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214 •——— verso runninghead ———• ———— Chapter Eighteen ———— Dear Davenport Dear Home p On the day Cora boarded her train for Iowa, a swelling crowd of excited friends and siblings, proud parents, angry alumnae, and doddering old trustees began to gather for Vassar’s twenty-first commencement , filling the hotels and boardinghouses of Poughkeepsie to overflowing. Several different agendas were under way simultaneously. From all across the country, families and friends were arriving to celebrate the young women graduates’ academic achievement. The besieged trustees were convening for their annual meeting determined to beat off outside interlopers and maintain exclusive control. The alumnae were answering the call to arms for their annual meeting, determined to push the trustees into action and rescue their beloved college from degeneracy and imminent collapse. [ 214 ] The Rock Island Line’s LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, where connections could be made directly to the lines serving Poughkeepsie and New York City during the 1880s. •——— Recto Runninhead ———• 215 A delegation of prominent women from the Boston chapter of Vassar ’s Alumnae Association emerged from the Poughkeepsie station smoldering from the snubbing they had received the previous fall. Their letter to the trustees had never been answered. More representatives from the large and well-financed New York chapter of the Alumnae Association, wearing steely expressions, arrived on their heels. Their January letter had been ignored just as coldly, even after it had been leaked to the press. After six months of delay, three of the “old fogies” finally sent an anemic response to the New York chapter a day or two before the meetings began. Instead of addressing the specific, critical problems the alumnae were calling their attention to, it was filled with passive, shoulder-shrugging excuses, ranging from hard economic times to Vassar’s high cost and entrance standards. In closing, the trustees dismissed the alumnae’s concerns with preposterous condescension: “The best interests of the college would be looked out for,” they declared.1 Don’t you worry your pretty little heads about it, they said in effect, trading one insult for another. More outraged alumnae from Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis joined the crowd, ready to do battle. The women had been publicly calling for President Caldwell’s resignation since the previous April, and now, more than a year later, it was time to force the issue onto the unwilling trustees. He was a dead failure. It was time for Caldwell to go. b The end-of-the-year ceremonies began on Sunday, June 7, when the Reverend Caldwell stepped up to the podium in the chapel to preach the baccalaureate sermon on the topic of “Friendship—Its Virtues .” Straying from his usual safe and dull style, Caldwell took as his text Prov 27:17: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”2 What a strange topic to choose for young lady graduates! However, it was a fitting one for Caldwell, who seized this chance to speak out publicly on the subject of his own wounded feelings. The members of the Alumnae Association understood the power of smart public relations and kicked off their visit to Vassar by releasing a report about their recent activities to journalists who were swarming the •——— Dear Davenport Dear Home ———• 216 •——— verso runninghead ———• campus from the major New York papers hoping to scoop a story about the Vassar management crisis. The alumnae made no reference whatsoever to President Caldwell. They announced that during the past year, they had raised $9,000 to support the new physical training program at the college, $1,500 for scholarships, and nearly $18,000 for endowments. This was the equivalent of about $3 million in today’s money. Everyone knew that the trustees had not been able to raise much of anything. The money said it all. Confident in their obvious effectiveness, the alumnae then sent over their demand to the trustees that President Caldwell must resign immediately . The money was on the table. Mr. Buckingham was overruled; the trustees had no choice but to accept the ultimatum. After the board voted to fire Caldwell, three board members tendered their resignations. Three other trustees had refused to attend in the first place, so it appears that the confrontation opened up quite a few slots for new blood, ideally for younger men of business who would be able to help pull the college out of its financial tailspin. This was progress, but it wasn’t good enough. The women were determined to attain their...

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