Connecticut College has gone through changes, even within my short time here, but it was only through talking to Mary Lofton Wilson ’52 that I realized how much has really changed in the past 50 years. In an interview with The College Voice, Wilson was asked to reflect on her time spent at Conn and her thoughts on her academic and social life while attending our school.
Wilson’s reason to attend Conn was similar to what many students initially like about the school. “I wanted to go to a small, liberal arts school in the East, and it just appealed to me,” she explained. During her first year, Mrs. Wilson lived in a dorm called Thames before living in Freeman for her final three years. She added that her favorite part of campus was the library. In the 1950s, the library was housed in what is now known as Blaustein. It wasn’t until 1974 that Shain Library was built, which will be renovated, beginning this semester.
The food? “Starchy. Everybody gained weight freshman year.” The format of the dining halls was very different: “Everybody sat down and the meal was served to you. That’s how scholarship students made their money; they worked in the kitchen or as waitresses in the dining halls. It was very formal, and you had to wear a skirt to dinner.”
Conn hadn’t yet become co-ed in 1952, but there was interaction between Conn and the Coast Guard Academy through mixers. “It was convenient,” she said. “There were no other boys around.” Rules were quite strict, though: “You couldn’t dance too close or wander off with them in any way.” When asked if men were allowed in the dorm rooms, Wilson instantly said, “Oh, heavens no! Of course there were no men allowed above the first floor of any of the dorms.”
At Conn today, the vast majority of students stay on campus during the weekends, but Conn in the 1950s more closely resembled a commuter school, and the relationship between Conn and New London wasn’t nearly as close as it is today: “Pretty much everybody went away on the weekends. You got on a train and went to New York or Boston.” Drinking played little role in the social life of the students. “We’d listen to music, we’d play bridge. We weren’t encouraged to go into New London… There weren’t real social activities, because there were no guys there!”
Wilson was an International Relations major and remembers the academics being very rigorous, like our classes today. “I would never question that I got a really good education there,” she said. One class she does not remember fondly is typing and shorthand. She said, “In fact, I got the typing prize! Which I was kind of ashamed about. Here I went to an academic institution and that was what I got.”
In spite of typing class, she said, “I learned a lot. And I had really good faculty. I had a history teacher that changed my life. [History professor] Chester Destler. He was so exciting! I had grown up in a Republican family, and I became a liberal Democrat; I think because of him.”
The campus then had a significant lack of diversity, while today Conn is making huge strides to attract students from as many different backgrounds as possible. The class of 2017 is the most diverse in the history of the school. “Most of the girls’ families had money, because in those days scholarship was not strong… It was always very obvious who was a scholarship student, which was wrong.” Wilson continued, “Racially, it was not mixed at all. There were a few—a very, very few—Asian students. You know, to tell you the truth, I don’t remember that there were any black students there at all. But it just may be that I wasn’t noticing or something like that. See that’s what I mean about restrictive… it was not a diverse community at all. So that was not so good.”
Still, it was a very new environment for Wilson. “I was just very fortunate to be in a group of people from all over the country. I met people that I had never been exposed to, and I loved it,” she said. She fondly remembers her friendships formed at Conn, adding, “I have a couple of friends still that I went to Conn with.”
Conn wasn’t without its speed bumps for Wilson. “I think it was kind of a constricting environment. I would have been much happier I think being in college these days. I mean, you had to follow the rules. There wasn’t a lot to do other than study.”
“It was challenging to go to school there,” Wilson added. “Which was good. But on the other hand, not so good in terms of getting out there in the real world. But, the real world was different then too.” •
