In the fall of 1969, I was a junior at Colgate University. At that time, Colgate was an all-male liberal arts college of some 2,000 students or so. Given its rural, isolated location, meeting women was a challenge. So my ears perked up when I heard about an exchange program between Colgate and Skidmore College, an all-women’s institution. Evidently, in 1968, Colgate and Skidmore had established this annual exchange program as a possible step toward becoming coeducational.
Gil, one of my best friends, and I decided to sign up for this program after we had convinced our parents that this was an excellent educational investment. When I arrived at Skidmore in the spring of 1970, I discovered that I was one of 16 Colgate men in the midst of 1,765 Skidmore women. That comes out to a ratio of about 1 male to 100 females.
All 16 of us were “confined” to the bottom floor of Wilmarth Hall, one of the dormitories in the heart of the campus. Women lived above us and all around us. When I went to class, I found I was the only male in a room full of 20 or more women. Given this mix, I felt very conspicuous. But I also felt very empowered. I would sit with my legs extended, and take up twice as much space as any other student. When my educational psychology instructor gave us the syllabus, I questioned the grading system and convinced the instructor and fellow students of the need to revise it. After all, that was not the way we did things back at “Gate.”
Some of the Colgate exchange students felt like outsiders. After all, we were kept out of the loop with regard to certain college activities and functions. While Peter, a fellow Colgate student served on the CGA (College Government Association), he felt largely ignored when he tried to introduce the male perspective, whatever that meant.
Shortly after the semester began, the “orange juice incident” made national headlines. Like many of us, Steven Axlerod had signed up for the exchange program to stretch his mind. No actually, he wanted to meet women and he was feeling down because he had not gone out with any yet. So he decided to write a provocative, obscene message to the college trustees in large purple letters on the floor to ceiling window in his room. He demanded double servings of orange juice for both his roommate and himself. During the next 24 hours, word travelled fast and a Dean as well as an Assistant to the Provost stopped by to talk with Steven, and asked him to erase the obscenity. He agreed, and his demands were met.
Shortly thereafter, Sherry Peiros, the feature editor of the Skidmore News, put an “unladylike comment” on her window (note that her comment was unladylike, not obscene, as reported in the Skidmore News). This action was followed by similar messages among other female students. Within days, there were double OJ’s for everyone, something Skidmore women had requested for a long time. This was followed by a “push” from another group of Colgate men for later library hours on Saturday evening. Within days, Saturday hours were extended from 5 to 10 p.m.
Those of us who went to Skidmore that semester learned some valuable lessons, and most of them were not confined to the classroom. We saw a different side of women, now that we were “living” with them. We got a taste for what it feels like being a social outsider. By the same token, we became more aware of our unearned privileges as males. We had power and we felt we could use that power to promote change and further our interests. While education was not my real reason for going to Skidmore, what I learned during that semester certainly qualifies as a unique and valuable learning experience.
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I’m delighted to read your post on the great “Orange Juice Revolution” at Skidmore College. I was the Editor in Chief of the Skidmore News at this time– and my bay window on the “new campus” adjacent to the dining hall featured the message, “Feed the Revolution with Orange Juice.” The key point for the women of Skidmore was that something that the women of the college had been requesting, politely, for quite some time was ignored until the visiting males “demanded” it. We all wanted second servings of OJ, but it was not until the visiting males used visible, and off-color language, to demand it, that the male-dominated administration of this women’s college paid the issue any heed.
I should add that the initial response of the Skidmore College administration was to grant second helpings of OJ to the Colgate male exchange students but to continue to deny seconds to the female regular Skidmore students. THAT is what really set off the “OJ Revolution”– perhaps a silly touchstone, but one that had a lot of resonance with women on campus at the time. Guys use four letter words to get what they want and the women were still denied equal benefits– that is, until the women showed they would not accept the inequality in silence.
Never accept inequality in silence!
This year I read an article about Skidmore College and the revolution in an online newsmagazine called QUILLETTE.
Nancy – it was good to read your memories of the OJ Revolution when you were the Editor in Chief of the Skidmore News.
Fifty years on this manifestation of civil rights and civil liberties teaches us lessons.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. At that time, student protest in higher education was commonly accepted as a way to address and remedy injustice, however insignificant that injustice might have seemed to some.