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Women at Hope College in the 1930's and 1940's

The Great Depression and Hope Students

We originally hypothesized Hope students wouldn’t feel the weight of the Great Depression as students with enough money to attend a private college. In the beginning of our research, we had no reason to think differently. Looking at enrollment numbers, we found a small dip in enrollment, but otherwise, the Anchor didn’t mention the Stock Market Crash, sorority invitations did not reflect any cost cutting measures, the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., the campus’ primary volunteer groups, focused primarily on foreign volunteer work, and we even found an Anchor article that discussed the Sibylline sorority’s throwing of a “Depression Party” that made light of the economic situation throughout the country. It wasn’t until I took a deeper look at the Campus Gossip section and the Campus Editorials with student opinions that I found interest in the impact of the national crisis. More subtle mentions of the Depression, complaints from students in the Anchor about their lack of money, the petition for the blanket fee, the Sorosis Minutes, engagement with and interest in Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs hinted at the Depression’s impact on Hope students.

It is important to note that much of the social and personal accounts of how the Great Depression impacted students come from the Anchor. The Anchor provides incredible student opinions that give a window into the everyday lives of students. However, relying solely on Anchor articles to understand students’ individual experiences does not give a completely accurate representation, as only students who wrote into the Anchor or the Anchor editors had the ability to share their opinions. How students actually talked about the Depression in personal settings remains relatively unknown. Fortunately, I had access to some personal scrapbooks and sorority minutes that allowed me to get a small glimpse into unofficial opinions and impacts of the event.

Following the general timeline of the Great Depression and looking at how students in the Anchor spoke about the Great Depression, we can see some general trends that reflect when the worst years of the Depression occurred. First, the initial crash of the stock market sparked little conversation, at least within the Anchor. As our professor, Dr. Janes, reminded us, students might not have been impacted right away by a stock market crash, as they most likely did not participate in the stock market. They would only feel the lasting effects later as the U.S. spiraled into mass unemployment, inflation, and shortages.

The first indirect mention of the financial crisis in the Anchor occurred in its initial call for a blanket fee that students would pay at the beginning of the year and cover all college activities. The blanket fee dominated the editorial of the Anchor from April 16, 1930 to April 29, 1931 when the student petitioned action passed through the Board of Trustees [1]. The blanket fee also appears in the Sorosis minutes. On May 30, 1930, the minutes state that at the meeting, many of the members signed the petition for the blanket fee, showing their support [2]. This is the first time any student records mention any economic conditions. Although it is not direct, students obviously took notice of the financial conditions of the time and felt their impact in their own world at Hope College.

The first direct mention of the economic conditions throughout the country in the Anchor appeared in the January 14, 1931 issue. However, this didn’t display the impact on students at Hope. Instead, the writer documents plans for students to attend the state Y.M.C.A.'s Student Conference on Unemployment to learn more about unemployment throughout the state. The article explained that the students would visit unemployment centers and unemployment relief agencies [3]. This led us to believe that Hope students themselves did not deal with financial issues early in the Depression. They learned about the issues around the country as if they impacted others, not them.

At this point, any mention of financial conditions appeared to be indirect or made lightly. For example, the Anchor wrote on March 18, 1931 a call for class dues, basing their argument on the necessity of student loyalty to school activities and to their Alma Mater [4]. On April 22 of the same year, the Anchor wrote that they would not have the ability to continue publishing newspapers because of lack of funds without mentioning the country-wide Depression to which these issues belonged [5]. These financial needs may have stemmed from the dwindling economy but the Anchor discusses them as isolated issues at this time.

Hope students also spoke flippantly of the Depression, leading us to believe that students were aware of the country’s condition and may have felt its effects but spoke about overarching circumstances without a deeply personal or emotional connection. The “Campus Gossip” column mentions the unemployment crisis in a joking manner on January 28, 1931 [6]. You can view this column here.

While the Anchor makes a rather indirect reference, its nod to the unemployment crisis displays the background knowledge Hope students had of the issue that would allow them to understand the joke. The Anchor also includes a description of the Sibylline Sorority’s "Depression Party" on September 30, 1931. Events within this evening included skits that made fun of specific low income positions, games, and dinner [7]. We have attached the full article here.

Again, these specific Hope students display that they understood the state of the country, but did not have a personal connection to the struggle. However, many Hope students could have had difficulty during this time, but public social events and the Anchor seemed to ignore Hope’s struggle until it completely impacted students campus wide. Financially struggling students or those who directly recognized the impact of the Great Depression may have been excluded from public display. There could have been a level of shame for those impacted more directly from the unemployment crisis as well, causing many to avoid addressing the Depression’s impact on the Hope College student body as a whole.

We did find evidence that students did struggle at this time based on Margaret Kole’s scrapbook and recognized the financial difficulties as products of the Depression, despite the Anchor and Sibylline event only making indirect references of the crisis or making fun of the struggle others experienced. Margaret Kole’s scrapbook included letters from the Dean of Women, Winifred Durfee, and Edward Dimnent that led us to believe that the students at Hope felt even the most immediate effects of the Great Depression. Writing to Kole after her Freshman year at Hope, Durfee asks Kole who she will room with in the following year, as the woman with whom she had originally planned to live would not be living on campus in order to work. One woman who Durfee suggested as a potential roommate had worked for two years after high school prior to enrolling at Hope, making her a few years older than others in her class. She closed the letter assuring Margaret that she was “very glad that you decided to continue and I feel that you will never regret it” [8]. This hints that young people at the time may have juggled the desire to work and to attend college.

Edward Dimnent’s letter to Kole in August of 1932 reflected similar notions but more directly addressed the enrollment drop in the beginning years of the Depression. He very clearly discussed the current financial issues throughout the country and asked Kole to write to him if she considered leaving the college or “change your whole scheme of things”, even though she would be entering her senior year of college. He also asked Kole to recommend Hope to her friends who had recently graduated from high school, noting the importance of college despite financial difficulties [9].

This report of the college’s state as well as the Depression’s impact on students. In A Century of Hope, Wichers argues that Hope did not lose many students during the Great Depression; however, based on Maria’s enrollment research, Hope lost 67 students from 1928 to 1929 dropping from 501 in 1928 to 434 in 1929. At the lowest point in this lull in enrollment in 1931, Hope had 420 students enrolled [10]. To Wichers, who presided as president at Hope during both the Great Depression and World War Two, may have felt that this was only a small dip compared to the loss of almost all men at Hope during the war; however, at the time, it is likely that even this enrollment drop during the Depression seemed massive to the college.

By April 20, 1932, the Anchor more seriously named and discussed the Great Depression, as it began to affect the entire student body. In the article “Depression Blues”, the Anchor quotes a letter from a man to a New York banking house. The man writing the letter explained that he could not pay the bank collateral and explained his present situation and frustration with the lack of money he had compared to all of the taxes and fees the government required him to pay. He expressed desperation in his situation [11]. This article contrasts the tone of previous articles that referenced the Depression. They quote the letter as if to appeal to the trials that other students and people in the Hope community felt during the time, rather than making light of the situation or talking about financial issues without connection to the greater problem across the country. This article has a sober, understanding tone. By quoting the letter, the Anchor writer reflects the student body’s more direct and personal understanding of his desperation.

We found the most direct and obvious explanation of the difficulty students felt as a result of the Great Depression in the Anchor to be “Men Wanted”. Written for the March 8, 1933 issue of the Anchor, “Men Wanted” addresses men specifically but appeals to all citizens as if a battlecry. The author explains instead of brawn, the American people needed a warlike mindset that would allow them to rally together to beat their foe: The Great Depression [12].

This warlike approach to the Depression in a student newspaper demonstrates the impact the Depression had on students. No longer did students make fun of those suffering from the Depression or talk about financial struggles as a foreign trial impacting people of a different class. “Men Wanted” addresses the Great Depression as a countrywide issue that required the need of an army of “healthy, red-blooded, Christian, fair, honest men, who will fight the situation shoulder to shoulder” [13].

Even popular social groups such as sororities felt the effects of the Depression. While we do not have record of all of the sororities’ detailed written minutes, the Sorosis sorority documented in their 1931 Alumni Newsletter and their 1933 meeting minutes the little struggle of their members to meet due requirements. In the 1931 Alumni Newsletter they called for members to send in their dues and explained that all “Sorosis Alumnae Association money is tied up in the People’s State Bank” [14]. In their 1933 Meeting Minutes, dues again became a problem as the sorority treasury struggled to maintain funds. In the September 29 minutes, the secretary documented the Treasurer's report of only 8 dollars in the treasury and in the October 6 minutes, only two dollars in the treasury. By November 10, the president of the sorority threatened a “No mon, no fun” rule that forced members to pay their dues or the sorority would not host any parties [15]. This reflects the financial strain felt even by those in the most popular of social groups.

Many individual students had different experiences while living within this national crisis. One student, Ethel Swets played organ for local churches during her time at Hope from 1930. However, because of the lack of circulating paper money and the banking crisis, the churches she played for paid her in money that resembled monopoly money, representing “I owe you’s”. She did not include in her scrapbook if the churches ever made true to their promise, but she did include one of the dollars they gave her [16].

As the Great Depression impacted students more personally, they became more inspired to explore their ability to understand and aid the situation. One way to engage became politically. Students became very interested and invested in the politics in Washington after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in November of 1932. All debate about the new president and his policies revolved around his New Deal programs. Most discussion centered on his hands-on approach that featured intense government involvement in the country’s economic recovery.

However, Wicher’s notes that the New Deal Programs that students so passionately debated helped save the college and students impacted by financial difficulty. He explains that the Federal Emergency Relief Act allowed the college to employ students on multiple campus projects in return for tuition, room, and board. We can see evidence of this occurrence and help from the government in the Anchor. In the February 21, 1934 issue of the Anchor, the main headline reads, “Hope Students Receive Federal Aid”. The authors proceed to detail the number of students Hope employed thanks to the aid, the requirements for workers, and the wages for student workers [17]. On March 7, 1934, the Anchor noted that the Federal Emergency Relief plan allowed Hope to pay student workers an additional 15 dollars per month [18]. Despite the college community’s critical debate of New Deal programs, the college relied heavily on funds from those programs in order to keep students enrolled and keep the college’s doors open.

As the 1930’s progressed, more and more Anchor articles communicated a more positive outlook on the Depression. On February 19, 1936, the Anchor reported a large reduction in debt in their paper from $1900 to only $600 [19]. On October 27, 1936, “Statistics Reveal Profit of $102,000 For College Graduate -- 63% Per Year” from the Anchor wrote that college graduates profited much higher than those who only finished high school [20]. While Students continued to debate about New Deal Programs and struggled to make financial ends meet, we can see a slight improvement as the rhetoric of how students wrote about money had changed in some articles. Students wrote more positively about money and displayed a level of hope in their financial situation.

We must acknowledge that these events and campus responses to the Depression did occur linearly, but rather at times all at once. As these trends occurred, they overlapped with one another, roughly creating a timeline of the Great Depression at Hope College in the eyes of the students. While we only have pieces of students’ experiences, we can see that our hypothesis did not hold up. Hope College students were not immune to the effects of the Great Depression. They felt the impact of the financial crisis and had a range of responses throughout the decade of the 1930’s.

References:

[1] "Unity", Hope College Anchor, 16 April, 1930., "Blanket Fee Goes Through", Hope College Anchor, 29 April, 1931.
[2] Minutes, 2 May 1930, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI, 179.
[3] "Students Confer on Unemployment, Hope College Anchor, 14 January, 1931.
[4] "Obligations", Hope College Anchor, 18 March, 1931.
[5] "The Anchor Slips", Hope College Anchor, 22 April 1931.
[6] "Campus Gossip", Hope College Anchor, 28 January, 1931.
[7] "Sibyllines and Guests Prosper on Depression", Hope College Anchor, 30 September, 1931.
[8] Letter from Winifred Durfee to Margaret J. Kole in Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[9] Letter from Edward Dimnent to Margaret J. Kole in Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[10] Wynand Wichers, A Century of Hope (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), 204.
[11] "Depression Blues", Hope College Anchor, 20 April, 1932.
[12] "Men Wanted", Hope College Anchor, 8 March, 1933.
[13] "Men Wanted", Hope College Anchor, 8 March, 1933.
[14] Alumni Newsletter, 1931, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI.
[15] Minutes, 29 September, 1933, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413)., 10 November, 1933, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413).
[16] Scrapbook, 1929-1936, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[17] "Hope Students Receive Federal Aid", Hope College Anchor, 21 February, 1934.
[18] "Emergency Relief Fund Distributed", Hope College Anchor, 17 March, 1934.
[19] “Huge Slice Made in Anchor Debt”, Hope College Anchor, 19 February, 1936.
[20] "Statistics Reveal Profit of $102,000 For College Graduate -- 63% Per Year", Hope College Anchor, 27 October 1936.

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Social Treatment of Women at Hope in the 1930's
As women began to attend Hope in increasing numbers in the early 20th century, they entered into a culture that expected them to behave, interact with others, and participate in society in very specific ways. Historian Mary C. McComb studies the way that the middle class in the United States reacted and coped with the Depression. She analyzes college students during the 1930's period in her book Great Depression and the Middle Class, as most young people able to afford higher education belonged to the upper or middle class. In the context of the Great Depression, McComb addresses the way students’ view of the Depression impacted the way they interacted with one another. She also specifically analyzes the roles and treatment of female students at colleges and universities [1]. At Hope, the experiences of women in the 1930’s, based on editorials in the Anchor, reflected the national trends of how society expected women to behave in the middle class Depression culture that McComb discusses.
McComb first addresses the culture of the 1930s' impact on college students' approach to and goals in college. As the economy became the central focus in all of American culture, students became well versed in economic terms. This terminology shaped their view of themselves and others around them to fit an economic context. McComb argues that when goods became scarce, middle class students began to think of themselves, their social standing, and the way their peers perceived them as their personal commodity to sell. In this culture, social society expected women specifically to sell themselves as marriage prospects for their male peers [2]. This may be another reason for the popularity of college events and social societies at Hope during the 1930’s. Students marketed themselves as social assets.
This kind of self marketing culture created specific common goals among men and women in getting a higher education. For women, McComb argues that women fell into two categories with different goals. Some women enrolled in college in order to enjoy the social experience and find a husband. Another group of women instead enrolled to prepare for careers as teachers, social workers, nurses or other “female” positions [3]. Each path had specific consequences for women within the financially focused culture.
While McCombs' analyzes of trends throughout the greater U.S. is helpful, women living during this time period had their own individual experiences. Historical analysis and generalizations are helpful in understanding a time period in a broad context and the overarching behaviors of groups of people; however, actual individuals experienced the time period in completely independent ways. They may have experienced some form of the theories McComb suggests such as self marketing, having the idea of marriage after college, or focusing on their education in their minds, but they as humans held more of a complexity that can not be placed easily into theories or generalizations. Looking at Hope women with these theories in mind, we can see similarities; however, we cannot place these women into definite categories or assume their complete experiences based on certain contextual trends found by scholars such as McComb.
Many women at Hope expressed interest in the social aspects of college and in marriage. Ethel Leestma Swets (1929-1933) saved many of her invitations and acceptances from men to her sorority, Sibylline events, wedding invitations, and a newspaper article titled, “How to be Happy Though Married, Which Was Worked Out By Married Couple Who Proved its Worth" [4]. First, the inclusion of invitations to weddings and coed events in her scrapbook indicate these events as important to her. Secondly, the article includes an alphabetical list of advice from a couple on how to make marriage fruitful [5]. Margaret J. Kole (1929-1933) also saved her invitations and acceptance letters to social coed events [6]. Women at Hope during the 1930's focused heavily on social prospects and cared deeply about the marriages developing around them. Marriage may or may not have been their end goal in college, as McComb suggests, but we have found evidence that they at least valued the importance of marriage in their own lives and in the lives of those around them highly.
Maria’s research on women in what we now call STEM also indicates that Hope women challenged gender roles leading to similar issues stemming from the expectations of men that McComb discusses. According to Maria’s research, a number of women majored in STEM fields and eventually became missionaries. As Maria hypothesizes, this may allude to women who did not want to get married but rather wanted to focus more on their education. McComb argues that men found women who focused on their own education threatening. While majoring in STEM does not directly indicate commitment to education more than any other major, men typically accounted for a large portion of the population of STEM classes during this time. Women entering into STEM majors may represent a body of women willing to go against their present day culture or society’s expectations to pursue an education they wanted. McComb argues that men at many universities felt threatened by academically driven women who chose to go against traditional gender norms. In addition to having more women than ever before in their classes next to them, any woman who spoke up, held leadership positions, sought employment on campus, etc., posed a new threat to their status as the superior sex. This may have caused problems when the Emergency Relief provided Hope the ability to employ students during the Depression. McComb writes that these women, and most likely the women at Hope who fought to hold their own authority, experienced anti-feminist sentiments and belittling from their male peers [7].
This problem rang true through the halls of Hope College as much as any other college or university at the time. The Anchor throughout the 1930’s included multiple editorials that alluded to how men saw, treated, and received women interested in their own education. First, we must look at what men desired in a woman and how they expected women to act. On May 14, 1930, one humor poem in the Anchor titled “Modesty” explained how a woman should act. The poem explained behavior in efforts to be modest, including that she always spoke of her condition or actions such as feeling “ill”, waking up, or going to sleep in pleasant and polite terms. The author explained that a “modest maid” never spoke out of tongue or too abruptly about how she felt or what she did [8]. Published in the college paper, this poem sends a message to women, teaching them how they should behave, whether in humor or not.
Another example of how society, and more specifically men, thought women should behave lies in an Anchor article from October 6, 1937 titled, “Reporter Phones Fraternities for Description of Ideal Girl”. This article included interviews with the Knickerbocker, Addison, Fraternal, and Cosmopolitan fraternities. Knickerbockers first described their ideal woman’s physical features and when asked about her personality, they answered that she shouldn’t be sophisticated, just sweet. She should also be athletic and enjoy going out. Addisons described their perfect woman as “athletic, yet sophisticated. She knows what she wants and how to get it.” Fraternal members called for women with sympathy but with definite ideas as to what to do. Lastly, the Cosmopolitans thought that an athletic, sophisticated woman who was brilliant, witty, and enjoyed having fun would be the ideal girl [9]. All of these men who participated in the survey seemed to value a woman who enjoyed having fun. However, many of the men also said they wanted a sophisticated woman who was decisive and smart.

However, one editorial by a woman explaining men’s lack of respect for women who took on leadership roles and feeling of superiority to women and the subsequent response from another male student reveal that men's desire for sophistication and intelligence had limits. In the editorial by the female student titled, “She Whoops to Conquer” from April 23, 1930, an anonymous woman explained that male Hope students didn’t give credit to their female counterparts for intelligence and made excuses for a team’s success when lead by a woman, arguing that any success “just happened”. She called women to refuse to take condescending orders. We have attached the full article here [10].
In response, one man completely disagreed with the woman’s claims and called for men to demand superiority over women in the April 30, 1930 issue of the Anchor. In his article, “MEN! She Whooped To Conquer! Let’s Roar to Victory!,” he called the woman’s editorial ‘virulent and seditious’ and alluded to his belief that women had declared war on the men of Hope. We have included the editorial in response here. [11]
We must acknowledge that these editorial articles came from only one woman and one man at Hope. We cannot assume all women felt the same as the woman who wrote, “She Whoops to Conquer” and we cannot assume all men at Hope felt the same as the writer of “MEN! She Whooped To Conquer! Let’s Roar to Victory!” in response. However, we can recognize the validity of this woman’s experience and we can analyze this man’s response. To our 21st century perspective, the man’s response verifies the complaints of the woman. Aligning with what McComb argues, this man obviously felt threatened by this woman’s complaint. Speaking out and demanding respect resulted in an aggressive response [12].
Lastly, Metta J. Ross, a faculty member who began teaching Freshman English in 1926 and retired in 1960, explained in an oral history interview that the way women behaved in class changed drastically throughout the years that she taught. She described women as “meek little girls” and hypothesized that about 70% of Hope women married men they met at Hope. In contrast, after World War II and other wars that occurred during her employment, she noticed a change. She stated, “The girls’ attitude toward their men friends changed, not because of me but because of the changes in life, these men coming back from wars mutilated and nerve sick. You people missed all that of course. They began to assert themselves more, to realize that after all they were people and maybe they did have something worthwhile to say, and they said it. And they said it very well" [13]. Ross’ recollection of how women acted before and after having greater independence while men were absent from their classroom experiences allows us to see the impact of World War II and what women’s experiences in the classroom entailed from an outside perspective.
Women faced a complex and difficult task while attending Hope during the 1930's. Society challenged them to market themselves socially but also didn’t allow them to succeed in certain areas such as intellectual endeavors. Certain societal expectations and the expectations of male students limited their individuality. However, these women operated with a force within this society. They supported their friends in their marriages, sought to make meaningful social connections through social events and marriage prospects in order to succeed, and challenged norms by majoring in male dominated academic fields and speaking up for themselves. They gained confidence over time and began to demand respect.

References

[1] Mary C. McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class: Experts, Collegiate Youth and Business Ideology, 1929-1941 (New York, New York: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2006).
[2] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 6-13.
[3] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 14-17.
[4] Scrapbook, 1929-1936, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[5] Scrapbook, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988).
[6] Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI., Scrapbook, 1935-1943, Meengs, Florence. Papers, 1935-1943 (H15-1901), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[7] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 33-37.
[8] "Modesty", Hope College Anchor, May 14, 1930.
[9] "Reporter Phones Fraternities for Description of Ideal Girl", Hope College Anchor, October 6, 1937.
[10] "She Whoops to Conquer", Hope College Anchor, April 23, 1930.
[11] "MEN! She Whooped To Conquer! Let's Roar to Victory!", Hope College Anchor, April 30, 1930.
[12] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 33-37.
[13] Dick and Phyllis Huff, “Metta Ross Oral Interview,” March 15, 2002,
H88-0131, Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI, 15-16.
Sororities As Community

In the midst of the Great Depression Hope literary societies blossomed in membership. While the people of the Hope community struggled to make ends meet, women flocked to sororities, even if they had to pay fees in order to become members and maintain their membership. This seems counterintuitive. Why were women so eager to join these organizations, even if they had to pay to be in them? Why were social groups so important with such important hardships facing individuals around the country? The growth of and reliance upon Greek life as a social lifeline reveal a desire for social belonging during the Great Depression. Secondary research would argue that this desire for community became a trend throughout the country.
As stated previously in the more general information about sororities in the 1930’s, the Anchor and letters sent to future Hope students indicate a large jump in membership in sororities during the 1930’s. In the Anchor on January 1, 1930, students write that sorority members account for 32.1% of women at Hope while in a 1938 letter from the Student Council to incoming freshman, Eleanor Dalman Vanderhill, the organization states that 75-80% of women at Hope belonged to sororities in the 1937-1938 school year [1]. However, in the years between 1930-1940, many societies had to make changes in order to limit spending within their social groups. In his book A Century of Hope, Dr. Wynant Wichers explains that in 1932, all literary societies decided not to hold their annual spring banquets [2]. Additionally, in a Sorosis Alumni Newsletter from 1931, members ask alumni to send in their dues, as the People’s State Bank froze the money in their account [3]. We might expect the trials of the Great Depression to cause women to fall away from groups that call for extraneous spending or for societies to disband in response to the limitations and financial struggles in their organization. However, as we see above, this is not the case. Even with changes and adapting to the difficulties of the time, sororities continued to meet regularly and hold programs and parties for their members, as we can see in the invitations and programs from the scrapbook of Margaret Kole (Alethea), Marian Ruth Stegenga Groenevelt (Alethea), Ethel Leestma Swets (Sibylline), the Dorian Society Scrapbook, and the Sorosis Meeting Minutes [4].
This reveals a desire to find community and belonging within the Great Depression for many individuals. Stephen L. Recken in his article "Fitting in: The Redefinition of Success in the 1930’s" explains the change in people’s idea of happiness within the years of the Great Depression based on the content of 1930’s self-help books. Where the American people of the 19th century believed in self-reliance, independence, and ambition to succeed as a key to happiness, 1930’s Americans emphasized friendship and finding one’s place in American social life as more fulfilling. Recken argues that in 1930’s American culture, individuals sought community and companionship, caring less for materialistic goods and wealth that seemed unattainable in such an economic circumstance [5]. Perhaps Reckon’s theory applied to the Hope College campus community. In the midst of the Great Depression, Greek life and social organizations became essential to individual happiness. Holding a place in a specific community, whether that be merely as a student at Hope or as a member of a literary society, gave students a new level of purpose during a time of financial struggle.
This phenomenon is also evident in the call for a blanket fee in the early 1930’s that would allow all students complete access to all Hope college events and publications. The blanket fee first appeared in the Anchor on April 16, 1930. The Anchor article calls for student support of the blanket fee proposal in order to establish campus unity. A Student Opinion on the matter in the Anchor on April 23, 1930 reiterates the Anchor’s previous argument stating that Hope should be united in all school activities. In the Sorosis minutes on May 2, 1930, the secretary states that many of the members signed the petition, showing group support for the idea. Finally, on April 29, 1931, the Board of Trustees passing of the $10.00 blanket fee in their spring session read as the main headline of the Anchor [6].
First, the students’ push for a larger blanket fee that would give them full access to all Hope events displays a desire to participate in the Hope community consistently. When paging through the scrapbooks of women at Hope during the 1930’s, and more specifically Margaret Kole, I noticed that she saved every program from every event they attended. Kole attended all Hope events, from glee club concerts to sporting events to the pull [7]. This commitment to Hope events explained why students believed so readily in the blanket fee. As they attended each event across campus, they found meaning in each event as a social function that solidified their role in the Hope community.
Secondly, students’ rhetoric in the Anchor demonstrates the desire for community and belonging to a greater body as essential to thriving during their time at Hope and within the greater decade of the 1930’s. As the Anchor described their push for the blanket fee as a commitment to Hope unity, the student writers established a community focused culture embodied the 1930’s ideals to produce happy and thriving individuals in a collective body.

References:

[1] "Societies Not Cause", Hope College Anchor, 1 January, 1930., Letter from Student Council to Eleanor Dalman Vanderhill, 1938, Vanderhill, Eleanor Dalman. Papers, 1926, 1938-1942, Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[2] Wynand Wichers, A Century of Hope (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), 204.
[3] Alumni Newsletter, 1931, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI.
[4] Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI., Scrapbook, 1934-1938, Stegenga Groenevelt, Marian Ruth (1917-1996). Papers, 1934-1938, 1996 (H12-1818), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI. Scapbook, 1929-1936, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI., Scrapbook, 1935-1948, Dorian Sorority (Kappa Beta Phi). Records, 1922-2008 (H09-1695), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland MI., Minutes, 1925-1930, 1932-1935, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI.
[5] Stephen L. Recken, "Fitting in: the Redefinition of Success in the 1930’s," Journal of Popular Culture 27, no. 3 (Winter 1993): 205-206, accessed June 4, 2021, https://doi-org.ezproxy.hope.edu/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1993.00205.x.
[6] "Unity", Hope College Anchor, 16 April, 1930., "Student Opinion", Hope College Anchor, 23 April, 1930., Minutes, 2 May 1930, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI., "Blanket Fee Goes Through", Hope College Anchor, 29 April, 1931.
[7] Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250).

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