Lynne Thompson interview

              Rachel Fidler: So what dorms did you live in when you were on campus?

Lynne Thompson: I started in Kimberley, and I’m trying to remember; did I do two years in
Kimberly and one in Grace Scripps, which I guess now is Clark? Or maybe one year in
Kimberley and two in Clark? And then senior year in the Senior apartments.

RF: And did you find that, since you were living for two years in one of the dorms, did you find
a connection to the people there? Like was it more familial with your dorm?

LT: It was interesting. The first thing when I came out for a visit and saw Dorsey, I decided I
absolutely didn’t want to live there because I had gone to Susan Miller Dorsey High School in
Los Angeles, but it turns out that she and Grace Scripps were good friends, so that was
interesting. Of course that’s because I was young and dumb and didn’t realize how beautiful
Dorsey was. I thought I wanted someplace modern, so that’s why I picked Kimberley, but then
formed friendships with these women that I told you about that have lasted all these years. And I
can’t remember exactly why, but we decided that Grace Scripps, now Clark, was a much hipper
place to be. And I liked that it was old and in Spanish architecture and all of that, so I think we
were there just the one year...I really can’t remember now, I should ask Kathleen and Seldy and
them what they thought. And then our senior year, Seldy did first semester in Paris, so we held
her room, but Kathleen, Melanie, and I were in the Senior apartments, second floor, right over
the pool. What was the pool, I guess the pool’s not there anymore, what is now the Gabrielle
Winkler dorm is there. And Gabrielle was in our class as well. We were all the very suspect, class
of ’72 [smiles].

RF: Where are you from originally?

LT: Los Angeles, born and raised in Los Angeles.

RF: What was it about Scripps that drew you here? I know that you said that you only applied
here.

LT: Yeah I can’t believe I did that [laughs]. I can’t believe people let me do that...I wanted to live
away from home, but I didn’t want to live so far away from home that I couldn’t get home if I
wanted to. I have 4 older brothers, all of whom went to UCLA. I thought it was just too huge and
scary to even think about. And so the size of it was very appealing to me. The Humanities
curriculum was very appealing to me. And of course, once I saw the campus I thought it was just
gorgeous. I liked the idea that it was part of a 5-College community. So it was just like it was
made for me. I really enjoyed all of that, that I knew before coming.

RF: Do you remember what the Humanities curriculum was like, what your Gen Eds were
generally like?

LT: We had the precursor to Core that you all now have, but we moved through the 3 years in a
much more chronological way than I think you all do now. So we started with the Ancients,
Greeks and Romans. I recall that the second year was primarily Renaissance period, and the third
must have been post-Renaissance and, I can’t remember exactly, it may have been a little more
elective in that third year. But as I understand the Core, you’re liable to move around more in
each given year.

RF: Right.

LT: So that’s a different approach

RF: It definitely is. And did you find the fact that you went to a women’s college a decision
different from your peers in high school and in your family? Obviously you had brothers...

LT: Yeah, I think that people were surprised that I wanted to go to a women’s college, and I was
telling that, you know, there are guys right on either side of the street. Pitzer was not yet co-ed
when I came, although there were guys over there all the time like it was co-ed [laughs]. So
yeah, I think that people were a little surprised. Although, I will say that when I told my family
what I wanted in a college, small classes, it was one of my brothers that brought me out to the
campus and said, “Why don’t you look there,” because he had known a woman that came here,
so he thought that might be something I would like. I’m proud to say that one of my brothers
suggested it.

RF: Seemed fitting, that’s great. So when you were here at Scripps, what was your normal day
like, what did you do on weekends?

4:47

LT: Yeah, certainly that first year I think I went home a lot. I was dating someone who lived in
LA, and he would come and pick me up and I think I went in to LA a lot. But I think by the
second year, when I was making more friends and closer friends, I did that a lot less and that was
true as I progressed through. You know the routine [smiles]. Study all time, I mean it was
really...I thought I was pretty smart coming, and I found that I wasn’t quite as smart as I thought I
was. And so it was a lot of work that first year, it was all just so new and different having to
make your own decisions. It was a lot of adjustment, a lot adjustment in that way, trying to get to
know the other students. That’s what I really remember from that first year is just studying a lot.
And we had really formal dinners, you guys don’t do this anymore, but we used to dress
up...was it every night? It couldn’t have been every night...maybe it was every night! I mean
people dressed for dinner and I remember one woman that lived next to Seldy, who I am still
friends with, came to dinner with her pearls and I mean really kind of dressed up. So we would
have very formal dinners, and of course the dining halls were all in the dorms then, we didn’t
have the new facility. So that was always a big deal. The dinners were a big deal.

RF: Do you remember any other traditions, or sort of informal rules?

LT: Well, I was thinking about it driving out here. One thing I do remember, I guess I shouldn’t
say her name, she’d be embarrassed, but what I do remember is that juniors and seniors routinely
got engaged, which I guess people don’t do that as much anymore. And in Kimberley, I don’t
know if they did this in all the dorms, I think they did, they would get a candle and they’d put the
engagement ring on the candle, and they would pass the candle around the room. And the person
who was engaged would just take it and keep it and blow it out. And that’s how you knew. You
know, and maybe her close friends would know, but nobody else would really know, so your
saying, “Well who’s engaged?” They don’t do that anymore, right?

RF: [laughs]No...

LT: Nah, people don’t get engaged like that anymore [smiles]. So that I do remember, cause I’d
never seen anything like that before. Freshman year...do the guys still come over from...were
they from Mudd? They either came from Mudd or what was CMC, I guess it’s Claremont
McKenna now, came over and sang to us at some ungodly hour in the morning, like 6 o’clock or
6:30. And so they just got us out of bed, all the freshmen girls, and I [laughs], I had big, pink
curlers in my hair [gestures to hair]. It was a horrible picture. It’s so horrible, it’s just so awful.
Somebody pulled that picture out not too long ago, it’s really terrible. But they would come over
and sing to us.
The other thing that they did…and when I was between my junior and senior year, I was
the Student Council President, we would walk through the campus at Christmas, and there would
be a Christmas crèche somewhere that was a replica of a piece of art. And nobody would know
who the Madonna was going to be. And you would walk all through the campus with candles,
singing carols, until you came to the crèche. And I was really excited that year, cause I, since I
was Student Council President I knew where it was and what it was. And all my friends were
really bugging me saying “Tell us!” and I said “No, I just can’t tell.” [laughs] Do they do that
still, do you know?

RF: No...

LT: They didn’t do it last holiday. And I guess it’s probably, I hope, more religiously and
certainly racially diverse. That was a very Christian-based thing that they did, and so it might be
considered politically incorrect. Although the walk through the campus was always lovely, cause
it was just, it was dark, we’d do it maybe at 8:30 and have the candles. And it was just so
beautiful to see this procession snaking, and everybody participated, snaking through the campus
until you reached this final spot. It’s kind of sad you guys don’t do that anymore.
9:30

RF: That does sound really lovely.

LT: It’s really very, very lovely. And it seems like there should be a way to do it so it’s not
necessarily religiously-based, but celebrating the generosity of the season or something...I’m
going to suggest that to somebody, they need to bring that back.

RF: They should, definitely. Do you remember how the campuses interacted in social life?

LT: Yeah, there were a lot of scheduled events so that, you know, we would interact. But I think
the best thing, that I recall anyway, about the way we interacted was that--which I’m sure is still
true--was that you can take classes at all the campuses. So that you developed relationships with
the other campuses, or sometimes...I understand Scripps is now the place to eat, that wasn’t
always the case. And so you’d want to go to Pomona to their dorms to eat, or to Pitzer. I don’t
think I really went to Mudd too much, they scared me a little. I thought those guys were too
smart [smiles]. So there was a lot of natural interaction. And then, I guess by my junior year, they
had built Honnold. So of course you had a lot of people studying over there. And yet, I do
remember people loved to come to the Dennison cause it’s so beautiful. And there was tea, do
you guys have Scripps tea in the afternoon?

RF: We do, Wednesday afternoon.

LT: Wednesday afternoons. I think we had it a little bit more often, may have had it two days a
week. And then, all the, I mean all the guys would come over for tea and you know, “What to
eat? Oh there are cookies!” So there was a big draw that way. They had a lot of performances at
Big Bridges, do they still have Big Bridges there?

RF: Yes.

LT: And Little Bridges, too. I remember, well you guys wouldn’t remember, a singer Roberta
Flak coming, and my boyfriend, the same guy I was telling you about, bought tickets like for the
front row, it was really pretty cool. I liked that, I remember that very clearly. So there were a lot
of activities that went on, if you chose to, that you could go to the other campuses.

RF: Did you find that the dating scene was pretty intricately intertwined between campuses?

LT: Oh yeah, it was hot and heavy [smiles]. And it’s kind of nice because I don’t have any
children, but I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and my nieces say “Oh we don’t date like you
guys dated, one on one, we go in groups,” and I said, “OK, that’s cool.” Because there was a lot
of pressure to have a boyfriend and all of that. And a fair number of intermarriages, certainly in
my class. A couple of girls, I remember, married Harvey Mudd guys. There was a fair amount of
intermarriage between the campuses. It was convenient [laughs].

RF: And do you remember what you did on the weekends? We have Thursday Night Club at
CMC, I’m not sure if that was around during your time.

LT: If it was, I don’t remember it. It was certainly a politically active time. I was thinking about
this. We came in, you know, at probably one of the seminal years in the century. You know,
Martin Luther King had been assassinated, Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, people were
protesting the war, so it was a very politically active time. It was the largest, at that point with my
entering class, I think there were five (me, Berenice, Juanita...), I think there were five (Barbara),
I think there were five entering African Americans at Scripps. And throughout the Claremont
Colleges was the largest number up until that time of African American students. And I think it
was quite a culture shock for Claremont. It was certainly a culture shock for a lot of the students
that came, to be in a predominately white school. So that was challenging, I think, for the
professors, for the administration.
Certainly the Black Power movement was big at that time, culturally. A lot of students
were active in that. The Black Student Union was established sometime in that four year span,
probably in about my freshman year, although it might’ve been either my freshman or my
sophomore year. So I think that the students were very, very politically active. Everybody was
worried about Vietnam, so I think I remember spending a lot of time on those issues,
volunteering, going to rallies, that sort of thing.

14:35

RF: Right, and did you find that the issue of diversity was brought up a lot? Or was it more kind
of seen and not spoken of?

LT: Yeah, I think especially at Scripps, I can barely remember Scripps, let alone the other
colleges...I didn’t find that it was overtly spoken of. But I think my experience coming here,
mine and Berenice, Berenice was also from Los Angeles, and both of us had gone to very diverse
high schools. And so I don’t think it was as much of a culture shock for us. For Barbara, who is
one of our stars, she got one of the Outstanding Alumni awards, she’s very active politically,
lives in Washington now, has travelled to Beijing for women’s programs, just a very active
person. But for Barbara, I think it was much more difficult because it was radically different than
what she had been to in high school compared what, for example, Berenice and I had been to.
I’m not sure about Juanita, Juanita was from San Diego, and I don’t know what high school she
went to. So I think, oh and Connie, I’m forgetting Connie. I think that it wasn’t overtly referred
to. I think culturally, I remember everybody saying, “Oh we want to go into Lynne’s room and
listen to music,” because I was playing different music than they were playing. But it wasn’t
overtly referred to in my dorm and in some of my experiences. I think that the Claremont
Colleges at large, yes it was a big topic of discussion. But I think Scripps was Scripps. And it
wasn’t as overt at that time.

RF: Did you find that this was a major aspect of change within Scripps through your years?

LT: Yeah, I think that the students in the main, with some maybe exceptions, were fine with it. It
just wasn’t something that they had been used to as part of their experience, to have that kind of
diversity. There were, I can remember, three Hispanic students. Well, a woman that I had gone to
high school with, Diana, was a year ahead of me so she was here, a Chinese woman. So there
were some Asian students. We had a fair number of students from outside the country. So there
was more understanding and readiness to accept the foreign students and to have these racially
diverse “large” numbers, when I say large I mean my graduating class was 99 so, well, how large
could it be? But I don’t think that Scripps had seen that amount of diversity in prior classes,
based even on the classes that were ahead of me when I got here. You know, there wasn’t that
much diversity, so I think it was an adjustment for everybody.

RF: Speaking on the topic of diversity, how visible were gay and lesbian students on campus?

LT: I don’t think they were visible at all, certainly, let me say this...I think my freshman year I
was clueless about anything, anyway. I think by the time of my senior year, and maybe my junior
year, there was starting to be a little bit more awareness, but I have to say frankly not much
acceptance. I think it was still taboo, you know, people didn’t understand it. But I think by the
time I was getting ready to leave, we certainly aware that there were lesbian students at the
college. But I think the administration struggled with it, and it had been so closeted for so long
that it was difficult to bring it out into the mainstream, like I understand it is now, which I think
is terrific. I guess I feel, I would say it was then, like perhaps transgender is now, where people
are starting to really understand what the issues are about that. So it was pretty closeted I would
say, for the most part.

19:16

RF: And what other hot button issues on campus? You spoke of Vietnam...

LT: Right...and this was a weekend I went home so I missed it all. There was, I think at Pomona,
a, I don’t want to say a bombing, but some small device went off, and my recollection is that it
was attributed incorrectly to the Black Student Union activity. But I wasn’t here, so I missed the
whole thing. So I was getting bits and pieces of the story and I don’t remember it on a first-hand
personal basis. So that was an issue. The other thing was that we got here as freshmen just as
women were getting the Pill, and that was a big deal, that women suddenly had control of their
bodies. And I remember a friend of ours, who was a freshman but older than the rest of us,
marching us all over...do they still have Baxter Health Care? Baxter’s gone, so whatever the
health care is...She marched us all over there and got us birth control whether we needed it or
not. I said, “I don’t think I need it.” She said, “Yeah, well you’re going to get it.” And that was a
big deal. That was a very big deal, I think. You couldn’t have men in your rooms, except for very
specified hours. And when you had a man in your room you were supposed to hang something
on the door, we had signs or something, that you were supposed to hang on the door. Well the
truth was, people had men in their room all the time. I remember my mother was horrified.
[smiles] Because now all of a sudden, sexuality was looked at very differently, say, than of our
mothers or older sisters had looked at it. So that was a big deal. And the women’s movement was
just [laughs], I remember now, the women’s movement was just starting to take off, and there
was this whole thing about burning your bra, and I was like flat as an ironing board, so I didn’t
really have any bras to burn. And that was kind of a joke in my family, “Yeah, well, we don’t
have to worry about Lynne burning her bra.” So there was just a lot of political things going on.
As we were getting ready to leave Scripps, the Watergate situation with President Nixon
was just kind of starting to break. And I remember Shelly up in that common room, I guess it
must’ve been the second floor of Kimberly, constantly had it on. And there was another woman
who was a very staunch Republican, cause Shelly was a Democrat, and so they would go at it all
the time about it. So there was a lot of political...that really sticks out in my mind, the variety of
issues that were going on then. I think, one summer, a bunch of people had gone to Woodstock,
we were talking about that. So yeah, there was a lot, politically, going on.

RF: Right, and did you find that women’s lib, or, gender/women’s studies was a discourse on
campus or had it not really developed yet?

LT: I do, because when my class came in, and I’m now, I wasn’t at the time, I’m now saddened
to think. I think our class was radically different from the women that preceded it, and the change
kind of took place after that. They were really the pearl and cashmere sweater set, I’ll say, before
we came. And we are, I think still, the only class that never signed the wall in the Rose Garden.
Which we’re all, well many of us, not all, I can’t speak for everybody, kind of feeling like, “Well
why did we do that?” Well, we did it at the time as a protest. You know, we thought it was
conformist, we thought it was stupid, we didn’t do it. And so this year coming up is going to be
our 40th anniversary. And I think we’re thinking about doing something, but in a way it kind of
makes a statement that if you go out there, you see every other class but the class of ’72.
So yeah I think that we were starting to talk with the growing women’s lib movement,
with the Pill that was really freeing up women to make decisions about what they wanted to do,
in a way that they didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant. I do remember, maybe this is the
most symbolic for me, my mom...I was the only daughter, my mother was very excited that I was
coming to Scripps, and spent the whole summer making these, well I don’t think they have
Villager anymore, but these kind of Seventeen magazine outfits for me. Really cute. I’m
saddened now, because she spent hours sewing these things. And the first day I got here and I
had knee socks and culottes, I had a little tie, I was all dressed up. And came out and somebody
looked at me and said, “Where are you going?” I said, “Well I’m going to class!” And they said,
“Dressed like that? You’re not going to class dressed like that.” And I said, “But I don’t have
anything else!” Went, got the jeans, ripped the jeans, you know the whole thing. Took off
whatever bralette I had on, you know. It was just a very different look than these other plaidskirted,
loafered, cashmere-sweater wearing women were.
So it was a real change, I think, at that time, it was the late sixties, it was a change in the
whole country, and I think our class really, perhaps the first if not the second, that was kind of
bringing in this new, more relaxed, more laid back. I remember Molly going to the Humanities
lecture in Balch in her nightgown and her trench coat. And when it was over, she just went back
and went back to bed [laughs]. That was Molly. So yeah, I think it was starting to be a very
different time for the college and the administration probably had a tough time adjusting to it.

25:36

RF: So did you find that you learned feminism through your social setting as well as academics?


LT: There was starting to be some academics, although certainly not to the degree...the
scholarship was just starting to develop. Same thing with African American history. I remember,
even my parents saying, “Oh those aren’t real classes, you need to take American history,” and
I’m saying, “But this is American history.” So those sorts of class, the ethnically based classes,
and the women’s lib classes, the scholarship was just starting to develop. So yes, we had some of
that, but a lot of it was reading Ms. Magazine, everything Gloria Steinem had to say, you know
that kind of stuff that we were teaching ourselves, really, in a way. And at this point I can say we
were kind of developing what we thought it was to be an independent woman and saying at this
women’s college we should be able to say the things we want to say and not be tied into this
male-centric view of everything.

RF: Right. And I know that Title IX came out just around that time, did you happen to read the
legislation surrounding that?

LT: You know, I don’t recall that I did, I’ve got to say. I don’t think until I was practicing law that
I really kind of focused on it. If there were any classes on it, I don’t recall it. Pitzer probably
would have been much more progressive at that time than we were, I would say. Scripps was still
kicking and screaming coming out of the 50s.

RF: Do you remember what you imagined your career or life would be like after Scripps, as a
senior?

LT: You know, as much as we were trying to be independent, getting married was still a big deal,
and a lot of my classmates got married. Not these women that I’m still close with, none of them
got married, both Kathleen and Seldy went straight to grad school. Mary wasn’t here her junior
or senior year...I remember specifically thinking, “Oh good Lord, do I have to be a grown up
now?” So I had no clue. I remember there was a woman in the yearbook whose caption was “Am
I a woman now?” So I didn’t...I worked a little, funky job for a couple years, then I went to law
school maybe three or four years out from Scripps. I didn’t really think about it...I don’t know
what I was thinking. I mean I think about it now, I think “What an idiot I was! What was I
thinking? What an idiot!” [smiles]
So I didn’t have a clue, what I was going to do. And I think that was probably true...I
think a lot of people went to grad school because, what else were you going to do? If they
weren’t getting married, then they went to grad school. But still, not really clear about what they
would do. But I think the basic...what Scripps did for all of us, and I’ll use my three friends as
the comparison, I mean, I think we’re pretty emblematic of other women, it did instill a real
sense of independence and ability once you figured it out to be able to do whatever you wanted
to do. I really credit Scripps with making us thoughtful, independent-minded people. But the
specifics, pftt [laughs and throws hands up]. I didn’t have a clue.

29:14

RF: And just jumping back into your years at Scripps, did you find through this development of
becoming more of an independent woman and doing all these things, did you apply that in your
years at Scripps? Were you a part of the Black Student Union development?
LT: I was, I wasn’t super active in the development of it, but went to all of the meetings or
whatever. What I was active in at Scripps, my freshman year, whatever they called it, freshmen
Vice President, or Vice President of the freshmen class, I guess it was. And then I was Student
Council President my senior year. So I was very active on the campus. I don’t think I had an
office at the Black Student Union but I hung out with them a lot. We had a house which is now
where I guess that parking lot is, directly across from Honnold gate we had a really nice, now
that I think about it, two-story house, and we hung out a lot there. From all the campuses. People
would come by, we had music, we probably drank a little bit. That was a really cool place. And
then there was an academic office that’s still that little house that’s on 11th across from the
Williamson gallery. And it was also a, what do you call it, a career counseling office and so we
spent a lot of time over there, I remember. Yeah, so I can’t say I was an officer, but I participated
in all the activities, we partied a lot [laughs].

RF: Do you remember certain things that you enacted as Student Body President or as a leader
on Scripps’s campus? Or things you were involved in?

LT: I don’t think I probably did much of anything, to be perfectly honest! I don’t think I did
anything major. I think it was a big deal to have an African American Student Council President.
And I do remember the meetings, but I have to honest, if I did anything, it’s long lost to history
now. I don’t remember doing anything. I do remember telling Kathleen that I was going to run
for Vice President and her breaking into my class one day, we were over at Grace Scripps in my
room, and we had singles on that first corridor and saying, “No, you’re running for President!”
And I said, “No I am not!” She said, “Yes you are!” I said, “No I’m not!” She said, “Yes you are,
I’m going to nominate you” or whatever it was. I said, “Oh my God, this is terrible.” [smiles] But
what I actually did, I’m sure it must’ve been something. I know we had representatives from
each of the dorms and met regularly. But I can’t recall anything outstanding that I might’ve done
[laughs].

RF: But do you feel that it was a part of your Scripps experience? Or was it kind of just more
something you did on the side?

LT: No, I think, I do recall being very involved at the time. I just, you know, do they still do it on
the half year like that? So I was elected in spring of my junior year and then went into the winter
of the senior year. Do they still do it that way?

RF: I don’t believe so, I think...

LT: They do the academic year, yeah, which makes a lot more sense. And I think that’s part of
the reason because I started working on my thesis that junior year and I remember being
really...that was a nightmare...I was a Social Psychology major, which was really stupid. I loved
literature and every other course I took was a literature course, turns out I am a poet. Why I
didn’t take literature...I think that my parents convinced that unless I was going to teach that that
was just a waste. Really [laughs]. Cause I took a lot of literature courses. So what I remember
more than the specifics of being President other than yes, we had the meetings, yes, we had
issues that we dealt with, was trying to get ready for that thesis. That’s what I recall that tail-end
of the junior year and into the senior year I’m trying to get it written. That’s what I really
remember.

RF: Did your parents go to school, or go to college rather?

LT: My mother did not, my father went for one year. But all of my brothers went, so I tell my
nieces and nephews this now, it was never...it never even occurred to me that I might not go to
college. It just, I mean, what else was I going to do with myself, you know? That was a given. It
was important to my parents. And I felt like all my brothers had gone, so of course I was going to
go to, they weren’t going to better than I was [laughs].

34:40

RF: And did your parents feel comfortable about the social setting at Scripps, like drinking-wise?
What were the attitudes towards that?

LT: Yeah, so marijuana was a big deal. And this is actually a great story. So my mom and dad
come out to visit me, and you know, they’re clueless. And there was a guy sitting on that area
that’s now, well we all call it, I guess you guys don’t call them the Miss America Steps.

RF: Oh, we do, yes.

LT: You still call them the Miss America Steps? OK, so at that point, they didn’t have the steps,
there was just a wall there. And he was completely loaded, completely loaded. So he kind of has
his head back like this [tilts head back]. So mom’s walking down the path from...

RF: Toll?

LT: Not from Toll, but from the garden, from Margaret Fowler. She’s walking down that path and
she sees him and she says, “Oh! Poor guy! Should we call someone?” I said, “No, mom, he’s
loaded.” She’s like, “What?!” I said, “Well, you know, it doesn’t go on very often, but I think
he’s...you know...” She said, “I hope YOU’RE not doing that!” [laughs] Oh she was horrified.
She was just so innocent about it. So I think the colleges have a wonderful reputation, and so I
think they felt it was perfectly fine, because nobody told our parents what was going on. We used
to go...do they still have the Wash over by Pomona? The big, kind of open area? So yeah, the
Wash is still there so we went over there and drank beer and drank wine, some people got high.
Our parents didn’t have a clue about any of that!
Kathleen and I were friends virtually from the first minute we got here because they took
the parents on a bus tour. And her parents and my parents were sitting together. And her family’s
from Seattle, so Mrs. Kennelly always felt like, “OK well if anything comes up, the Thompson’s
are there in LA.” We went to my friends, my friends and I would go into town from time to time,
mom would usually cook us a dinner because we never really had enough to eat, so she’d cook
us a really good dinner. But yeah, I think our parents were perfectly fine because they didn’t
know what was going on, which is pretty typical of most generations, you know, you tell your
parents what you want them to know, you don’t tell them the rest. And it was certainly...I never
felt unsafe. I mean I was thinking as I was walking through today how smart it is that they have
the emergency lighting and you can call. I work at UCLA, we have similar things if a student
feels nervous at night they can call somebody to walk them back to the dorm or whatever. We
didn’t pay attention to any of that kind of stuff. We ran around in the middle of the night...it
probably wasn’t as safe as we thought it was, we were pretty innocent, we thought we were
smart. But we were pretty innocent I would say.

RF: So rules were relatively lax when it came to alcohol policy and such?

LT: No, they were pretty stiff, but I think, you know, I tell my friends who have teenagers, I said,
“Do you think they’re not drinking, really, seriously?” Students are always going to find a way to
get around it. No, we weren’t supposed to smoke, we weren’t supposed to drink. People did
smoke, all big smokers, that’s really funny to think about now. And that wasn’t a problem,
everybody smoked. But no, we weren’t supposed to be drinking in the dorms. I don’t think we
had...we didn’t have little refrigerators or anything in our rooms, so you didn’t really have
anything...but you know, we’d walk into town. And the older girls who could buy alcohol would
buy it, I mean it wasn’t a problem, as I recall [laughs].

RF: Do you ever remember going into the Village to drink there or was that not really the place
to hang out?

LT: We went to that...is the theater still there?

RF: The Laemmle Theater, yeah the little one.

LT: The little theater, we went to that a lot. Not too many people at that point had cars. I
remember, I didn’t bring a car. My mother let me bring the car my senior year. And we went into
the Village to that little music store, I think that’s still there.

RF: It is, yeah, the Folk Music Center.

LT: I remember getting albums there. People don’t get albums anymore. It wasn’t a particularly
good place to eat, it seemed like there was some place we went for hamburgers. What we did do
was, Kathleen had a car junior year, I think, and we would drive down to the In-N-Out on
Foothill. Oh we raided that place big time. I mean Kathleen still, whenever she comes to
California, she says, “I want to go to In-N-Out!” That was the place. We hung out there a lot.
And we ordered a lot of pizzas. And Mary, we used to like to...this was in Kimberly. Yeah we
must’ve been in Kimberly two years, we were in Kimberly two years. Because Mary and Kath
were in the room upstairs, and then they moved to the first floor. And for some reason Mary was
dating a guy at Mudd, so she was always over there, and we would always gather in Mary’s
room, eat pizza and play Bridge. And she’d come back and she’d say, “What, have you guys
been in my room?” “Yeah, we’ve been in your room!” So, yeah, we ate a LOT of pizza, I
remember that [smiles].

40:13

RF: And so was it common for people to go off campus and have cars and go into LA?

LT: I think it was more common for the juniors and seniors. I think the freshmen and sophomore
girls didn’t have them as much. Some did. None of my circle really did. But I had a car at home,
and mother wouldn’t let me bring it. I think it was pretty discouraged. Parking wasn’t anywhere
near as bad as it seems to be now. But maybe that was because it was pretty discouraged to bring
cars. And you didn’t really need it, I mean, you walked to your class, you walked into town.
Usually a bunch of people would go into LA if we wanted to go to a show or do something like
that and somebody had a car. But it seemed to me it was more the senior girls that had cars, or
they had boyfriends and the boyfriends took in their own, or whatever. And my parents, after
freshmen year, I really wouldn’t let them come out here [laughs]. “Oh no, mom, I’ll see you,”
just take your laundry home.

RF: So is that the way you maintained your relationship with your parents, was it going
physically there or did you talk to them on the phone a lot?

LT: Yes. I think after that first semester, I was cool, everything was fine. “It’s cool, mom, see
you!” They were a little like, “Well you don’t call us” or whatever. I don’t remember calling
them that much. I remember going home, taking laundry, when I wanted a good meal. But I’m
sure by sophomore year, you know, I went home maybe at Thanksgiving. You know, the
boyfriend was coming out here, so no need to go home. So yeah, it was phone and I’d go in
periodically, I don’t think they came out here very much. I’m pretty sure they didn’t.

RF: Did you feel, after Scripps, after your career at Scripps, that you had developed all these
things you learned here, had that led you to where you are now? Or did you find that it was
different than you expected? And what exactly are you working on now?

LT: Well, I work at UCLA and I’m their director of Employment and Labor Relations. I went to
law school four years after I graduated, yeah I graduated in ’72 and started law school in ’76. I
think, in a very broad way, Scripps was a major influence in my life. Partially because I’ve kept
these friends, so we have a very tight circle as women. And then I have some other Scripps
friends that I don’t see as often. But I think it gave us a sense of confidence that a lot of us have
kept throughout whatever careers we’ve chosen. I think it put us among some of the smartest
women in the country. Maybe Gabrielle Giffords being the most prominent, and lucky, example.
So I think it also, because of the breadth of the things that the women had done, we’ve all really
benefited from knowing each other and being able to introduce each other to things we might not
otherwise...you know, you go to some place like UCLA where a lecture class might be 400
people. Maybe you have your one or two or three good friends, but you don’t...I have people say
all the time, “Boy, you Scripps women sure do stick together.” And I think part of that is because
it’s a residential environment, whereas if you’re going to city college, may be a perfectly fine
education, but you don’t have that sense of community that stays with you. I think I’ve traveled a
lot with these women, and we’ve gone all over the world, basically, and that’s been really terrific.
Known people that went here that live in other countries. So that’s been really terrific. But I think
that the confidence...I would say the confidence in ourselves as women and our intelligence and
our ability to run big programs, I mean, I’m sure you guys know, we’ve got doctors, we’ve got
politicians, every facet of life we’re involved in. Judges. I think that that was the confidence that
was bred here so that you could go to a class and be heard and not feel like you’re struggling
with the guys all the time, and sometimes you might have guys, because of course they like to
come and take our classes, too. But to be in a dining hall and be able to talk about Dostoevsky or
some politics.
I was president of the Alumni Association and my favorite thing to do was to come to the
graduations. I really miss doing that, because, unlike when I was here, they print in the program
what each of the students’ theses are. Oh, you women are like ten times smarter than any of us
were, I couldn’t probably get in here on a bet now. I think that that curiosity for life, that spirit of
not being beaten, even when, we’ve all had tough times and, you know, my friends have been
through divorces, illness of children, loss of parents, whatever, and those are difficult. But I think
we are basically resilient, really really resilient women that say, “OK, I’m down today, I’ll call
my girl friend, go shopping, have a little retail therapy, and jump back into it.” And I really do
credit Scripps in fostering that in women. I think we all have it in us but if it’s not nurtured,
sometimes it doesn’t come to fruition in quite the same way.

46:36

RF: There’s definitely something about Scripps women. The way you said that was very
eloquent. And I mean during your time, when you look back, and I look back on all my
memories even just from last year very highly...but did you find anything at Scripps that you
were not pleased with or that were problems during your time here?

LT: The one objection I had that seems to be handled better now was that I didn’t like that the
Humanities were so Euro-centric. I used to complain about it all the time. And say, for a program
that talks about...I thought the Humanities was brilliant in saying, “When this was happening
historically, this was what was happening artistically, this is what was happening in music,” and
bringing all that together. But I kept saying to myself, “Well, when this was happening in France,
what was happening in Peru? What was happening in Japan? What was happening in Kenya?” I
was really kind of irritated about that.
The dorms, I think in some ways, I mean you guys are pretty crowded in now, we had a
little bit more space. Loved the campus. We did not have that great sports thing that you guys
have, oh my God, that’s unbelievable. When we have the Scripps summer camp and we can use
the pool we always say, “Man, we should’ve had this when we were here!” That was the whole,
big field, just completely open, grass, all the way to Pitzer. So, people would go out there and
they’d eat or whatever. So I look at it now and go, “Yeah, but this is better!” Obviously the pool
is gone, that’s where the Winkler dorm is. But I didn’t have any particular complaints about the
living environment, when I go in there now I think the rooms are pretty tiny, but we were tiny
[laughs] so it didn’t matter. Food wasn’t as good as what you guys have now. We had mystery
meat, I remember that. Classes were fabulous, the teachers were wonderful. I felt like I got a
superior education. I really believe that Scripps provides a really, really strong education. So
much, so now that if I go someplace and meet people who say, “Oh, where did you go to
college?” I say, “Oh Scripps College.” They say, “Oh that’s one of those Claremont Colleges,
those are good!” It has a wonderful reputation, and I think we knew that at the time, that we were
really getting wonderful professors and got a really, really good education, which is what our
parents were paying all this money for.

49:38

RF: Right, definitely a sense of pride for your school. Well that’s great. I think that’s just about
it! Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

LT: No, I think we covered a lot of it. I’m just happy to have the chance to really kind of go back
and think about some of the things that went on. I’ve remained very active with the college, I
was on the Alumni board and then I was the President and that gave me a seat on the board of
Trustees, so I’ve remained pretty active with the college. I try to come to as many of the events
as I can. I consider myself extremely lucky to have gone here when I did, to have met the women
that I did. It is, not in a very obvious way, but it is a very subtle influence in all of my life. Just
the way I think about myself, the people that I’ve chosen to remain close with, the things I
learned, the way I learned how to learn. Most Scripps women, to my knowledge, are lifelong
learners. People tease me now that didn’t go to Scripps and say, “Are you in class again?”
I’m a poet, a published poet in large part because that was something that I wanted to do
that I knew wasn’t going to make any money, but figured out the Scripps woman can do more
than one thing at once, you know, we can keep more than one ball in the air at once. And you can
be left-brain, right-brain. I think that was the other thing that the college did was try to rightly or
wrongly, people can disagree with the approach, but try to develop the whole woman. I think
they’re doing that much better now than they did with us, because the sciences are much more
emphasized. I went to Pomona and took Botany because I thought that was the least scary
science I could take. It was a really good class, I’ve never forgotten that Botany class. And
they’re also more physically active. I think we were...you know, we walked, but I don’t think we
were as physically active as you all are now. And I don’t think the facilities were there where
they are now.
But I think that for what people understood at that time I think they were always about
trying to develop the full woman, all of her potential. That was always the goal. And like
anything they’re doing it better now than with us, but even with that, I think that it was still a part
of something they were always trying to achieve, and that’s held us all in really good stead. It’s
funny how things stay with you and resonate as you get older. So all of the things that you guys
think are so great now, thirty years from now you’re going to think they’re really great because
you’re going to really realize, especially when you talk to other women, that don’t have this kind
of experience. I have a good friend that went to Smith, and she had a very similar experience and
we were all just talking about it back and forth. A good friend I was with this weekend who went
to Wellesley, same kind of thing. That that gave them a very particular picture of themselves as
women and that’s going to stay with you all your life.

RF: So did a lot of your high school friends go to women’s college?

LT: No, I think that that was the exception. Most of them went either to UCLA or USC, certainly
in the LA area. And when they went away they might have gone to Berkley, places like that, it
was the exception to go to a women’s college. I just made that decision, but it wasn’t the norm.
And I think that that remains today, in fact, I keep saying to Scripps, “Don’t give into the man, I
know they want to come in, don’t give into the man!” Cause I think it is a very particularly
valuable...and especially the set up like the way we’re set up, where the guys are there. A
particularly valuable way to live, and has something really special to give to young women.

RF: Definitely. Well thank you so much, Lynne.

LT: Thank you for having me! I really appreciate it, this has been terrific. Thank you so much.

54:28