Wofford College - From The Archives

The Board Votes and the Women Arrive

Decisions often come only after years of thought, experimentation, persuasion, and struggle. Approval by the Board of Trustees of full residential coeducation on October 17, 1975 represented the culmination of several years of work, but it also represented a new beginning for the college and new opportunities for its students.  

Women had been part of the Wofford community ever since Maria Wofford’s husband made his bequest to found the institution, and a handful of women had enrolled and received degrees. Pressure began to build in the late 1960s for coeducation, and the board and administration responded with the experiment of day student coeducation. Women succeeded at Wofford, but as day students, they felt like second-class citizens. Last week’s story highlighted some of the disparities that the women students themselves found annoying.

When the trustees revisited the college’s admissions policy in 1975, they had a number of options to consider, and their decision was complicated by changes in federal law and by evolving student attitudes. The task force considering the change realized that fewer male students wanted to attend an all-male institution. Many other formerly all-male colleges in the Southeast and on the east coast had become coeducational or were thinking about it. By excluding half of the population and then having to select from a decreasing pool of men who were interested in single-gender education, Wofford would find itself having to compete very hard for a small number of qualified students. Administrators feared that the quality of the student body would suffer.  

Continuing to limit women to enrolling as day students was not an option. The 1972 Civil Rights Act, better known as Title IX, required non-discrimination in treatment of students. While the college could decide not to admit women at all, once admitted, the college had to offer students the same opportunities, including housing, without regard to gender. The only question then was to revert to being all-male or to move to residential coeducation, and if full residential coeducation was the option, how to implement it. President Joe Lesesne told the Old Gold and Black that “the board agreed that Wofford could not remain a high quality liberal arts college for men only…. The quality program that we have here would be maintained and strengthened by going fully co-ed.”

Administrators and trustees looked at coeducation as an opportunity to improve the quality of the student body, and selected a path toward full residential coeducation The decision to admit women was made on the basis of improving the college and the quality of the student body. The first group of women students recruited had stronger credentials than many of the men with whom they were admitted. The Old Gold and Black, recognizing the significance of the Board’s decision, began its article “October 17, 1975 may well one day be remembered as the ‘second founding’ of Wofford College.  

The college converted the top floor of Wightman Hall (since demolished) into facilities for women students and made rooms available for women as of the fall semester of 1976. Administrators planned to postpone recruiting women in larger numbers until the fall of 1977, when more rooms in Wightman or in another residence hall. Most students told the Old Gold and Black in the fall of 1976 that they thought coeducation was going well. Dean of Students Mike Preston told another newspaper reporter that some of the greatest opposition to coeducation came from fraternities, who thought increasing numbers of women would diminish the numbers of me who could join their fraternities. The small numbers of women left many of them feeling isolated, and many subtle and not-so-subtle snubs came their way.  Some men felt sad and angry that a tradition had been changed, and others admitted that the women were smarter than them. “There are some very sharp girls on campus, and I lose out a lot when I match wits with them,” one senior said. Male students paid attention to women dressed, the way they answered questions in class, the way they behaved at parties, according to one early woman. “You are constantly on display,” explained Joyce Payne. Women tried to participate in as many activities as they could, from serving as athletic trainers to shooting pool with their male classmates. “We had a need to say, ‘we’re here and we’re going to participate,’” said Payne.

Images: Headline from the Herald-Journal; Sally Nan Barber and Kathy Thomas, from the 1977 Bohemian; Members of Zeta Tau Alpha, from the 1977 Bohemian.  Click for larger images. 

Coeducation - the Documents

Throughout the early 1970s, the topic of full residential coeducation remained unsettled.  The trustees had decided that they would not consider residential coeducation until 1975.  However, that did not stop faculty members, alumni, and students (especially the women day students) from talking about it.

The trustees created a task force in May 1975 to study coeducation and make recommendations to the October board meeting.  In the intervening months, the trustee members of the task force and college administrators studied the issue, making trips to other colleges who were at different stages of going coeducational.

In September, the task force issued a report, and today, we'll look at a few pages from the document.  These pages examine some of the legal questions as well as the views of faculty, alumni, and students on full coeducation.

Women arrive on campus

Last time, we talked about the move to admit women as day students. Today, we’ll talk about how day student coeducation worked, and begin the move to full residential coeducation.

Following the board’s October 1970 decision to admit a small number of women as day students, four women enrolled in February 1971. “Hey, there’s a girl in the room” became a common exclamation that February, according to the Herald-Journal. One of the women noted that “at first they stared a lot, but they’re getting used to us now.” Three of the four were daughters of Wofford professors, and a fourth was a Spartanburg student. Donna Green, the daughter of economics professor Harold Green, Shelley Henry and Robin Henry, daughters of English professor Edmund Henry, and Leslie Smith were the first four day students admitted under the revised policy. Their arrival, along with that of about two dozen new or transfer students, was a front page story in the Old Gold and Black, and received attention in the Herald-Journal as well.

Of course, the college provided no facilities for women, and one official noted that the institution was “not going co-ed” despite admitting women! As Dean of Students Donald Welch explained to the Old Gold and Black, the college had made no plans for building a residence hall for women, hiring a dean of women; the plan to admit women had more financial benefits than costs. Still, the spring term allowed for a period of adjustment before a larger number of women enrolled in the fall. Shelley Henry noted that “there’s always someone with a joke about Women’s Lib,” but that “they fight over who’s going to open the door for us. One boy even told me he was going to start taking a bath before coming to class in the morning, but I think things are more relaxed now.” Leslie Smith explained that most professors were getting used to saying “Good morning, gentlemen and lady.”  

Donna Green tried to blend in as much as possible. A junior, she made an effort to wear bell bottom jeans rather than dresses, which she claimed caused a commotion. Green graduated in 1972 with a psychology degree, becoming the first woman to graduate with honors.

The arrival of about 25 women students in the fall of 1971 received scant notice in the pages of the Old Gold and Black. While the reaction to women students was generally positive, some of the literature or newspaper articles cam make a reader today cringe. The State, the Columbia newspaper, ran a photo of President Paul Hardin sitting on the steps of Main Building surrounded by ten women students with the caption “Pleasant Policy: Wofford College President Paul Hardin III, surrounded by a dozen lovely coeds seems to be enjoying the new policy that permits female day students to attend the college.” A similar photo ran in the Herald-Journal. The headline of the Herald-Journal article read “They’re Getting Used to Gals at Wofford” and made sure to provide a physical description of each of the women quoted in the story.  

By 1974, with an increasing number of women enrolled, women had formed an “Association of Wofford Women” to “promote the interest of Wofford women on the campus.” One student, Pam Mason, who was president of the association, spoke of the frustrations she faced as a woman student. “A lot of people think girls go to Wofford are just out to have a good time, out looking for dates,” she said, “but they’re wrong. The female students at Wofford are there to get an education.” The lack of athletic facilities, coupled with a P.E. requirement, was a special frustration. “I take tennis at 9:30 in the morning, have to dress in a bathroom in Shipp Hall, then go on to my classes afterward without a shower.” The association pushed successfully for shower and dressing facilities, but was less successful in pushing for a lounge for women who, without residence hall rooms, had nowhere to go during the day. “It can get very tiresome sitting in the canteen for that long. We don’t think it unreasonable that we be provided a lounge.” The women also were among those who were pressing the administration and the trustees to make a decision on full residential coeducation.

We'll look at the move to that final step next week.

Photos: Donna Green's senior photo, 1972 Bohemian; Clippings from the Old Gold and Black, 1974, expressing goals of the Association of Wofford Women. 

Women as Day Students

Last week, I started a series on the history of Wofford’s move from being traditionally all-male to fully coeducational. Though many people assumed the college had always been all male, history tells a different story, a story of fairly constant enrollment of women in small numbers and in special cases. One letter to the Old Gold and Black in 1967 asked “Is Wofford College a men’s school or not? I thought it was, but there’s a woman in my French class.” The writer went on to ask why the college felt it fair to let this woman in and not others. The editor’s note after the letter explained that the college had a rule that allowed wives of faculty members to take courses.

In the winter of 1969, in President Paul Hardin III’s first year in office, the faculty voted in favor of coeducation. By a vote of 38-4, with nine abstentions, they recommended that the Board of Trustees that the college become a coeducational institution. Some faculty expressed the hope that “such a change would have a beneficial academic effect.” President Hardin told the newspapers that “I personally have formed no opinion one way or another about the matter—I’m still studying all facets of it very carefully.” He acknowledged that with other colleges becoming coeducational that the time was right for Wofford to study the question. He also suggested that if the college became coeducational, that “it would be on a full scale basis” with “provisions for boarding facilities for women, and that all facets of campus life” would be open to them.

The Old Gold and Black, which in 1955 had headlined an editorial with the words “Girls as Dates, not Classmates” had changed its tune with a new generation of students. Their editorial in February 1969, with the faculty debating the issue, was headlined “Our Last Argument for Coed.” The newspaper thought that socially, the argument for coeducation was strong. The writers believed that having women on campus would mean students would be more likely to stay around campus on the weekends. More importantly, the authors felt that coeducation would improve the intellectual life of the campus. “After almost four years at Wofford we see no evidence to show that this college could not benefit by the addition of a few more intelligent people.” They didn’t believe women would come to Wofford to look for the “Mrs.” Degree and in fact, noted that “women have the annoying tendency to compete with males and might stir some of us to actually prepare for a class.” The editorial writers also expressed the hope that coeducation would improve students’ attitudes toward the college and want a bigger voice in the way the college was operated.

The board of trustees, in the spring of 1969, declined to change the existing policy of allowing women only in summer school classes. However, by the fall of 1970, having discussed the issue off and on for nearly two years, the trustees approved the following policy:

Women students, who live in commuting distance, may be encouraged to enroll at Wofford to seek a regular degree.

With that, Wofford took its first step toward full residential coeducation. Resident facilities would not be provided in 1971, but women who wished could enroll in classes as day students and earn degrees in the regular semester. 

The way the college encouraged women to enroll may seem a bit antiquated to our eyes.  A postcard announcing the college's plans to admit women as day students was produced.

Next time: The experience of Wofford’s first women day students, and the college’s move to full coeducation.

Coeducation: Part 1

Last month, I devoted several posts to the story of desegregation at the college. Desegregation was the first in a series of significant changes between 1964 and 1976 that had a lot to do with making Wofford what it is today. The second of these changes was the liberalization of student life and curricular change, and the third was coeducation. We’ll hold off on the changes in student life and the curriculum for now and talk for the next few days about coeducation.

Several weeks ago, I posted an entry and some pictures of Wofford’s first women students, who attended the college between 1897 and 1904. It’s important to remember that nothing in Ben Wofford’s will, nothing in the charter, and nothing but tradition and practice had made Wofford an all-male institution. As the college approached admitting women as full-time regular students in the late 1960s, plenty of precedent existed for enrolling women. After Marie Tarboux and Olive Setzler took their bachelor’s degrees and Carrie Skelton her master’s degree in 1904, women were not enrolled as regular students again for some years. From evidence in President Henry Nelson Snyder’s papers, and from references in the college’s coeducation study, women, particularly teachers, enrolled in summer courses from the beginning of summer school in the 1920s. Between 1930 and 1950, twenty-five women earned Wofford Master of Arts degrees.

Still, most in the community viewed women as regular students at Wofford as something of an oddity. When some of the earliest eight women came to homecoming in 1928 and got in line to march in an alumni procession, they were politely but firmly told that the line was for alumni only and they should remove themselves. Mrs. Puella Littlejohn True, the first woman graduate, just as politely and firmly replied that she was an alumna. After some discussion and rebuttal, according to a later news story, the women were allowed to remain in the line.

Women enrolled as undergraduates during this period as well. Caroline DuPre Wells, the daughter of Dean A. Mason DuPre, graduated in 1934, attending classes that were otherwise all male. Considering her father was the chief disciplinarian on campus, it’s unlikely she had any trouble with disrespectful classmates.  

One woman took a bachelor’s degree in 1948, and in the very large, GI-generation class of 1949, two women took bachelor’s degrees. Mrs. Mary Fulton Terrell of the class of 1949 was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, becoming the first woman to earn membership in the Beta of South Carolina Chapter. According to her citation, she attended the summer session for ten years to earn enough credits to graduate, all while working. Many women who earned degrees in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s did so as summer students, or because they transferred hours from other colleges but completed their degrees at Wofford. Most years in the 1950s saw at least one woman graduate from the college.

The largest group of women on the campus in the 1950s was nurses in the Spartanburg General Hospital’s nursing school. These women took science and social science courses at Wofford. In 1955, President Pendleton Gaines reported to the trustees that 58 nurses were taking courses on campus.

Occasional talk about admitting women as full-time students during the school year brought generally negative reaction from students. In the 1955 Old Gold and Black, one student commented “I wouldn’t want them in class. I think Converse serves the purpose for girls around here.” Another opposed because “Girls would certainly be a distracting influence as far as studying is concerned.” Several of the comments revolved around changes that would have to happen in classes – generally unspecified, but some thought that “you couldn’t have the frankness you have in classes” with women students. Other students acknowledged advantages to coeducation, suggesting it was a more natural environment and would promote better understanding between men and women. The newspaper’s editorial a week later, however, carried the headline “Girls as Dates, not Classmates,” summarizing the arguments against coeducation that were already being made.

Next time: the college investigates and moves to admitting women as day students.

Wofford’s first women students

Neither Benjamin Wofford’s will nor the college charter made any declaration about the college being open only to men. In the late 1890s, the college began an experiment, a short-lived one, as it turned out, in admitting women. In the fall of 1897, two women enrolled, and two more in each of the next two years.  

In a student body that numbered 188 in 1900, eight women could certainly expect to feel isolated. The college provided no housing for men or women, though it had occasionally allowed students to live in Main Building. These women were expected to board with families in the town. None of the faculty members were women, there was no dean of women, and it’s likely that they did not feel especially welcome. 

James H. Carlisle Jr.’s memories of Wofford college tells the story.

A striking illustration of how trustees can misjudge the wishes of their patrons is given in the following account of their admitting young ladies into the institution.  I asked one of the trustees, “Why did you admit young ladies into Wofford College?"  He replied, “There was such a great demand from all over the state for us to admit them that we could not refuse.” The next fall, when only a few took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded them, I asked the same trustee, “If there was such a universal demand, as you trustees thought, why did not more young ladies take advantage of your offer?” He laughed and said “We were mistaken. The demand was not as great as we thought.”

Several young ladies graduated, taking A.B. degrees… but it was not a success, and after a few years, it was thought best, as father [President James H. Carlisle] would say, to quietly let the matter of admitting the young ladies drop.

The college’s first experiment in coeducation ended with graduation in 1904, though a few of the early women also took master's degrees at the college. The college would have the occasional woman student until the early 1970s, when first day student, then full residential coeducation was implemented.

Photos – of the first four women, Ione Littlejohn Paslay ‘1902, Carrie Nabors Skelton ‘1902, May D. Wannamaker ‘1901, and Puella Littlejohn True ‘1901. The large photo is of the student body in 1898, with faculty members on the front row. The individual photos are from the college’s 1904 yearbook, the first one published, and are of Olive Chapman ‘1904 and Marie Tarboux ‘1904.