Part three in a series of articles on women at Harvard appearing periodically over the next month in The Crimson

When Harvard Professor of Philosophy George H. Palmer went to Wellesley College for a visit in 1887, he fell in love with his future bride, Wellesley President Alice Freeman.

Harvard-Wellesley relations haven't changed very much since then. Harvard men still visit the women's college in Wellesley, Mass., primarily to find girlfriends.

"The only reason to go [to Wellesley] is to socialize," says Paul S. Slawson III '89. The Matthews Hall resident says he visits his girlfriend at the 1200-student campus once or twice a week.

Some Harvard men say they chose to make the half-hour trip because they want a change from Cambridge social life. Going to Wellesley "is a great way to get away from things here," says A. Cab Vinton '88.

"The social scene there is a little more old-fashioned. My girlfriend cooks me dinner. It's not like going out to dinner where the guy's paying and he's expecting something," Slawson says.

Through the years, Harvard and Wellesley have maintained very close social ties, according to Wellesley spokesman Anne O'Sullivan, who graduated from the school in 1957.

In fact, Harvard men sometimes pretend that they attend Wellesley. In 1939, a Harvard student dressed up as a girl and entered Wellesley's annual hoop rolling contest. In the race, members of the Wellesley senior class determine which one will marry first by rolling old-fashioned wooden hoops. The Harvard man won.

Historical Harvard-Wellesley ties sometimes beget new ones. "My parents met 25 years ago because my mother went to Wellesley and my father went to Harvard. I was curious so I thought I'd give it a shot," Vinton says. Did he succeed? "I went to a party and met a girl," he says.

Wellesley and Harvard continue to maintain close familial ties: many Harvard students have sisters at Wellesley. However, when the siblings get together, they usually meet in Cambridge. "I have a sister at Wellesley, but I don't know much about the place. I don't go there much; my sister comes to visit here," says Dan Klingensmith '88.

Coeducation at Harvard has had some effect on Harvard-Wellesley relations, according to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. Although Wellesley women had traditionally attended the annual Harvard freshman picnic, Epps decided to stop inviting them in 1979.

"It just struck me that [that the reason] we were inviting Wellesley students to the freshman picnic was to provide enough women for the men," Epps says.

When the president of the Wellesley student senate called Epps to complain, he stood firm. "The whole business was fundamentally wrong, and we weren't running a social service up here," he says.

Although Harvard and Wellesley no longer schedule joint social events, the Wellesley student government continues to run buses which drop students off at Johnston Gate.

However Wellesley students say that visiting Harvard is not the only reason they take the bus. "Most people on the bus are coming to the Square or to Boston, not to Harvard. More Wellesley students socialize at MIT," says Stephanie H. Goldman, a Wellesley sophomore.