The result of Sophie Reagan's rebuttal to Miss Sorel was the formation of an organization of militant Radcliffe girls. It was called "The Committee to Take Radcliffe Seriously." Nobody took the Committee seriously, much less Radcliffe.

The big change, when it came, was not the result of internal but external events. In 1942 the pressure of war and mobilization made financial troubles at Radcliffe bad. In 1943 Jerome D. Greene '96, secretary to the Harvard Corporation, wrote in a report that "possible revision of the arrangements by which the instruction of members of the Harvard faculty is made available at Radcliffe College," in other words, "Joint Instruction," was contemplated.

And it came to pass. During the war years Harvard men gradually got used to seeing girls in their classes; their minds were elsewhere. They were annoyed by what they believed the girls' academic methods to be, and still are slightly. They believed Radcliffe girls learned everything by rote, spewed it forth at exams, and got A's Or, rote learning failing, they would slide up to an instructor, display a little leg, and get an A.

The CRIMSON reporter who covered the Phillips Brooks House tea in '47 brought back a different report from the ones by his predecessors. His story was headlined "No Lemons At Brooks House Tea." Apparently the rest of the College got the same idea. On February 11 Dean Mildred P. Sherman of Radcliffe announced dramatically that "the process of saying goodnight has degenerated."

Shocked, Radcliffe girls banded together and approved plans to keep men out of the dorms after 10 p.m. on weekdays. The Harvard reaction to that can be illustrated by reprinting a poem that was sent to the CRIMSON by three Harvard men, in spiritual collaboration with Andrew Marvell:

On Learning That Radcliffe Votes Chaste Farewells

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, Radcliffe, were no crime.

We would sit down and think-of ways

To spread our love o'er many-days.

Thou should by sluggish Charles' side,

With New Directions as your guide,

The fate of men and books decide

And damn the old with comments snide.

But college days are all too short