"A lot of people laugh at the busloads of women who come up to Boston, but don't forget that busloads of men come down to Wellesley," says Connson M. Chao '87, who transferred from Wellesley after her freshman year.
Harvard-Wellesley relations have had rocky moments recently. Wellesley police arrested three Harvard students, members of the D.U. final club, for disrupting a Wellesley dance in December. However, Wellesley Dean of Students Molly S. Campbell describes the arrests as "a really isolated incident."
The official response to the incident demonstrated that Harvard and Wellesley continue to have close ties, Campbell says. "It's great that I can pick up the phone and talk to Epps. That's cooperation and teamwork," she says.
Although Harvard students occasionally socialize at Wellesley, some Wellesley women say they wish more formal ties existed.
"I am very disapointed. There are many more ties between Wellesley and MIT. I was expecting it to be Harvard," says Wellesley freshman Clare Franklin.
Closer Ties
"It would be nice if the relationship [between Harvard and Wellesley] were expanded beyond the social," Campbell says. Wellesley "students would like academic exchanges [with Harvard.] We already have cross-registration with MIT," she says.
Both Wellesley students and Harvard women who visit the college noted that coeducation makes the atmosphere at their respective schools very different.
"It's all very amusing. When you walk in [to a Wellesley dorm] there are normally three to four dozen roses waiting for people to pick them up," says Dean Brewer '89.
"I really miss having guys as friends. Not having guys around makes the atmosphere in the library much more intense," Goldman says.
"Because Wellesley women are so isolated from men, that's all they talk about. Their whole lives revolve around finding a boyfriend," Brewer says.
Some Wellesley women criticize what they perceive as Harvard students' snobbery.
"Harvard people look down on everybody, and the fact that Wellesley is a women's college makes it easy to create stereotypes," Chao says.
"A lot of Wellesley upperclasswomen don't come up [to Harvard] because they think Harvard women hate them," Goldman says.
However some Wellesley women say they help perpetuate the snobbery and the stereotypes.
"There are people at Wellesley who fit the stereotype, and those are the people that come to Harvard," Chao says.