November 22, 1971

Members of the Trustee Committee on Women at Vassar held an open meeting with students and faculty members to discuss ways of continuing Vassar’s special commitment to the education of women in the era of coeducation. “Almost everyone who spoke,” reported Margaret Sanborn ’73 in The Miscellany News, “agreed that some form of Women’s Studies is an important point to consider…. Nancy Schrom ’69, who is currently teaching a course on the history of women, suggested a distinct department, which she felt would have the advantage of giving students more…opportunity to go into greater depth in their studies. Other speakers suggested an interdepartmental program, which could offer courses in psychology, art and literature to name a few.” Other topics discussed ranged from concerns that “women comprise only 33 percent of the full professors at Vassar” to efforts to reopen the question of “setting a limited ration of men to women enrolled in the college.” Earlier in the fall the trustees had reaffirmed their earlier projection of an enrollment of 2,400 student equally distributed between women and men.

The Miscellany News

Women’s Studies was established as a course of study in the Independent Program in 1978, and it became a fully operational multidisciplinary program in 1985. Nancy Schrom Dye ’69 was professor of history and dean of the faculty at Vassar between 1988 and 1994, when she became the 13th president—and the first woman president—of Oberlin College.