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Year One of Women at The Governor’s Academy
Archives
Trustee minutes, February 1970
The Beginning of a New Era
Year One of Women at The Governor’s Academy
THE ARCHIVES
For over 200 years, with only two ten-year exceptions, Governor Dummer Academy had been a boys’ school. Catalogs and fundraising efforts touted the Academy’s success in educating boys and leading them on the path to manhood. In 1971, that changed forever when the first girls arrived. Here is a look back at the decision and the words of those who lived through the era.
The story behind making this decision had both a public and a private side. Publicly, the decision had almost unanimous support, with concerns primarily related to logistics rather than philosophy: creating bathrooms and locker rooms, developing athletic programs, and hiring female faculty, at an estimated cost of about $1,000,000. Privately, this traditional school was concerned about the decision’s potential impact on the institution and its mission to create leaders among men. The topic of admitting girls was initially brought up in earnest during the February 1970 Board of Trustees meeting. According to the minutes from that meeting, “Mr. Dietz asked if this might not be the time to consider co-education. The entire committee was in agreement that it should be considered favorably.” Perhaps not coincidentally, that spring, the trustees of both Exeter and St. Paul’s voted in favor of admitting girls. During the prior year, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale all announced plans to admit women. The floodgates were opening, so it was no surprise that the Board of Trustees wanted to investigate this option as well. While the initial discussion took place in February of 1970, plans stalled over the next eight months. Many assume the decision was financially motivated. Applications for admission at that time were declining, particularly among prospective boarding students. The school had mostly been able to fill its admissions quota, but much of this had been done by over-enrolling day students to compensate for vacancies in the boarding population. Coeducation brought a new pool of applicants for day admission, which didn’t solve the problem of filling dormitory beds, but did assist in maintaining tuition revenue. While concern about tuition revenue may have motivated some supporters of coeducation, factors such as the changing educational and political landscape also influenced the Board of Trustees’ decision.
In January of 1971, a proposal for the admission of girls came to a vote. In the minutes of the January 23, 1971 Trustee Meeting, Carl A. Pescosolido, Jr. described the flip-flopping on the issue:
“After the most heated exchange that this writer has witnessed since becoming part of this Board, and after at least a dozen attempts at putting a motion into a form acceptable to all members present, and after Mr. Smith, Schumann, Goodhue had left, it was moved and seconded that the Trustees accept the recommendation of the Headmaster and to have girl day students admitted in the Fall of 1971.”
Although this seemed to be the end of the discussion, Pescosolido surprisingly followed this by writing, “After further heated discussion, the motion was defeated.” Why was the original motion defeated? Perhaps trustees feared the expense of creating adequate facilities for girls, or maybe they worried that their standing as “the finest” all-boys school in the area (according to one trustee) should be preserved. While the rationale behind the original defeat is unclear, we know that the vote did not end the discussion. In fact, Pescosolido records that, “After considerable further discussion it was moved, and duly seconded that the Board direct the Headmaster to accept girl day students in the fall of 1971. It was unanimously voted.” What convinced the original naysayers was
THE ARCHIVES
not included in the notes from the meeting, but in a 2016 interview, Dick Phippen ’38, Trustee Emeritus, shared his memories from that day: “The board seemed to be the lynchpin that didn’t want to have it happen. I think the faculty were more enthusiastic ... there was quite a lot of talk about it ... this shouldn’t happen, this is a boys’ school, and [some of] the alumni were quite upset about it ... But it finally came to a vote and it was a [unanimous] vote and it was probably the most exciting thing that we did.” The back and forth represented the Trustees’ challenge of navigating their own feelings as well as those of other constituencies: students, faculty, and alumni. Ultimately, they sided with what was likely the majority opinion of all of these groups. Voting to admit women was step one. Now, the Academy needed to find girls that were both interested and qualified. An interview with John Witherspoon published in The Governor in the spring of 1971, only five months prior to the opening of school, revealed the potential for an awkward climate in the fall. The student interviewer asked if Witherspoon was “giving girl applicants priority,” and if he would “give priority to the [girls] who were attractive.” These “priorities” may have shaped student attitudes towards future female students. Witherspoon, likely along with many of the male students, was “astonished at the number who seem to like to play basketball.” Most male students and faculty couldn’t imagine how much these girls would resemble the boys in their skills and interests. The identity of the school had been so intertwined with its role as a boys’ school that many were unable to see beyond this role. Despite its naivete regarding these incoming female students, the campus community was generally excited about the change. The 1972 Milestone explained that “On opening day one could sense the added excitement” and also remarked that the addition of girls “was for most a pleasant change.” Students called the admission of girls a “welcomed change” that would create “a more realistic atmosphere.” Faculty seemed to share students’ positive outlook, with one writing: “The real question is: why not have girls at Governor Dummer?”
According to Faculty Emeritus Mike Moonves P’02, “Everyone was supportive of coeducation, but perhaps the planning wasn’t what it should have been.” Moonves’ comment was an understatement. While the estimated cost of preparing the campus for girls was $1,000,000, only a fraction of this was spent prior to the girls’ arrival. Few of the changes to infrastructure used to calculate the cost were put in place by the fall of 1971. While the community may have been ready for the change mentally, logistically the campus fell short. Instead of renovating the Alumni Gym to include new showers, toilets, and locker rooms for the girls, Boynton was repurposed, at a significant monetary savings. The school had taken Boynton “offline” as a dormitory during the previous year as it struggled to admit enough qualified boarding students. In the fall of 1971, Boynton took on a new role as the headquarters for the newly admitted females. Boynton was all purpose: locker room, showers, lounge, and all around safe haven for the girls during that school year. Boynton’s role may have contributed to the bond described by Anne MacKaySmith ’75 in her 1991 The Archon article. “What strikes me, in retrospect, is that there was an unusual fellowship among the girls in the first days of coeducation: freshmen hobnobbing with juniors, smokers with non-, girls who were decidedly cool with those who in a later era have been known as nerds or tweeds.” Other girls from that first year spoke of gathering in Boynton and using the opportunity to both vent and connect. During a 2001 panel discussion, one alumna from this first year spoke of girls devising a plan in the Boynton lounge for a “walk-out,” which never came to fruition.
The school also needed to address the need for programming. Girls’
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sports were not yet up and running. Headmaster Wilkie and the Trustees had discussed the need to provide athletic opportunities for the girls, yet provisions for an interscholastic athletic program had not been put in place. The girls that fall were expected to participate in either recreational soccer or modern dance. Yearbook photos show girls playing soccer in shorts and t-shirts. The school had not yet hired a coach for girls’ teams; neither uniforms nor opponents from other schools were part of their experience. Hiring for academic subjects was an issue as well. Despite discussions regarding the importance of role models for the girls, the school had only a few female faculty members and leaned heavily on the unpaid (and often unrecognized) faculty wives to assist in this area. The male faculty, despite their theoretical support for coeducation, did not have the experience with girls to guide them in all areas. Today we can laugh at former faculty member Marshall Clunie’s directive to students regarding dress for a formal event. Clunie announced, “Boys will wear jackets and ties and girls will wear—whatever it is that girls wear when boys wear jackets and ties.” Whether it was athletic opportunities, bathrooms, advising, or dress code, Governor Dummer, despite good intentions, was decidedly unprepared for its new female arrivals.
The transition to coeducation did not end in 1971, but evolved over many years. Girls went from being a significant minority of the student population to being a large portion of the student body. Current girls’ athletic teams often dominate the league, and multiple departments have female teachers outnumbering male. While The Governor’s Academy continues to evolve into a more inclusive institution, 1971 marked a dramatic move towards this goal.
