb? At the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Campbell[10] – 234 W. College
January 27 – What Motivates Man?
Sponsored by YWCA-YMCA Student-Faculty Committees |
[1] The grim reality of World War II loomed over students’ lives. Earlier Oberlin women, such as Emilie E. Palmer, faced similar existential doubt during the Civil War.
[2] “YWCA and YMCA Student-Faculty Committee Questionnaire,” 1945-1946 YWCA Scrapbook, RG 29, Series II, Box 4, O. C. A.
[3] Lawrence Guy Brown was a professor of sociology at Oberlin College in the mid-1940s, who focused on social psychology. Vivian T. Rowse Brown graduated from Ontario Ladies College in 1918 (L. Guy Brown, “1948 Alumni Catalogue Faculty Questionnaire,” RG 28, Box 15, O. C. A.).
[4] Allan Burnett Cole (1914-2012) was an Assistant Professor of History at Oberlin College, who taught courses on the “Far East” and “American-Japanese relations.” He was born in Kobe, Japan, and raised in Shanghai, China to missionary parents. Marjorie Louise Daniel Cole graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1930 (Allan Burnett Cole, “1948 Alumni Catalogue Faculty Questionnaire,” RG 28, Box 15, O. C. A.).
[5] Hope Hibbard (1894-1988) taught zoology at Oberlin College from 1928 to 1961, earning the Adelia A. Field Johnston Professorship in 1952. She worked with American Association of University Women and League of Women Voters, and co-founded of the Oberlin League of Women Voters in 1936. She spoke about women in science and research, Oberlin women, Christianity, and marriage. As an unmarried woman, Hibbard spoke inconsistently about whether marriage, raising children, and research were compatible. She addressed Oberlin students frequently, including this excerpt from a speech likely given to YWCA during World War II:
“I think there is a special point of speaking and thinking at this time about women’s obligations when a national emergency has just registered all our young men for possible military service. Are the men to be responsible wholly for our democracy? What is Democracy? Do we even know? The other day I saw a news reel of Willkie telling women that they had been given by democracy the most free life of any women in the world, and that now it was time for women to start giving back something to democracy. High time, I think, and for all women not just the few specially endowed ones… I should hope that each one of you after graduation would join the [League of Women Voters] and take part in democratic government with intelligence. Voting is only a part of our responsibility. It is not a feminist movement. The president of our college said once that since the average wife of our background has more time at her disposal than her husband, she should do the necessary studying of such problems and help him to know… Last spring the chairman of the Senate committee on the Reciprocal Trade Agreements said, after they had held public hearings that no material came before it so well thought out as that presented by the LWV. Actually the women’s organizations were the only ones to testify that had the general welfare of the country at heart.”
She proclaimed throughout her writings that she was “not a feminist – dislike any philosophy that suggests [symbol for women] were upright [sic?] or more intelligent than men.” She believed that before anything else, women are human.
YWCA also asked Hibbard to speak to them about reproduction and anatomy. YW never listed this discussion in any of their flyers or saved the records in their scrapbooks, perhaps because these meetings didn’t continue into the 1940s or they chose to stay private about the topic. On 2 November 1933, YW wrote questions for Hibbard: “Is it possible for a girl to become pregnant when ordinary clothing is present to prevent actual contact. (This was brought up when we heard about Dean Anna’s warning to girls that if they ever HAD to sit on a man’s lap they must put a newspaper on it first!)” and “Can a girl become pregnant when it is time for her monthly period, but menstrual flow has not yet started?” (Hope Hibbard Papers, RG 30/147, Series II, Box 1, Folders 3 and 7).
[6] William Harlow Seaman (1902-1948) was the first Director of Admissions at Oberlin College from 1925 to 1948. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1924 (Career Center Records Finding Guide, Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin College, accessed 29 July 2016, Source).
[7] Raymond de Roover (1904-1972) was a Visiting Professor of Economics. Florence Elder de Roover graduated from University of Chicago in 1930 (Raymond de Roover, “1948 Alumni Catalogue Faculty Questionnaire,” RG 28, Box 15, O. C. A.).
[8] John C. Kennedy (1904-2002) was the registrar of the Conservatory of Music and the College of Arts and Sciences He graduated from Oberlin College in 1925. Miriam Peabody Campbell graduated from Oberlin in 1931. Together they enrolled in the Peace Corps in their mid-50s, earning a national reputation for their service (“Losses: John C. Kennedy ’26.” Oberlin Alumni Magazine, accessed 29 July 2016, Source).
[9] Wolfgang Stechow (1896-1974) was a Professor of Fine Arts at Oberlin College from 1940 to 1963. He was a World War I Veteran from Germany. In 1945, he was named the Adelia A. Field Johnson Professor of Fine Arts. Ursula Hoff Stechow (1911-2008) studied at University of Göttengeim in Germany and graduated from Oberlin College in 1942 (Wolfgang and Ursula Stechow Papers Finding Guide, Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin College, accessed 29 July 2016, Source).
[10] Dr. James Arthur Campbell (1917-1989) was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Oberlin College and an Oberlin graduate, who participated in the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945 at the University of California. He published numerous scholarly articles about the atomic bomb. This faculty-student discussion was one of many: “Exceptionally interested in students, Art Campbell and his wife Dorothy held weekly open houses at their home on Sunday afternoons. Campbell continued Holmes and Steiner’s practice of hosting the Alchemists Club, monthly afternoon teas complete with beakers for cups and citric acid and sucrose for flavoring, at which the best students in general chemistry met informally with the teacher and learned about new research developments” (Norman C. Craig, “Four Giants in a College Chemistry Department: Oberlin College, 1880-1966,” Chemistry History Bulletin, School of Chemical Sciences at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Vol. 27, No. 1, 2002, accessed 29 July 2016, Source).
