MORAVIAN COLLEGE High teas return for female students

The teas are for women only and by invitation only.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) -- Young women attending Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies once had afternoon high tea as a regular ritual.
Four decades after the genteel tradition was abandoned, a group of professors and staff at now coeducational Moravian College have decided to revive the practice.
There have been a few changes. Hats and gloves have gone the way of fins on automobiles, and e-mail rather than handwritten letters will do fine for an RSVP. Sandwiches won't be hand-served, and most women don't even wear skirts.
Timeless atmosphere
But at a recent tea on the Bethlehem campus demonstrated, the quiet murmur of conversation and the clinking of cups and saucers are timeless.
"When they used to hold teas, the faculty was teaching the young ladies how to behave," said Carol Traupman-Carr, associate dean for academic affairs and a member of Moravian Academic Women, a faculty and staff group sponsoring the teas.
Although students no longer come to a finishing school, many will have to attend receptions and other functions in the business world, Traupman-Carr said.
"They need to know how to act. This is a user-friendly way to teach them," she said.
Regular feature
Afternoon tea was a regular feature of college life before Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies and the all-male Moravian College and Theological Seminary merged in 1954.
The college YWCA chapter held weekly teas, including one in 1940 attended by Otto von Habsburg, the eldest son of Charles I, the last emperor of Austria and the last king of Hungary.
"It was a good experience," said Betty Hummel, 85, of Allentown, who graduated in 1939. "It's one of the niceties we don't have anymore. Now people just grab a pizza box and eat out of that."
Women only
And some things never change. The 21st century teas are for women only and by invitation only, just as it was in the first half of the last century. Professors pick which female students receive invitations.
Some men on campus have complained, saying they feel excluded, Traupman-Carr said.
"But they didn't really want to come to tea, they just wanted something for them too," she said, adding college officials are working on finding a similar activity for male students.