Comments on: Agnes Scott Ranks #1 in State for “Friendliest Girls”? Okay.

By: nelliebelle1197

nelliebelle1197 — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:22:03 +0000

I believe it was honestly not safe structurally. They’ve repaired it but the crazy, wild Hopkins atmosphere is not the same

I was desperate to live there, but was, alas, too late. A lot of Hopkinsites moved to second floor Inman and we tried to carry on, but it was not the same

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:13:06 +0000

As we Hopkins Jr. Debs used to say, “Better dead than well-bred.”

By: Karass

Karass — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:02:03 +0000

Very helpful. And interesting! And I guess women’s colleges have always struggled with being stereotyped, even the Seven Sisters. In the old days, the stereotype was that the women were debutantes looking for an MRS., well-bred young ladies drinking tea at 4 PM, and/or unattractive bluestockings. Now the stereotype is evidently that they are lesbian, bisexual, and/or retro feminists.

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:15:28 +0000

Karass, Karass, Karass. These are powerful questions, and you are sweet to ask (check me out with the friendly!) Let me start by clarifying that Agnes Scott College was, from its beginnings, always an institution serious about academics. You didn’t go there for a debutante atmosphere, a finishing school training, or an “MRS degree.” Its alumnae have been breaking barriers in all manner of professions: Evangeline Papageorge, Class of 1928, for example, was the the first full-time female faculty member at Emory’s School of Medicine. Constance Curry ’55–an important activist in the Civil Rights Movement, even as a student at ASC, and still an award-winning writer. Judges, legislators, Decatur’s first female mayor. Georgia’s first female Rhodes scholar. The first woman to be ordained in the Presbyterian church. Country music and rock stars. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

But to answer your other questions: Hopkins was the smallest dorm on campus, and also the least geographically central–hence the most neglected in many ways. It didn’t get the fancy renovations that most of the other dorms got (at least, not when I was there). It was also the dorm closest to the railroad tracks, which is why I can now sleep through anything. I lived there for three years. We knew how to use our well-honed wits to make our marks, so we embraced our low status, subverted the dominant paradigm, planted our tongues in our cheeks and formed the “Hopkins Jr. Deb Society,” which threw the bestest parties ever. Those were the Socialist Butterfly Cotillions, always held on May 5–Karl Marx’s birthday. I don’t know why Hopkins was closed (Nellie, do you?), but it sounds like the character we imbued in its hallowed, cracked plaster halls lingered for quite some time.

By: Karass

Karass — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:18:02 +0000

Ok, I was staying out of this, happy to maintain my lovely image of ASC women as friendly, thoughtful, chirpy young women who extolled the virtues of their warm school community. But now I have to know: What was Hopkins? Why was it shut down? What were the Socialist Butterfly Balls? (Their title is great.) Was this part of the transition of ASC from a more debutante atmosphere to an atmosphere of women’s advocacy and academics? I apologize in advance for any ignorance and stereotyping. I didn’t know about Agnes Scott until I moved here and my understanding of its history is limited.