Then the '60s arrived.
Young men returning to college after serving in World War II had chafed at the university's in loco parentis role. Establishment-questioning students of the '60s cast it aside entirely.
"When society changed and the university was no longer acting like the parent responsible for the student, student life changed and honorary organizations just kind of passed out of the picture as being irrelevant," said Hardie. Fraternity membership declined, and some houses closed. Homecoming and the Pajamarino rallies were considered trivial. House mothers were out, and coed dorms were in.
There were other forces at work, too, making Sword and Sandals not only irrelevant to some, but irresponsible, or worse.
The Civil Rights movement made it clear that exclusion of women was unacceptable, and federal and state statutes made discriminatory activities illegal in a widening array of activities. Meeting space on campus became difficult to obtain once the order was no longer a student organization--and it couldn't be a student organization without admitting women.
An "old boys club" was no longer an acceptable way of doing business--not only because of the exclusion of women but also because of the growing awareness that it was inappropriate for public matters to be decided out of the public's view. Secrecy was suspect and mystical trappings were considered silly.
In December 1966, Sword and Sandals disbanded the student organization, remaining an alumni and faculty group only. A tongue-in-cheek obituary written at the time by Hardie with the help of faculty member Edwin Voorhies (now deceased) noted that "a secret organization, which is part of the university and which discriminates on the basis of sex--no matter what its purpose--is unacceptable to the vast majority of today's students." It also blamed the order's death on "the needs and demands inherent in the Free Speech Movement" and on the exposure of the order's existence by the student newspaper.
Indeed, though the group had become less secret over the years--not so much hiding as simply not publicizing itself--it was prone to being periodically "discovered" by the Aggie and revealed in blistering "exposes." The group had long since lost whatever power it might have had to affect administrative decisions, but the Aggie suspected the group had an inappropriate influence over campus policy. A 1969 story and editorial complained, "Secret organizations to discuss campus policy are inimical to the purpose of the university.... There is no place on our campus for an organization such as Sword and Sandals."
The group had lost the students' interest in the '60s and '70s and by the '80s the interest of many in the campus administration. Then-Chancellor Jim Meyer said he could no longer support the group unless women were admitted, and on these same grounds his executive vice chancellor, Larry Vanderhoef, refused to join.
Sword and Sandals responded to the criticism, but slowly. Berkeley's Order of the Golden Bear had been admitting women since 1972 (prodded by Title IX and student demonstrations over civil rights issues), but Sword and Sandals members were reluctant to change their ways. The cabin with its primitive bathroom facilities and single sleeping room wouldn't accommodate women, they argued.
"It was an intolerable thought to many of the older alumni that you could invite women to this sacrosanct place," says Don McNary, longtime member of UC Davis' development office who is now retired. McNary joined Sword and Sandals as an associate member at the end of the '60s; when he was a student at UC Berkeley in the '40s, he was head of the Order of the Golden Bear. When a half-dozen women were finally voted into Sword and Sandals in 1989, some of the men dropped out.
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Without the student component, the group was drifting away from the campus and its mission of university betterment. Its diminished purpose was felt more and more acutely as each annual spring initiation went by. In 1989 the order decided to reestablish the student group.
"A number of us got concerned that it was more or less becoming a 'good ol' boys club,' strictly social," said Ball, "and we wanted to return to campus issues." Students J.B. Hay '91, whose father was a member, Victor Duraj '91 and Steve Johns '91, J.D. '95, worked with J.B.'s father, Tim '61, Bob Ball, John Hardie and Robert Pearl '47 to rewrite the bylaws and constitution to once again put the emphasis on the student component. Nine student members were initiated in fall 1990 and another nine in spring 1991. "We found that there are quite a lot of students who are very interested in talking about what is going on on campus and meeting people who really care about the university," says Johns, former ASUCD president and now deputy city attorney for Folsom.
But the group's troubles weren't over. The order was branded with the charge of secrecy again when the Aggie rediscovered the group in 1993.
"Campus Elite in Secret Society" read the banner headline in an edition of the Aggie titled "Special Report." The Davis Enterprise followed up with similar stories: "Some Worry Group May Influence Events" and "Sword & Sandals: Silly or Subversive?" The group was charged with being an elite inner ruling faction and of wielding undue influence in student government elections and campus policy.
In response, the Executive Council of the Academic Senate, the faculty governing body, passed a resolution stating that administrators and Academic Senate officers should not be members of a "self-selecting, exclusionary or secret society" that discussed campus issues. The Aggie reported that then-acting Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, who had joined the organization after women were admitted, had told the order he would resign unless changes were made to dispel the community's concerns.
This time, Sword and Sandals members felt the attack was unwarranted. Given that the group never took any action, reached no decisions--and was, indeed, struggling to rebuild--members found ridiculous the charge that it had power over campus decisions. The order was surprised that it was still considered a secret organization.
"By that time the veil of secrecy had been lifted years ago," said McNary.
But Sword and Sandals responded anyway, making its membership list available to the public and running an ad in the Aggie openly recruiting members.
