{"id":5419,"date":"2019-02-04T17:20:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T22:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=5086"},"modified":"2019-06-03T22:37:15","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T22:37:15","slug":"women-at-the-summit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2019\/features\/women-at-the-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Women at the Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>50 Years of Coeducation at Trinity College<\/h2>\n

Last month, Trinity College officially began its celebration of the 50th anniversary of coeducation with kickoff events on campus and at locations around the world. The January 11 festivities marked the date in 1969 when the Board of Trustees voted to welcome women as first-year students. The Trinity Reporter<\/em> plans to mark the anniversary in the next several issues, culminating with the spring 2020 issue in June of next year. We hope you enjoy our look into the past, our survey of the present, and our glimpse into the future.<\/p>\n

Female pioneers play key role in institution\u2019s evolution<\/h2>\n

By Maura King Scully
\nPhotos: Trinity College Archive
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

For Trinity, and for many other colleges and universities, going coed was a matter of survival. When Theodore Davidge Lockwood \u201948 became president on July 1, 1968, he had three major challenges: reviewing and reworking the curriculum, improving the college\u2019s financial situation, and determining whether Trinity could continue to thrive as a men\u2019s college. Dean of the Faculty Robert Fuller immediately took the lead in assessing the option of admitting women, writing a recommendation<\/a> that persuasively argued for including women in the student body. Facing a dip in applications and the wave of schools going coed, the future was clear: the college would need to move quickly to admit top women candidates ahead of its competitors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alyson Koeppel Adler \u201973 signs Trinity\u2019s Matriculation book on October 20, 1969, becoming the first female first-year at the college to do so. Rex Neaverson, then professor of political science and secretary of the faculty, is at right. For more on Adler, please see page 15.
Photo by Grover W. Grogan, Hartford Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kirk Marckwald \u201969 was among a handful of students selected to serve on the Committee on Coeducation that Lockwood convened in the fall of 1968. \u201cThe impetus was for a small college to maintain its standing and attract both good professors and great students,\u201d recalls Marckwald, now founder and principal of California Environmental Associates. \u201cThe big question was whether the trustees would go for it. There were a couple of pretty juicy meetings. At one, outside of Boston, a few trustees needed to be convinced that taking this step would not be the end of a meaningful football program. While we all wanted to have a good football program, it seemed a preposterous view. How would it affect the sports program? Obviously, it didn\u2019t affect it other than ironically over the years the female athletic program accelerated and brought credit to the college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in The Trinity Tripod\u2019s <\/em>\u201cINSIDE\u201d section in December 1968, David Sarasohn \u201971, then features editor of The Tripod<\/em> (and now a former editorial columnist for The Oregonian<\/em>), had this to say: \u201cCompelling as the purely academic reasons \u2026 the social necessity may be even more important.\u201d He continued, \u201c\u2026 the state of extracurricular activities at the college is lamentable\u201d and that on \u201cFriday and Saturday nights about half the campus flings itself at illegal speeds\u201d toward campuses with women \u201cwhile the other half sulks in the dormitory and feels sorry for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Women had actually made their way to campus as graduate students as early as the 1920s. More than four decades later, in the spring of 1969, the first female undergraduates came to Trinity through an exchange program with Vassar College. That \u201cit is so unremarkable in my mind, it shows that it was no big deal,\u201d recalls Marckwald. \u201cThey were smart, talented people who had great ideas and contributed well to discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce Krinitsky \u201973 was among the 106 female first-years in the Class of 1973, along with 49 female transfer students, statistics noted by former college archivist Peter Knapp \u201965 in his authoritative tome, Trinity College in the Twentieth Century<\/em>. \u201cIt was very competitive to get into Trinity,\u201d recalls Krinitsky, a teacher who later became a real estate agent. \u201cThey actually sent a letter to the parents in which they talked about how they took only one in every 10 women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krinitsky says she remembers a harsh climate. \u201cIf you walked into the dining room hall alone for dinner, you would get audibly booed,\u201d she recalls. \u201cSomething sparked real distress in some men on campus. They had a protest sleep-out on the quad that was featured on the front page of The<\/em> Hartford Courant<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jan Gimar \u201973 notes there was resistance among some of the upper-year students. \u201cThere were those who just wanted things the way they had been, but fortunately that was not universal,\u201d says Gimar, who spent his career as an executive with the Boy Scouts of America.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just the students. \u201cI think there were a number of faculty who had been accustomed to operating in single-sex situations who were a little bit taken aback,\u201d Sarasohn recalls.<\/p>\n

In Gimar\u2019s case, he sought a coed school; indeed, he would not have applied to Trinity had the school remained single sex. \u201cI wanted women there,\u201d he says, looking back with fondness on the tight-knit group of women and men in his Wheaton dorm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alyson Adler \u201973, an attorney, recalls coed dorm life with both humor and fondness. She recollects that women living in the residence halls in 1969 found ways to work around bathrooms designed for men and enjoyed the open access among the genders. \u201cThere was no barrier that would keep a guy from wandering through at any time. It was a coed dorm in every way,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of schools that went coed didn\u2019t go that far. \u2026 Trinity embraced coeducation very fully compared with other schools that went coed at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Adler remembers sexism on campus, she doesn\u2019t recall it as onerous. \u201cIn class, I never felt marginalized or intimidated. I was accepted by my professors, by the guys in my classes. I felt very comfortable,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Krinitsky says she thought about transferring but decided to stay. \u201cAs the year went along, I was making friends and getting happier. Despite challenges with some of the faculty, I liked where I was academically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Time\u2014and numbers\u2014also worked on the side of coeducation. \u201cMost of us who came in with the freshman class in 1969 were distressed and worried because so many girls left after that first year,\u201d recalls Gimar, who now is vice president of the Class of 1973. And while the college doesn\u2019t have statistics to verify the number of women who transferred, each year brought new female students. \u201cEvery year it got better because the girls had reinforcements. The numbers made the difference by senior year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornelia \u201cCornie\u201d Thornburgh \u201980, who today serves as the college\u2019s first female chair of the Board of Trustees, looks back in awe at the first women who enrolled at Trinity. \u201cThose early classes of women were behavioral engineers, although I doubt they would refer to themselves as such,\u201d says Thornburgh. \u201cWhen I arrived on the scene in 1976 as a first-year\u2014then still called a freshman\u2014<\/em>concerns over lavatory configurations had turned to other more meaningful matters. There were Title IX implications, sports teams had to divide resources, all-male fraternities devised ways to incorporate females into their social lives, classroom discussion had a greater breadth, and even course offerings began to incorporate new titles like gender studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to call these events evolutionary or an obvious natural progression, but I would suggest introducing women on campus some 50 years ago into our now almost 200-year history was a grand experiment in behavioral design that has transformed the essence of the college,\u201d says Thornburgh.<\/p>\n

\"Joanne<\/a>
Joanne Berger-Sweeney and Kristina Miele \u201919. Photo by Monica Jorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That transformation has led not only to women students accounting for half of the student body and almost half of the faculty but also to women at the very top echelons of the college. In addition to Thornburgh serving as chair of the Board of Trustees since 2014, the school\u2019s first female president, Joanne Berger-Sweeney, took the helm that same year. And the Student Government Association (SGA) currently is led by a female student, Schnadig Family Scholar Kristina Miele \u201919.<\/p>\n

Berger-Sweeney believes that these women leaders have provided a critical new lens for the college. \u201cIt is clear that women bring new perspectives when they assume an executive leadership role in an organization that historically has been led by men,\u201d she explains. \u201cResearch shows that women are often viewed as more aspirational, empathetic, empowering of others, and more collaborative as leaders. If you asked campus constituents, they probably would say that I push our faculty, staff, and students to be less defensive, more collaborative, and more creative\u2014taking chances when making important decisions. I also think that they would view my leadership at Trinity as less hierarchical and more inclusive in practice, not simply inclusive in rhetoric. I also ask questions that may not have been asked before in the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo by Monica Jorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, one of Berger-Sweeney\u2019s first moves as president was to narrow in on how sexual misconduct was handled on campus. To explore the issues involved, she organized and headed Trinity\u2019s Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct. \u201cThe task force led us to revise and clarify policies and to consider other issues that affect campus climate. I collaborated with College Chaplain Allison Read and the Office of Student Life to initiate the Campaign for Community. This campaign empowered student leaders to build a stronger, more inclusive community on campus and to hold their peers accountable. The work of the campaign also helped to shape many of the student life initiatives in our strategic plan, Summit,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

At the student government level, Miele is among women trailblazers, serving as only the seventh female SGA president at Trinity. \u201cIt\u2019s a little intimidating when working with administrators and making sure I\u2019m taken seriously by the student body,\u201d says Miele, reflecting on how gender impacts her role. \u201cIt\u2019s a thought, but I try not to let it be an issue. There\u2019s always more to be done. I think it\u2019s always important to keep the dialogue open when it comes to sexual harassment, body shaming, and women\u2019s empowerment. There is always room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo by Nick Caito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How women think about themselves is uppermost in Berger-Sweeney\u2019s mind when she muses on the impact of women leaders at Trinity and the women students who look to them as role models. \u201cI do hope to inspire our women students to help others,\u201d she says. \u201cI think women can form networks and try and make things better for the women who come behind them. If I could have a small influence on women here, to lead by example and give them more confidence in their ability, I feel that I would have made a significant difference at Trinity and in higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo by Monica Jorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Trinity\u2019s coed pioneers did not have many women role models here when they arrived in 1969, they have watched\u2014and participated in\u2014the college\u2019s evolution as a welcoming environment for women. Though in some ways troubled by the atmosphere that greeted her in 1969, Krinitsky came to truly love the college. She currently is serving her third term as president of her class, has held other executive alumni positions, and has donated to the college for more than 30 consecutive years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is very important for people to know that we did not walk blithely into open arms of admiration and affection. It was a hostile atmosphere,\u201d Krinitsky says. \u201cBut it changed, and we changed, and [our experience] helped shape us and helped shape the college.\u201d<\/p>\n