USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The history of Colby College > Part 57
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When the issue came to a vote, Cornish could win only one other trustee to his side, and the majority report was adopted by a vote of fourteen to two. The decision was made. Colby remained coordinate. There was no intent, even on the part of the most ardent male supporters of the women, that Colby should ever be coeducational.
President White was not content with the coordinate system. He did not agree with Cornish that the girls should be summarily ejected, but he did contend that the aim should be the establishment of two separate colleges, as had been proposed before Small offered his compromise of coordination. That he pushed for further separation into two colleges is shown by a vote of the Trustees in June, 1902: "We approve of the recommendation of the President for the sepa- ration of the Women's Department from the Men's by the establishment of a new college for women, as soon as financial conditions will permit, and we urge the President to continue his exertions toward the establishment of that result."
The Trustees went even further in January, 1905, when they voted: "The Women's Division of Colby College shall be made into a separate college with a separate name, a separate catalogue, separate public exhibitions, a separate Com- mencement, and separate recitations. There may be common use of the library and the laboratories. There shall be one treasurer for both institutions, and the administration and instruction of the new college shall, so far as possible, be the same as that given to Colby College."
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The new Dean of the Women's Division, Grace E. Berry, who had succeeded Dean Mathews in 1902, supported President White's plan, but she laid down an important provision. The plan would not be feasible, she insisted, unless the women's college should be located on a new, expandable site at some distance from the men's college.
The suggestion that the new college take the former name attached to Colby, the name Waterville College, met with general approval. The Trustees proceeded at once to draw up the following plan for its operation.
The officers of the new college shall be the same as those of Colby Col- lege, and the annual meeting of the Trustees of Waterville College shall occur on the date of the meeting of the Trustees of Colby College.
The President and Faculty of Waterville College shall be the same as the President and Faculty of Colby College, with the exception of such additional instructors in either separate college as shall be found neces- sary.
The entrance requirements for Waterville College shall be the same as those for Colby College, and the courses of instruction for the first year shall be the same in both colleges.
In June, 1905, the Committee on the Women's College reported that it would take time to put the plan into effective operation. "The idea cannot be realized in one year," they said, "because an educational institution cannot be made; it must grow." The best the committee could do was to recommend that such fur- ther separation be worked out as could be effected without increased expense, and that a special committee seek funds for the endowment of a separate women's college.
It was President Charles Lincoln White who was chiefly responsible for the building of Foss Hall, the first Colby building especially constructed for the Wom- en's Division. The continued efforts of the committee of women, begun a decade earlier, had not brought the desired results. One of the persons largely responsible for White's selection as President had been William H. Snyder, 1885. A popular teacher at Worcester Academy, Snyder came to know intimately one of its trus- tees and a prominent Worcester Baptist, William H. Dexter. Like Gardner Colby, Mr. Dexter had risen from humble boyhood circumstances to a position of wealth and influence. When White became the Colby President, he turned to Snyder to help him induce Mrs. Dexter to make a substantial gift to Colby. Mrs. Dexter took a liking to the new president, who, as their acquaintance ripened, decided to present to her the bold project that she provide entirely the needed funds for the long awaited dormitory for women.
Born in Wayne, Maine, Mrs. Dexter had never lost her love for her native state. She told President White that it had long been her hope some day to pro- vide a home for other girls in Maine, that they might have the education which she could not get. She agreed to give $40,000 for the erection of such a building at Colby.
The task of establishing the Women's College on a new site, far removed from other property already being used for the women, proved not practicable even if it could have been financed. The proposed dormitory would not contain enough space to provide classrooms, chapel, and other necessary facilities. Com-
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mon sense finally dictated that the building should be erected on land which the College already owned on the Avenue, directly across the street from Ladies Hall. That decision sealed the fate of the contemplated Women's College. Although coordination continued as administrative policy, with many classes separated by sex, with no competition for honors and prizes, and with a noticeable double stand- ard in regulations, the tendency to coeducation in practice was clearly predicted. As time went on, it became quite conventional to think of boys and girls in the same classrooms; social life gradually became more normal between the two di- visions; and the numerous separate student organizations, such as the YMCA and the YWCA, began to work together. But those changes required many years of patient and persistent efforts by the women, who demanded recognition as simple justice. It should be recalled that our whole nation had to wait until the second decade of this century for the political emancipation of women. It is small won- der, though highly regrettable, that in most American colleges, even those avowedly coeducational, women students were treated as second class citizens until com- paratively recent times.
In the fall of 1905, Eliza Foss Dexter was present at the dedication of the building to which was given her family name of Foss. Present also was her brother, Eugene Foss, who a few years later became Governor of Massachusetts.
For some time President White had been cultivating officials of the General Education Board, and the rumor persisted that those officials would assist Colby only if it became a women's college. So horror-stricken were many Colby men that they denounced all attempts to secure such aid and they nearly wrecked the President's carefully laid plans to get assistance from what was then the nation's largest philanthropy to higher education. On President White's invitation, Dr. Wallace Buttrick of the General Education Board attended the annual meeting of the Colby Trustees in 1907, and authorized a public statement denying the rumor and announcing that the Board believed the present coordinate system was best for Colby.
Did the women fare better under Arthur Roberts, who between his entrance as a freshman in 1886 and his election to the presidency in 1908, had seen plenty of women in Colby classrooms? When President White was asked how his pro- posed successor felt about women in the college, he wrote to Dudley P. Bailey: "If I understand Roberts rightly, he believes that the Women's Division should be separated educationally, socially, and in every way, as far and as rapidly as pos- sible. His views regarding this separation are in strict accord with those of Pro- fessor Taylor, who strongly favors Roberts' election as president."
Between 1909 and 1920 the Women's Division had six successive deans: Carrie E. Small, Elizabeth Bass, Florence E. Carll, Mary C. Cooper, Anna A. Raymond, and Alice May Holmes. None of them remained longer than three years. All worked diligently on behalf of the girls, but several of them were handi- capped by having the title of Acting Dean, while President Roberts tried to make up his mind concerning a significant but definitely subordinate administration of the distaff side of the college. Miss Adelle Gilpatrick has told the story, from the viewpoint of the constantly frustrated women.
The first deans of the Women's Division were little more than house mothers. Mary Sawtelle and Grace Mathews were superior women who understood Colby and were highly respected. Their successors too were
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well trained and devoted administrators, but they were helpless under the official determination to keep the women subordinate to the men.
When an increasing number of Colby women graduates found that Colby was not recognized by the American Association of University Women, because there had never been a woman in the rank of full pro- fessor at Colby, the Alumnae Association appointed a committee to inter- view President Roberts about the situation. The committee consisted of Miss Louise Coburn, Mrs. Harriet Bessey, and myself. With fear and trembling we went to the President's house. With Miss Coburn as chair- man we got a courteous hearing. "Rob" acknowledged he had not been very successful in selecting deans whom he was willing to place in full professorship. He told us he did not understand women very well. It was quite a session and we aired all our grievances. Finally "Rob" promised to do something about it, saying, "When I select another dean, it will be a Colby woman and one whom I know."
President Roberts brilliantly fulfilled that promise, for in 1920 he called to the position of Dean of Women Miss Ninetta Runnals, who for more than a quarter of a century exerted such sound and progressive leadership and won such esteem from Colby men as well as from Colby women that when she retired in 1949 her alma mater had become truly coeducational, with the women students given equal status beside the men.
It was largely in response to Miss Coburn's insistence that the Trustees, in 1920, passed the following vote: "We hereby establish the policy that women on the faculty shall receive the same pay as men of equal rank, and that they shall have equal opportunity for promotion."
At the annual meeting of the Trustees in June, 1920, the Committee on Professorships presented the following report:
The Committee has considered for Dean of the Women's Division Miss Nettie M. Runnals, a graduate of the College in the Class of 1908. Miss Runnals has been for a number of years a very successful preceptress at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, leaving there three years ago to do graduate work at Columbia University. There Miss Runnals received her Master's Degree in education, and for the past two years she has been teaching in a girls' school in Pennsylvania. Miss Runnals is a woman of character, of attractive personality, and a great deal of successful expe- rience in dealing with girls. She could in all probability be secured for the coming year for $1500 and her home.
That last sentence is most revealing. A college that had just raised half a mil- lion dollars for endowment, to which Colby women as well as men had generously contributed, was invited to accept a new dean of women because the committee thought she could be obtained at a bargain.
President Roberts' customary caution dictated that even this highly recom- mended dean must undergo a trial period. The Trustees accepted his suggestion that Miss Runnals be engaged as Acting Dean. So successful was her first year that in 1921 she became fully recognized Dean of Women and was given an in- crease in salary of five hundred dollars. Shortly afterward she was elected to a full professorship in mathematics, and at last Colby became eligible for a chapter of the American Association of University Women.
Dean Runnals at once instituted a quiet, but effective campaign for better recognition of the Women's Division. She won the confidence and deep respect of
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Mrs. Eleanora Woodman, who not only provided for an infirmary and a resident nurse at Foss Hall, but also made many other gifts for the benefit of women stu- dents. It was that trio - Miss Coburn, Mrs. Woodman, and Dean Runnals - who prevailed upon President Roberts to give better recognition to the Women's Division both in respect to college regulations and in respect to budget. It is un- fair to assume that Roberts was stubbornly prejudiced against women students. He would never have admitted that to hold women in subordination to men was prejudiced. It was a natural result of the plan of creation. Roberts' two para- doxical characteristics were his genuine concern for the individual student and his caution with college funds, approaching miserliness. Everywhere he found it necessary to save pennies, and what better place was there to save them than in a subordinate division of the college?
Whether it was because she felt constantly frustrated in her attempts to get even the necessary repairs on the Women's building, to say nothing of funds to increase their educational opportunities, or whether it was the allurement of greener fields elsewhere, Dean Runnals decided to leave Colby in 1926, where- upon she enjoyed two successful years as Dean of Women at Hillsdale College in Michigan. But fortunately for Colby, she was induced to return to her alma mater in 1928 and never again was she lured away from the Colby scene.
During the two years of Miss Runnals' absence the office of dean was compe- tently filled by Miss Erma Reynolds, 1914, who not only presided over the Wom- en's Division, but also did much to bring the campaign for the Alumnae Building to a successful conclusion.
Plans for a physical education and recreation building for the women had begun as early as 1921, when Miss Adelle Gilpatrick, as President of the Alumnae Association, convinced a number of her fellow alumnae that the band of Colby women was now strong enough to raise, by their own efforts, sufficient funds to build a gymnasium for the girls. In the spring of 1922 the campaign received splendid impetus when Miss Louise Coburn gave $10,000. Each succeeding issue of the Alumnus carried an expanding list of contributors, but it required a long, hard pull to get the hundred thousand dollars needed to erect the building, which was to include extensive recreational facilities, a fully equipped gymnasium, and a swimming pool. Already Miss Gilpatrick and her committee knew that success was just around the corner. It was definitely assured when Miss Florence Dunn, 1896, announced her magnificent gift of $25,000. Miss Gilpatrick tells how the goal was finally attained. It was that loyal friend of both men and women at Colby who came to the rescue. "Dr. Frank Padelford, Secretary of the Board of Education of the Northern Baptist Convention, who had already secured generous grants for Colby, persuaded his board to give $20,000 to our building fund." Thus at the meeting of the Trustees in November, 1927, Dr. George Otis Smith proudly announced that there was now available for the building $96,000. Plans had already been accepted and construction was under way. The cornerstone was laid on June 16, 1928. Eight months later, on February 19, 1929, alumnae and friends gathered for the formal opening. Appropriately in the receiving line stood Miss Gilpatrick, Dean Runnals, Miss Dunn, and the Alumnae Secretary, Alice Purinton.
Even while the campaign for the Alumnae Building was under way, the de- mand for a separate women's college was raised again, this time by the same Dr. Padelford who was to get the final funds to complete the new building. At the Trustees meeting in April, 1925, Dr. Padelford had introduced the following resolution:
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Realizing the advantage for the education of women in New England of a separate and distinct college for women in Maine, and encouraged by the results of more than fifty years of experience in the education of women at Colby, Be it resolved, that the Trustees of Colby College de- clare their readiness to arrange for the separation of the Women's Di- vision into a distinct college for women at Waterville, affiliated with Colby, but under a separate name, and under terms of management to be agreed upon later, provided the funds can be secured to assure its adequate financing.
The Board laid the resolution on the table and it was never resurrected. Dr. Padelford himself came to the conviction that a separate college, rather than co- ordination, was not feasible. The newspapers of Maine, led by the Portland Press, had taken up the cry for a women's college in the state. At a meeting of the Maine Teachers Association in 1927, Dean Marriner, as chairman of the Colby Execu- tive Committee, made the point that, if a woman's college were to be established, the Women's Division at Colby offered a ready-made nucleus for such an institu- tion, since the Colby system of coordination rendered separation easier than it would be in a coeducational college. The agitation was short lived, and after the Alumnae Building was opened in 1929 nothing more was heard about a degree- granting college for women anywhere in Maine.
Colby was ninety years old before its association of male alumni was per- mitted representation on the Board of Trustees, but the women graduates had to wait until twenty-four years later before they were granted representation. To be sure, they tried to get it soon after the men won their victory in 1903. For five years the Trustees turned a deaf ear to the women's plea, but in 1909 they made a gesture of consent. Although the Board would not permit the Alumnae Associ- ation to elect a representative, those male governors of a coordinate college did promise to elect to the Board a woman recommended by the Alumnae Association as soon as there should be a vacancy. Not until 1911 did a vacancy occur, but the alert women saw to it that the Trustees were reminded of their promise. In that year, on recommendation of the alumnae, Louise Coburn became the first woman member of the Colby Trustees.
Although Miss Coburn continued to be an influential member of the Board until failing health necessitated her resignation in 1930, that lone representation did not satisfy the women. They saw no reason why their association, as well as that of the men, should not elect members directly to the Board. Their request was referred to a committee consisting of Frank Padelford, George Otis Smith, and Charles Gurney, who made a favorable report at the Board's meeting in November, 1930, recommending that the College Charter be amended to provide for the election of six trustees by the alumni and three by the alumnae. The Board accepted the committee's recommendations, authorized an enabling petition to the Legislature, which on February 27, 1931, voted the proposed amendment (see Appendix S). Thus, since 1931, nine members of the Board have always repre- sented the graduate body, and even after the men and women were merged into a single graduate group, with a single governing body called the Alumni Council, the proportion of men and women elected to the Board of Trustees remained in the same two to one ratio.
In the 1930's the College published separate promotional booklets for the two divisions. They were called Men's Booklet and Women's Booklet. Later they were merged into a single volume under the title About Colby. Significantly,
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the introductory statement in the Women's Booklet in 1932 made no mention of Colby's having been a college for men during more than half a century before women were admitted. It did not even state that the College had men in 1932. It simply said:
This is one of the old seats of learning in New England. Since 1818 Colby has been building up its own rich traditions and the distinctive spirit of which Colby graduates are so proud. Sound in academic stand- ing, friendly and democratic in spirit, Colby aims to foster and preserve the finest standards of gracious womanhood.
During President Johnson's administration the Women's Division gained in prestige and influence. Instead of only three women -- the Dean, an instructor of physical education, and a teacher of music - the faculty women numbered six when Johnson left the presidential office in 1942. They were Dean Runnals, rank- ing as professor of mathematics; Mary Marshall, associate professor of English; Alice Pattee Comparetti, instructor in English; Janet Marchant and Elizabeth Kelley, instructors in physical education; and Caroline Cole, instructor in religion.
Between the coming of Dean Runnals in 1920 and the inauguration of Presi- dent Bixler in 1942 the enrollment of women did not increase comparably with that of men, but solely for the reason that housing facilities for the former were not expanded as they were for the latter. Before World War I in 1914 there were 173 women. In 1920 the number had increased to 217. By 1942 the women's numbers had risen to 267, filling not only the older dormitories, but several homes in the city which the college had leased. The fact that in that autumn women moved into Mary Low and Louise Coburn halls on Mayflower Hill did not leave the way open to admit larger numbers immediately, because the College Training Detachment of the Army Air Corps took over completely the fa- cilities of Foss Hall.
Let us now see how steadily, but almost imperceptibly, Colby changed in fact from coordination to coeducation. We have seen that Charles Lincoln White came to Colby as its president almost contemporaneously with the new century. What was the position of Colby women in 1901? By that time the Christian Asso- ciations of the two divisions had joined in the publication of an annual handbook, designed especially to inform the freshmen, but presented to all students when the new college year opened in September. That handbook is the first indication that the men and women ever did anything together as a joint enterprise. Even then the domination of the men was strikingly evident. Although the YWCA was given equal space with the YMCA, in description of its activities and its list of officers and committees, no other organization of women was even mentioned except the Sigma Kappa sorority, the literary society Beta Phi, and the two honor- ary societies for women, Kappa Alpha and Chi Gamma Theta. From a perusal of the handbook one would suppose that the women had no class officers, no organized sports, and no house rules, though much space was given to those areas of campus life for the men. The book says that "there are various means to earn money, such as the care of college buildings, tending furnaces, etc., both at the college and in the city"- not a word about the opportunities for girls who waited on table, tended bells and performed other duties at Ladies Hall. Seven pages were devoted to Athletics without any reference to the women. The Musical Clubs, called the Glee Club, Mandolin-Guitar Club, and Orchestra, were exclusively men's
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organizations. The same was true of the Dramatic Club and the Debating Club. Information regarding rooms for men fills four pages, while the statement about women's rooms is limited to two brief sentences: "Ladies desiring rooms should write to the Dean of the Women's Division. The College furnishes only chamber sets, mattresses, pillows, stoves and curtains."
How much had the situation changed by 1913, when this historian was a Colby senior? The handbook was still a joint publication of the YMCA and the YWCA, and these two organizations were naturally featured in its pages. The strict separation of the two divisions was still apparent. The twelve years since 1901 had brought in musical clubs for women as well as for men, but the girls still had no part in dramatics or debating. More space was now given to women's dormitories, because Foss Hall had been erected nine years earlier. Palmer House had been renamed Mary Low Hall, and the large enrollment of girls had necessi- tated the use of a third dormitory called Dutton House. No recognition was yet given to class officers of the women, but half a page called attention to "Athletics of the Women's Division." The announcement said, "Basketball is a popular sport among the women, and the sophomore-freshman game has become a feature of Women's Colby Day." Other sports enjoyed by the girls were tennis, tether- ball, bowling and croquet.
Fourteen years later, in the last year of President Roberts' administration, religious activities were directed by the beloved Herbert L. Newman, but the associ- ations still operated separately except for publication of the handbook. By this time, however, the handbook's advice to freshmen concerned both men and women. On arrival, the students were told: "If you are a woman, go directly to Foss Hall, which you may use as a base for further expeditions under guidance of members of the YWCA. The men should hunt up 'Chef' Weymouth, the godfather of all freshmen, in the Y room at Hedman Hall." Space was now given not merely to the names of the sororities, but also to the lists of members. Organizations of the Women's Division included musical clubs, dramatic club, health league, Daughters of Colby, and the Aroostook Club. Not yet were the musical clubs united; only the men's club gave concerts in neighboring towns. It would be many years before girls would be permitted to play in the college band. By 1927 student govern- ment had become more active, but under separate bodies, the Men's Student Coun- cil and the Women's Student League.
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