University of Virginia Library

Teachers Most Helpful

"The teachers are most helpful,
and seem to have no difficulty at all
teaching girls. "They neither single
us out nor ignore us."

Another girl said that the boys
were accepting girls as students, but
"with skirts on." "They still open
doors for us, but will listen intelligently
to what we have to say."

She added, however, "But it's
hard to meet anybody now in class.
In high school, I was used to a
noisy classroom up until the time
the teacher walked in. When you go
in class here, everyone is buried in
The Cavalier Daily and won't speak
to you unless they know you already.
We have to be somewhat
aggressive."

The most frequent remark made
by the first year girls is that it is
hard, and is going to become increasingly
harder, to meet boys to
whom you are not introduced.
They attributed this to several factors.

At the beginning of the year, the
weather was warm, resulting in a lot
of playing outside. There were several
mixers, including a rock music
concert in the new dormitory area.
Also, there were the beginning fraternity
functions.

"Although I don't generally like
fraternity parties, the smokers they
invited us to were the only chance I
had to meet guys other than
first-year men," said one girl. "Now
that these have stopped, and I'm
not being rushed, I'm only meeting

people through guys I met five
weeks ago."

"The upperclassmen steer clear
of us because they think we have it
made." This phenomenon of
first-year exclusion is partly a result
of the housing situation.