Hobart and William Smith Colleges

11 March 2015 From the Archives: Bringing HWS History to Life

Rebecca Czajkowski 18, whose research focused the year 1994, says she was determined to find intense student reactions to the international events that were happening at the same time, but aside from articles in the Herald I was unable to find anything of substance. In my search I stumbled upon the Waves, a feminist student publication, and the Outsider(?), both of which had strong feminine body image themes. As a fan of 90s pop culture I decided to compare feminine body image at HWS and how women were being portrayed in the media.

Professor Hess really brought a lot of these topics to life and made things relevant and wanted us to learn about the history of our school, says Carlyle Klein 17.

Kleins project, William Smith Rising, grew out of her discovery of satirical advertisements, jokes, and articles in campus publications from the early 1990s that were mocking toward women and were apparently acceptable to be published. These jokes were made, but William Smith women were very passionate and were not interested in letting the jokes blur their image. Part of the reason I enjoyed my topic so much is because of the Title IX issues going on now, the discussion of gender roles and the Culture of Respect on campus its still relevant now.

While researching her project, V-12 = Vitality, Alexa Campolieto 17 discovered a hidden gem in history of the school theV-12 Navy College Training Program, whichwas designed to augment the force of commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Abby Abdinoor 17, who also focused on the V-12 program, noticed the name V-12 a great deal throughout the 1943-1945 editions of the Herald, and immediately knew that my digital essay was going to be about V-12. In a way, I kind of felt like I had discovered a secret piece of history that no one knew about and I wanted to share it with my classmates.

Through their research, Campolieto and Abdinoor found that low enrollment, due to military enlistment, meant the Colleges nearly had to shut its doors during World War II, but V-12 brought school back to life and allowed it to stay open and keep prospering, says Campolieto. The entire school was transformed for the V12 program womens dorms were overtaken, so there were some negatives but the men in the V-12 program were also extremely involved and created more life on campus, were involved in plays and other activities.

The V-12 Navy Unit increased enrolment rates, brought the Hobart baseball team back, and essentially prevented the Colleges from closing, Abdinoor says. Without V-12, I dont think that HWS would still be here, and even if it was, it would not be the Colleges that you or I know and love today.

The chatter in the room the first time archivist Katie Lamontagne sets the students loose with the 1914 Hobart Student Handbookand the 1934 William SmithPineand the 1994Bystander its pretty exciting to watch how this opens a door between HWSs past and the students present, says Hess. My thanks to my WRRH 200 classes from 2011 and 2013, the first groups challenged by this Year __ project, as well as to my Learning Commons Colleagues, who helped design the project and who support the students so well.

Student projects are available through the links below:

1914: Your First Year (Timothy Griffin 16) and Ladylike? (Nicole Tanquary 17)

1934: Bridging Two Communities (Victoria Zimmer 18), Dramatic Arts (Caitlin Brown 17), and Through the Eyes of Ethel (Emma Anderson 16)

1944: V-12 = Vitality (Alexa Campolieto 17), V-12 Saves Colleges (Abby Abdinoor 17) and War Bonds (Alexa Sereti 18)

1964: Morality of Pre-Marital Sex (Marley Talvitie 17), Student Protests in the 1960s (Mei Yeun Ho 16) and Expression (Jonathan OConnell 18)

1974: Curriculum Change (Jacob Pfarrer 18)

1994: Fight Against Idyllic Female Body Image (Rebecca Czajkowski 18), Frat Cult (Maddalena Revel 17) and William Smith Rising (Carlyle Klein 17)