Cornell’s Old Girl Network and Organizational Change: 1906–1921

19 CORNELL'S OLD GIRL NETWORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: 1906-1921* Gailyn D. Casaday Cornell University At the beginning of the twentieth century in America, there was a fairly small number of women college graduates. Although they were not pioneers as their predecessors had been fifty years earlier, college women did find many live issues in women's higher education. And, in part to work for those is­ sues and in part because they felt themselves to be a small, elite group, they united in support groups. They formed alumnae clubs. They participated in the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (later known as the American Associ­ ation of University Women). The women worked to influence the content and process of women's education. They worked to introduce vocational training for women into the college curriculum, to increase the numbers of women in college faculties and administration, and to provide special services for wo­ men students.^ As students, especially before World War I, Cornell women were not inte­ grated into the life of the University. Since 1884, they were required to live in Sage College (if space permitted). They had their own self-govern­ ment , thirty years before the male students had a student government organi­ zation. They had separate class events. They had their own clubs. And they were not included in men's activities. This organizational separation from men had many beneficial results. As students, the women formed a separate world in which they gained skills in running their own organizations.2 it is not surprising that women graduates continued to have organizations separate from male alumni. Another logical consequence of the separation of women as students was the alumnae's sense that they were a community with special interests. The Cornell Women Graduates Association adopted as one of its two pur­ poses "keeping a woman on the Board of Trustees."3 In 1895 M. Carey Thomas was the first woman elected to the Board. Four years later, at the end of Thomas' term, another woman was elected.^ Each year, several months before alumni trustee elections, local clubs of Cornell alumnae considered several nominees for the trusteeships and endorsed one, circulating the decision to the other alumnae clubs. They organized campaigns such as "class letters," each alumna writing letters to several male classmates, supporting the wo­ men's candidate. They organized telephone committees to similarly circular­ ize the alumni.3 In addition to keeping a woman on the Board, a second purpose of the or­ ganization of Cornell alumnae was to protect the interests of the women stu­ dents. 6 The alumnae were concerned about housing, which was never ample enough in this period for the increasing numbers of women students. Alumnae explored job opportunities for Cornell women in the geographic areas of the clubs. They contributed to the financial support of the campus YWCA, the wo­ men students' pageants and publications.? The alumnae also paid close attention to the University's provision of services to its women students and had a close relationship with the Warden or Adviser of Women. In 1906 they urged Cornell's President Schurman to ex­ tend the jurisdiction of the Warden of Sage College to all of the women stu­ dents of the University, not just those residing in Sage. The alumnae con­ tinued to be dissatisfied and continued to take their complaints to the Pres­ ident. In 1909, the title of the Warden was changed to Adviser of Women and the new appointee, Gertrude Martin, was charged to engage in more than social supervision.8 Gertrude Martin, prior to her appointment as Adviser. had *An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, April 9, 1980. 20 managed the Ithaca alumnae club's co-operative house for Cornell women stu­ dents. 9 Her work and views were well-known to her alumnae supporters. She believed that the Adviser should provide educational and vocational guidance. But Mrs. Martin found faculty and administrative resistance to her attempts to deal with vocational and educational matters. She had expected her title to be changed to Dean of Women and that did not happen.10 So she set...