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6: “Men of Dartmouth” and “The Lady Engineers”: Coeducation at Dartmouth College and Lehigh University
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153 6 “Men of Dartmouth” and“The Lady Engineers” Coeducation at Dartmouth College and Lehigh University Mary Frances Donley Forcier To gain a fuller understanding of the coeducation movement at formerly allmale colleges and universities in the 1960s and early 1970s, it is essential to investigate the developments taking place at men’s colleges and universities from the end of World War II. These developments include concerns about faculty recruitment and retention, about the healthy psychological development and proper social behavior of college men, and about the role of the humanities and the function of intellectual engagement in undergraduate academic and social life. To develop a more comprehensive understanding of how the coeducation movement arose and was implemented, this chapter will explore changes in two institutions in the immediate postwar period. Dartmouth College and Lehigh University, though differing in size, institutional identity, and geography, share a common quality: they are institutions in which masculinity has played a powerful and durable role in the organizational saga. As a result, they are institutions where distinctive cultural trends of the postwar period are easily visible. Discussion of coeducation in the modern era began at both institutions in the mid-1950s. At Dartmouth, social issues were key, as the “civilizing” influence of women was seen as an important factor in the healthy psychological and social development of young men. At Lehigh, institutional aspirations to become a “true” university coalesced during the 1950s; these aspirations ultimately prompted serious consideration of coeducation. Both Dartmouth and Lehigh faced the challenge of integrating women into an overwhelmingly male undergraduate culture. CoingCoedFinalPages.indd 153 5/26/04 4:53:53 PM 154 Masculine Cultures and Traditions Dartmouth College, 1950–1971: Men in the Wilderness On November 22, 1971, Dartmouth College’s board of trustees voted by a significant majority to admit women to the undergraduate program in the fall of 1972. This action marked the culmination of the trustees’ consideration of coeducation, which began officially in February 1969. Dartmouth students and faculty had been discussing coeducation openly since the late 1950s, however, and the board had discussed the issue privately as early as the mid-1950s. Three elements of Dartmouth’s culture would shape the college’s consideration of coeducation: its small size, geographic isolation, and masculine character. Dartmouth’s size had been essential to its identity since its founding in 1769, becoming enshrined in institutional memory with the Dartmouth College case of 1816. When the New Hampshire legislature passed legislation to transform Dartmouth from a college to a university, Daniel Webster, representing the college’s alumni, argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the inviolability of the school’s original charter. This case not only reinforced Dartmouth’s identity as a college, rather than a university; it also cast the alumni body in a powerful role as the defender of the college’s traditional nature. These two elements would figure strongly in the college’s eventual consideration of coeducation. Despite the influence of the university movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Dartmouth successfully preserved its collegiate culture. While President William Jewett Tucker (1892–1909) brought elements of the university model to Dartmouth, he also developed traditions, designed a campus, and stressed values that reinforced Dartmouth’s view of itself as a small country college.1 As Dartmouth grew in prestige and popularity—attributed in part to the attractive image of rugged collegiate life in the wilderness—it became one of the first colleges in the United States to implement a selective admissions process. Dartmouth responded to its sudden national prominence by deliberately remaining small and increasing selectivity and quality. As at many men’s colleges, the stresses of World War II brought up the question of coeducation for Dartmouth, but the question appears not to have arisen at Dartmouth. As the college celebrated its 175th anniversary in 1944, the Des Moines Evening Tribune lauded its all-male environment. “When Dartmouth College celebrated its birthday on Dec. 13, it also celebrated several traditions which have been unbroken in the 175 years since its founding. Dartmouth characterizes as ‘not the least’ among them the fact that it is still a ‘college for men.’ . . . Well, right or wrong, we can’t blame them for crowing a bit. 175 years is a long time to hold out against the onslaughts of the female.”2 Yet a few months later, the Boston Herald lamented the war’s effects on enrollment...