WOMEN OF THIRD FLOOR DAKE Memories from the first women to live in a South Dakota Mines residence hall

By: Anita Freeman (EE 76)

When I arrived on campus for my freshman year in 1972, I was assigned a room on the third floor of Dake Hall. The dormitory was two separate, three-story buildings named for Guy “Pop” March and Earl Dake that were joined in the center with a common lobby entry with the only television, and an apartment for a housemother. Third floor Dake was comprised of two wings, with a lounge in between.

I soon realized that third floor Dake was the only housing available for women on a campus of 1,500 students. Women first began living there in 1968. There was occupancy for 32 women who were freshmen and sophomores, and living in the hall was required unless you were from the Rapid City area. All of March and the first two floors of Dake were occupied with freshmen male students as well as offices for the atmospheric sciences department.

The entry doors to the floor were locked at all times and male students were not allowed on the floor. Initially, there was a curfew of 11 p.m. on week nights and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. In the early years, no one broke the curfew or dared stay in someone else’s room, because rumor had it that women would lose housing rights if they misbehaved.

Since there were only a handful of women in the dorm, the resident advisors (RAs) would walk around and check to make sure everyone was in their room in the evenings. The first RAs on the floor were Kathy Kutcher Stechmann (Math 69) and Diane Gleason Hammond (Math 69). Third floor Dake wasn’t for women when Diane and Kathy were first- and second-year students, but they jumped at the opportunity to be RAs when it opened in their junior year.

Mary-Jane Seeley Green (CE 78) remembers that initially, in order to be away from the dorm over the weekend, women were required to have a letter or call from a parent or guardian to the housemother, Mrs. Mary Jones. On Beanie Raid nights, the seniors had to get permission to take the freshmen girls away from third floor Dake so they wouldn’t get in trouble for leaving after curfew.

Janita Preston Smith (Chem 77) said that the phone in the lounge felt like their lifeline to the outside. “Many a date began or ended with a phone call from the joint lounge,” she said.

Over time, the rooms on third floor Dake filled, and the curfew changed to 10 p.m. There was a tiered penalty system for missing curfew. The first infraction meant you had to stay on the floor from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the next Saturday. The second infraction meant you needed to stay on the floor both Friday and Saturday. And the third infraction resulted in a trip to the Dean of Students office.

One downside of third floor Dake was that it was built to be a men’s residence hall. Each wing had a shower room with three heads, a curtain instead of a door for bathroom stalls, and just two sinks. There was a tradition of putting plastic flowers in the urinals every fall after men had used the floor in the summertime. Over time, we heard the bathroom situation became a detriment in recruiting females to the university, which is not a surprise!

Students at the local nursing school

Whist,” she said. “We still play when we get together for reunions.”

On one occasion, the women decided to play poker.

“We gathered in my room instead of the lounge,” Linda said. “We had were taken to Rapid City General Hospital to see new babies. took classes on our campus, so we came to know them well. One Saturday afternoon, we went to their dorm, and they put a cast on our RA’s left arm. The RA stopped by the housemother’s apartment, where a number of students were gathered, and the RA garnered a lot of sympathy for her injury. When flowers arrived, she thought it best to come clean and remove the cast!

After graduation, we stayed in touch through Pop March’s alumni newsletter, called “ The Hardrock ”, which was our version of today’s social media. We have watched each other’s children grow up, have seen one another become grandparents, and sadly, we have had to say goodbye to a few of the remarkable women we came to love.

“It’s hard to believe all we had were 32 women living on campus,” said Susan Nemeth Davidson (ChE 77).

There were a lot of Trekkies, and the men and women would all gather in the common lounge just before 6:30 p.m. on the evening that Star Trek was aired.

“We were so disappointed when the show was canceled,” says Seeley Green.

Linda Rausch (ChE 75) remembers the women played a lot of cards.

“Whenever there were four people in the lounge on third floor, we played a supply of Swisher Sweet cigars to add to the ambiance. The windows were opened wide, in spite of the cold temperatures. Fun was had by all, but we never repeated that event. It took weeks for the smell to dissipate.”

Karen Wenig Werner (MinE 76) said it was always a pain to do laundry with limited machines in the basement, but adds, “I don’t think the guys ever used them, so that helped!”

According to Preston Smith, the women of third floor Dake really stuck together. “I loved that there was almost always someone to hang with if you wanted to get away from the books for a while.”

After two years on third floor Dake, women paired up to live in apartments near campus for the last two years. It was musical chairs for roommates, as girls got married or living situations changed. We had wedding showers and baby showers, and many trips

We were an eclectic group of personalities, but with a common focus in STEM, and we truly bonded.

Additional Contributors:

Mary Halling Kennon 1971-1972

Susan “Booty” Kuhns 1971-1973

March-Dake Hall was removed from campus in 2002, but a group of us had a chance to visit it one last time before then. It may have been our unusual living conditions on a maledominated campus, but after 50 years we still have these special friendships and look forward to the five-year alumni reunions.

Carmen Pauling Adams 1971-1973

Kathy Kelly Miller 1970-1972

Jeane Hudson Hull 1973-1975

June Heinrich Busse 1973-1975

Marilyn Maxvold 1972-1974

We hope the women on campus today have as many fun traditions as we did, and we’re glad that today there are more than 32.