Female Pioneers Play Key Role in Institution’s Evolution 

莫拉·金·斯库利著 

For Trinity, and for many other colleges and universities, going coed was a matter of survival. 当 西奥多·戴维奇·洛克伍德48年 7月1日成为总统, 1968, he had three major challenges: reviewing and reworking the curriculum, improving the college’s financial situation, and determining whether Trinity could continue to thrive as a men’s college. Dean of the Faculty Robert Fuller immediately took the lead in assessing the option of admitting women, writing a recommendation 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.  

Kirk Marckwald ’69 was among a handful of students selected to serve on the Committee on Coeducation that Lockwood convened in the fall of 1968. “的 impetus was for a small college to maintain its standing and attract both good professors and great students,马克瓦尔德回忆道, now founder and principal of California Environmental Associates. “的 big question was whether the trustees would go for it. 的re 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. 这对体育项目有什么影响? 很明显, it didn’t affect it other than ironically over the years the female athletic program accelerated and brought credit to the college.” 

写在 三一三脚架 “里面” section in December 1968, David Sarasohn ’71, then features editor of 三脚架 (现在是前者 编辑专栏作家 在俄勒冈州的), 我是这么说的:Compelling as the purely academic reasons … the social necessity may be even more important.他接着说, “… the state of extracurricular activities at the college is lamentable” and that on “Friday and Saturday nights about half the campus flings itself at illegal speeds” toward campuses with women “while the other half sulks in the dormitory and feels sorry for itself.” 

Women had actually made their way to campus as graduate students as early as the 1920s. 四十多年后, 1969年春天, the first female undergraduates came to Trinity through an exchange program with Vassar College. That “it is so unremarkable in my mind, it shows that it was no big deal,马克瓦尔德回忆道. “的y were smart, talented people who had great ideas and contributed well to discussions.” 

1973年的乔伊斯·克里尼斯基是其中之一 106 female first-years in the Class of 1973, 还有49名女转校生, statistics noted by former college archivist Peter Knapp ’65 in his authoritative tome, 二十世纪的全球十大网赌正规平台. “It was very competitive to get into Trinity,克里尼斯基回忆道, a teacher who later became a real estate agent. “的y actually sent a letter to the parents in which they talked about how they took only one in every 10 women.” 

Krinitsky says she remembers a harsh climate. “If you walked into the dining room hall alone for dinner, you would get audibly booed,” she recalls. “Something sparked real distress in some men on campus. 的y had a protest sleep-out on the quad that was featured on the front page of 的 哈特福德报.” 

Jan Gimar ’73 notes there was resistance among some of the upper-year students. “的re were those who just wanted things the way they had been, 但幸运的是，这种情况并不普遍,吉玛说。, 他的职业生涯是什么 他是美国童子军的主管.  

不仅仅是学生. “I think there were a number of faculty who had been accustomed to operating in single-sex situations who were a little bit taken aback,萨拉索恩回忆道.  

在Gimar的例子中, he sought a coed school; indeed, he would not have applied to Trinity had the school remained single sex. “我希望那里有女人,他说, looking back with fondness on the tight-knit group of women and men in his Wheaton dorm. 

Alyson Adler ’73, an attorney, recalls coed dorm life with both humor and fondness. 她回忆说 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. “的re was no barrier that would keep a guy from wandering through at any time. It was a coed dorm in every way,” she says. “A lot of schools that went coed didn’t go that far. … Trinity embraced coeducation very fully compared with other schools that went coed at the time.” 

While Adler remembers sexism on campus, she doesn’t recall it as onerous. “In class, I never felt marginalized or intimidated. I was accepted by my professors, by the guys in my classes. 我感觉很舒服，”她说. 

Krinitsky says she thought about transferring but decided to stay. “As the year went along, I was making friends and getting happier. Despite challenges with some of the faculty, I liked where I was academically.”  

Time—and numbers—also worked on the side of coeducation. “Most of us who came in with the freshman class in 1969 were distressed and worried because so many girls left after that first year,吉玛回忆道。, who now is vice president of the Class of 1973. And while the college doesn’t have statistics to verify the number of women who transferred, 每年都有新的女学生. “Every year it got better because the girls had reinforcements. 的 numbers made the difference by senior year.”  

科妮莉亚"科妮"索恩伯格，80年, who today serves as the college’s first female chair of the Board of Trustees, looks back in awe at the first women who enrolled at Trinity. “Those early classes of women were behavioral engineers, although I doubt they would refer to themselves as such,索恩伯格说。. “当 I arrived on the scene in 1976 as a first-year—then still called a fresh男人- - - - - -concerns over lavatory configurations had turned to other more meaningful matters. 这牵涉到教育法第九条, 运动队必须分配资源, 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. 

“It’s 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,索恩伯格说。. 

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, 该校的第一位女校长, 乔安妮Berger-Sweeney, 同年开始掌舵. And the Student Government Association (SGA) currently is led by a female student, Schnadig家庭学者 克里斯蒂娜 德国美诺公司的19.  

Berger-Sweeney believes that these women leaders have provided a critical new lens for the college. “It is clear that women bring new perspectives when they assume an executive leadership role in an organization that historically has been led by men,她解释道. “Research shows that women are often viewed as more aspirational, 善解人意, 授权他人, 作为领导者更有合作精神. 如果你问校园选民, they probably would say that I push our faculty, 工作人员, 学生们也应该少些防备, 更多的合作, and more creative—taking chances when making important decisions. I also think that they would view my leadership at Trinity as less hierarchical and more inclusive in practice, 不仅仅是修辞上的包容. I also ask questions that may not have been asked before in the organization.” 

例如, one of Berger-Sweeney’s first moves as president was to narrow in on how sexual misconduct was handled on campus. 探讨所涉及的问题, she organized and headed Trinity’s Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct. “的 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. 的 work of the campaign also helped to shape many of the student life initiatives in our strategic plan, 峰会,她解释道. 

在学生会层面, Miele是女性开拓者之一, serving as only the seventh female SGA president at Trinity. “It’s a little intimidating when working with administrators and making sure I’m taken seriously by the student body,米勒说。, 反思性别如何影响她的角色. “It’s a thought, but I try not to let it be an issue. 总有更多的事情要做. I think it’s always important to keep the dialogue open when it comes to sexual harassment, 身体羞辱, 以及女性赋权. 总有改进的余地.” 

How women think about themselves is uppermost in Berger-Sweeney’s mind when she muses on the impact of women leaders at Trinity and the women students who look to them as role models. “I do hope to inspire our women students to help others,” she says. “I 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.” 

While Trinity’s coed pioneers did not have many women role models here when they arrived in 1969, they have watched—and participated in—the college’s evolution as a welcoming environment for women. Though in some ways troubled by the atmosphere that greeted her in 1969, 克里尼斯基开始真正爱上了这所大学. She currently is serving her third term as president of her class, 是否担任过其他校友高管职位, and has donated to the college for more than 30 consecutive years. 

“I 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,” Krinitsky says. “But it changed, and we changed, and [our experience] helped shape us and helped shape the college.”