The Classes

IN JANUARY, STILL CONTESTING THE ELECTION It was Scut Week 1961, and these women from the class of ’64 had been given an important political mission, according to the legend on the back of this photo from the Pembroke College archives: Defend whichever presidential candidate they'd been assigned from the hotly contested 1960 general election. (Democratic U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy had narrowly defeated incumbent vice president Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, to become the first Roman Catholic president; segregationists had also called for unpledged electors to vote for Southern Democrat Harry Byrd, and even though he was not on the ballot, he ended up with 15 electoral college votes—carrying Alabama and Mississippi, plus winning one vote from a faithless Oklahoma elector.) Scut Week was a women’s tradition instituted in 1938, according to the Encyclopedia Brunoniana, each year with a different theme, but always ‟assigned to make the freshmen look ridiculous.”—Pippa Jack
PHOTO: BROWN ARCHIVES
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