{"id":5223,"date":"2019-02-07T12:10:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=5223"},"modified":"2019-02-07T12:10:18","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:10:18","slug":"forever-the-first","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2019\/features\/women-at-the-summit\/forever-the-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Forever the First"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maura King Scully<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Alyson<\/a>
Alyson Adler \u201973 in 2018, in her Manhattan apartment. Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It came as a surprise to Alyson Adler \u201973 when she was summoned to Trinity\u2019s President\u2019s Office at the start of her first year in 1969. \u201cOne person for each class had the job of signing the college\u2019s Matriculation book in a public service in the Chapel. They asked me to do it,\u201d she recalls. Adler then became the first female first-year student to sign the Matriculation book. \u201cThey said it was because of my name in the alphabet and that I was a woman. When I did it, I didn\u2019t realize my picture would be on the front page of The<\/em> Hartford Courant<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adler, a National Merit finalist who graduated at the top of her all-girls\u2019 high school class, jumped at the opportunity to go to Trinity when it went coed. Her older brother, Edward Adler \u201969, as well as two uncles\u2014longtime Trinity trustee and former board chair Alfred J. Koeppel \u201954, H\u201900 and his brother Bevin D. Koeppel \u201947\u2014attended the college, so she was familiar with the school. (The Koeppel family name now adorns the Koeppel Community Sports Center and the Koeppel Student Center.) \u201cThere was a lot of change in the air. People were against the war, and the hippie culture was thriving,\u201d explains Adler, who despite graduating in 1972 thanks to AP credits still considers herself a member of the Class of \u201973. \u201cMy little act of rebellion was to not go to Wellesley or Smith. I know my guidance counselor at the time was appalled. She was upset that I was giving up a place at the Seven Sisters. I never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Trinity, Adler found a home at Delta Kappa Epsilon, where her brother previously had served as president. \u201cIt was this wonderful collection of very bright but very freaky kinds of counterculture people,\u201d she says, adding with a chuckle, \u201cas much as Trinity had a counterculture.\u201d She also met her future husband, William Green \u201970, a member of the fraternity. \u201cThey called me a social sister, but it really wasn\u2019t coed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adler believes that being among the few women in her class at Trinity set her up for success when she attended Columbia Law School, where the number of women was similarly small, and in professional life. \u201cI experienced a lot more sexism after I left Trinity. \u2026 A number of other attorneys and judges said things they wouldn\u2019t dare say to a man. Even in the law firms where I worked, it was rampant. I think my positive experience at Trinity and relatively positive experience at Columbia helped me not only learn to diffuse it but also thrive and feel at ease in the old boys\u2019 club atmosphere around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next: First Female to Graduate, Judy Dworin ’70<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maura King Scully It came as a surprise to Alyson Adler \u201973 when she was summoned to Trinity\u2019s President\u2019s Office at the start of her first year in 1969. \u201cOne person for each class had the job of signing the college\u2019s Matriculation book in a public service in the Chapel. They asked me to … <\/p>\n

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