Newspaper editorials also expressed opposition to coeducation. On 21 February 1918 the Virginia Gazette damned the Strode Bill with faint praise, noting that coeducation would probably turn out well--after all, other states had survived the ordeal. The editorial also noted that women sought coeducation "at the price of the womanhood Virginia had cherished as a sacred thing,"4 thus expressing the age-old belief that higher education was somehow beyond the capabilities of women and would lead to the destruction of their physical, as well as their mental, health.
The Flat Hat, the student newspaper and chief forum of student opinion, did not comment on the Strode Bill until after it had passed the Senate. On February 27, the paper discussed the effects of coeducation in negative terms. It saw the necessary enlargement of the physical plant and of the faculty as being of questionable value and as a step that would not "help our tradition in the least." The article, or editorial as it may have been, suggested making another college coeducational or upgrading one of the women's normal schools. It concluded with the hopes that if coeducation became a reality, the students would "make the best of it," and "that our environment--socially and in every other way [would] be benefited by coeducation."5
The next Flat Hat article about coeducation, which appeared after the House of Delegates had voted in favor of the Strode Bill, was much more optimistic. The article stressed how the college would benefit from coeducation, with larger appropriations from the General Assembly for more buildings, including "new dormitories, another dining hall, and a new and more commodious gym." The author was excited about the improved social life that the presence of women was sure to bring and predicted that coeducation would free the students from the shackles of tradition. No longer would things have to be done merely because "that's the way it's always been done," and activities (of unspecified nature) were sure to be "rejuvenated" and of "better standards" with women participating in them.6
The college yearbook Colonial Echo also commented on the coming of the women. One page was "affectionately dedicate[d] . . . to the future coeds." The senior class, however, proudly noted its status as "the last class to graduate from the old college before it is defiled by coeducation." The students seemed not to be able to make up their minds whether they wanted the women to come.7
While the debates continued over whether or not the admission of women would really be good for the College, President Tyler made preparations to receive them. He and Professor James Southall Wilson made a fact-finding trip to women's colleges, inquiring particularly about student government and organizations and the duties and qualities of a "Dean of Women."8 Tyler decided that the dean must be both someone the women would want to emulate and a scholar because she would also be a member of the faculty. The candidate's "personality, tact and manner" had to be taken into account, as well.9 Caroline F. Tupper, a Charleston, South Carolina, native and recipient of B.A., M.A, and Ph.D. degrees from Radcliffe College, was hired as the first Dean of Women and as a professor of English. Tupper had previously taught high school and college English. She was in Virginia in 1918 working as a housing and employment secretary, helping wives of servicemen find homes and jobs near their husbands' military camps.10 There is no indication as to how she and Tyler found each other, but she had the proper scholarly credentials, and her war work was a useful background for helping young women adjust to a new environment.
The College organized two new departments for the women. One was a separate physical education program, headed by Bertha Wilder, whose background was never listed in the college catalogs. The other was a home economics department. This was organized mainly because federal funds were available from the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 to help defray the cost. This act provided money for college departments to train high school home economics teachers, rather than home economists or nutritionists, and this provision dovetailed with William and Mary's tradition of teacher training. Edith Baer, a graduate of Drexel Institute and Teacher's College of Columbia University, was hired to run this department. She had previously taught at both Drexel and Teacher's College. When she came to William and Mary, she also became State Supervisor of Home Economics for Virginia.11
The housing solution caused some disgruntlement among the men. The administration decided to put the women in the newest dormitory, Tyler Hall, thus forcing the men back into their older, more dismal dormitories. In June l9l8 the Board of Visitors made plans to hire a housemother for Tyler Hall, "to see that the young women students are properly cared for." They also decided to hire a male supervisor for the men's dormitories "to see that proper care is taken of the rooms and property" and to handle discipline.l2 Nothing in the extant records indicates whether either of these people was actually hired.13 Thus the College prepared for the arrival of its first women students, twenty-four of whom arrived in September l9l8, and vowed to integrate them fully into college life and activities so coeducation could succeed.l4
The first women were all from Virginia, except for one special student from Wisconsin.15 More than half were from Williamsburg and the Hampton Roads area. One student came from as far away as Roanoke, two from Charlottesville, and the others from eastern and southern Virginia. Although few of these early women were well enough to respond to the author' s questionnaire, those who did indicated two important reasons for their choice of William and Mary: their parents wanted them to go there, and it was close to home. At least one-fourth of them were daughters of alumni, two had brothers who were also attending William and Mary, and two were daughters of faculty or staff members of the college.16 Naturally, the academic program did not matter much since William and Mary was the only state-supported four-year college open to them. The primary reason for wanting to attend college was simply a desire to be well-educated, although a few wanted to prepare for a career. These women were from middle-class backgrounds, their fathers being small businessmen, ministers, government employees, or farmers, and their mothers homemakers. Many of the fathers and quite a few of the mothers had attended college, although almost none had college degrees. Some parents, however, had not even attended high school.
Surprisingly, after all the clamor in the press and the legislature about higher education for women, the College of William and Mary found that "going coed" was not an especially traumatic event. Janet Coleman Kimbrough, a Williamsburg resident and one of the first women to attend William and Mary, remembered that "the war was on, and everyone was thinking of the war so much more than they were of women's rights and coeducation." She described the many changes that were occurring both in Williamsburg and at the College at that time: the disruptions of war, the presence on campus of the Students' Army Training Corps, the switch to daylight savings time, increasing automobile and truck traffic, water and sewer lines coming to town, jazz music, and women taking jobs in order to free men for war service. With all this, the novelty of women on campus was just one more in a series of events to which the college folk and townspeople had to adjust.17 Furthermore, as John C. Pollard, Jr., of the class of 1923, pointed out, most of the students were from coeducational high schools, so college men and women were used to attending classes together.18
Unfortunately, little evidence exists to tell just how smoothly the transition went. The Flat Hat was not published in the fall of 1918. The Virginia Gazette ran only one editorial on the subject. It noted that "it is no half-hearted effort that is being made to simply carry out the letter of the law, but the best that is in the faculty is being put into the new system as a fixed policy and principle. For that reason we may expect success [with coeducation]."19 The Senior Class history that appeared in the 1919 Colonial Echo yearbook only "venture[d] to hope that [coeducation would bel a forward stride to the realization of larger things and of greater usefulness."20 There was a report that the men had insulted the women at a literary society debate in January 1919. This prompted an irate alumnus, J. E. Wilkins of Newport News, who had both a son and a daughter at William and Mary at the time, to write to President Tyler and scold the men for behaving in an ungentlemanly manner. Wilkins pointed out that however the men felt about the presence of the women, the state had admitted women to William and Mary, and the men had the duty to treat them decently. Wilkins did conclude that if the women had "been acting indiscreetly so as to cause criticism from the male students . . .," then the administration should "promptly correct the trouble."21
Martha Barksdale, one of the twenty-four pioneer women and later a physical education professor at William and Mary, left a very brief diary that covers part of the 1918-1919 school year. She makes no reference to any distasteful situations between the sexes. Instead she records many pleasant times shared by the men and women students, although she does mention that she found the almost nightly dances held in Tyler Hall to be a bore because she did not dance well. She also notes that the women quickly became close friends because soon after their arrival, the College was quarantined as a result of an outbreak of influenza.22
The women were left out of some of the men's organizatons. A woman became a member of the yearbook staff, but the men's literary societies did not allow the women to join. In response, the women started their own club, the Alpha Club, to which all the women belonged. It served as a literary, music, and dramatic society for the women and was also a focus for social activities. In later years, as more women enrolled, many of Alpha Club's activities were taken over by specialized groups, leaving Alpha as an honorary society which eventually became Mortar Board, a national organization that recognizes college women for service, scholarship, and leadershjp.23
The first women at William and Mary had, in addition to their regular gym classes, the opportunity to play intramural basketball and to perform folk dances. They also did a little army drilling until the armistice was signed. It took three years for William and Mary to organize any intercollegiate teams for women, so for this first year they concentrated on getting everyone involved in intramurals. Ms. Barksdale, a member of the Orange team, mentioned having to let the Black team occasionally win a basketball game in order to keep its members interested in playing. The women did take an interest in men's sports and participated in the bonf ires held to celebrate important basketball victories.24
In addition to Alpha Club, the other important women's activity was their Women's Student Government. All women were automatically members of this organization and elected their own officers: president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, and two at-large members. The government was formed "to represent and to further the best interests of the woman student body, to regulate the conduct of the women under authority of the college and to promote responsibility, loyalty, and self-control."25 Unfortunately, no record has survived of the government's first year of work.
These first women students did not have the luxury of a wide variety of courses from which to choose their schedules simply because the College was too small to offer much variety. An examination of their permanent record cards shows that they studied basic courses, such as English, mathematics, chemistry, foreign languages (French and Latin were the most popular), and history. Many also took education courses as well as classes in other departments definitely meant for teachers, such as "Grammar for High School Teachers" in the English Department and the fine arts class that taught one how to write on a blackboard. Several women enrolled in home economics classes, but physics, economics, and government had little appeal. In their later years of college study, the pattern held true to this first year. English, history, foreign languages, education, and chemistry continued to be in demand. Home economics became more popular, partly as a result of a greater number of classes being offered. Biology, government, and economics were more widely studied, also.26
The first twenty-four women laid the groundwork for what was to come. Although few in number, they started a women's student government, built the foundation of an athletic program, organized a club to sponsor debates and social events, and began participating in campus events. They also managed to achieve a higher grade average than the men.27 The next ten years would see an incredible growth in William and Mary with a rapidly expanding student body, faculty, and physical plant.
1Board of Visitors Minutes, 17 February 1918, p. 359. The three dissenters were Samuel Walker Williams, Herbert Farrar Hutcheson, and Robert Morton Hughes.
2James New Stubbs to Lyon G. Tyler, 25 February 1918, in Lyon G. Tyler Papers, Archives Acc. 1984.19, folder: James N. Stubbs; College Archives, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
3Board of Visitors Minutes, 25 June 1918, pp. 381-82. None of the three dissenters at the February meeting attended this one.
4"William and Mary, Coeducational," Virginia Gazette, 21 February 1918, p. 8.
5"Co-education," Flat Hat. 27 February 1918, p. 1.
6"Pass Coeducation," Flat Hat. 13 March 1918, p. 1.
7Colonial Echo. 1918, pp. 57 and 36.
8Board of Visitors Minutes, 19 April 1918, p. 363, and President's Report, in Board of Visitors Minutes, 25 June 1918, p. 377.
9Lyon G. Tyler to Dr. Walter A. Montgomery, 4 June 1918, in Lyon G. Tyler Papers, Archives Acc. 1984.19, folder: Coeducation.
10lnformation supplied by Dr. Tupper to her 25th year reunion book, in Radcliffe College Archives, Cambridge, Mass.
11Catalog, April 1920, p. l O.
12Board of Visitors Minutes, 10 June l 918, p. 367.
13The April 1920 catalog lists a manager of the boarding department and other administrative assistants, but no dormitory supervisors.
14"Welcome to Williamsburg, Men and Women," Virginia Gazette, 19 September l 9 l 8, p. 8.
15She was Ruth Taylor Conkey, who had already received a B.A. from Lake Forest College in Illinois. The Colonial Echo listed her with the senior class. The available sources give no clue as to why she came to William and Mary.
16Incomplete records makes it impossible to determine precisely how many were daughters of alumni.
17Janet Coleman Kimbrough, interview in the Oral History Collection, College Archives, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
18John C. Pollard, Jr., interview in the Oral History Collection, College Archives, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
19"Welcome to Williamsburg, Men and Women," Virginia Gazette, 19 September 1918, p. 8.
20Colonial Echo. 1919, p. 35.
2lJ E. Wilkins to Lyon G. Tyler, 28 January 1919, Lyon G. Tyler Papers, Archives Acc. 1984.19, Folder: Coeducation, College Archives, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
22Diary, Martha Barksdale Papers, Archives Acc. 1985.54.
23In the 1975-1976 academic year, Mortar Board began admitting men as members.
24Diary, Martha Barksdale Papers, Archives Acc. 1985.54.
25Colonial Echo. 1919, p. 57.
26Registrar s Office--Student Permanent Record Cards, Archives Acc. 1981.112.
27Dean Tupper's Report to the Board of Visitors, 11 February 1919, in Julian A. C. Chandler Papers, Archives Acc. 1982.45, folder: Caroline F. Tupper, College Archives, Swem Library, College of William and Mary. In 1921, three members of this first group of women were elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Catalogue of the Alumni and Alumnae. p. 177.
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