Getting here
Union College was transformed in the fall of 1970 with the arrival of women as full-time students.
But the journey to coeducation took decades. Here are some highlights.
1795
Union College Board of trustees chooses Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, for the College seal, surrounded by the French motto: Sous les lois de Minerva nous devonons tous frères (Under the laws of Minerva we all become brothers.”)
1865
Anne Dunbar Potts Perkins (“The Dutchess”), wife of Prof. Maurice Perkins, moves to the faculty residence in South Colonnade (Hale House) where she establishes her grand garden.
1867
Mrs. Alexander Brown of Liverpool, England, related to Howard Potter, financially supported construction of the Nott–Potter Memorial (Nott Memorial today) including the encaustic floor tile
1883
Margaret Peissner, widow of Elias Peissner, professor of German, and daughter of Tayler Lewis (Class of 1820), professor of languages. She was the first woman to hold an administrative position at Union.
1913
The will of Julia Lorillard Butterfield, wife of General Daniel Butterfield (1849), provides $100,000 to Union College for Butterfield Laboratory of the Chemistry Department as a memorial to her husband.
1918
The will of Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, widow of Russell Sage, assigns $800,000 each to Union College, Williams College, Amherst College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Hamilton College.
1919
Ely Esther Griffin, “Mother Ely” of student adoration, becomes the College Registrar. She established and ran the College Bookstore for 10 years. She also founded the student and alumni employment bureau."
1920
Anne O’Neill Beattie becomes secretary to President Charles Alexander Richmond, the first such appointment to a president of the College.
1922
Florence Fogler of General Electric, an MIT graduate, takes graduate courses in electrical engineering but is not allowed to enroll as a degree candidate. She completes master’s degree requirements in 1925.
1928
Trustees permit women to complete graduate degrees.
1947
Grace Jorgensen, a “night school girl,” urges coeducation in Concordiensis. Editors said they had solicited the article which “represents her personal opinion which otherwise would not have been made public.” (Later, Dr. Jorgensen, a prominent obstetrician, delivered more than 7,000 babies and served as director of Bellevue Women’s Hospital in Schenectady.)
1952
Ruth Anne Evans is the first woman faculty member, joining the College library with faculty status but not rank. She would become Union’s first female full professor in 1973. She retired in 1989.
1955
Barbara Rotundo, a faculty widow, is appointed to fill a part-time temporary position in English.
1958
Sally Brown Van Schaick earned enough night school credits to become the first woman to earn a bachelor’s degree (English), followed by an M.A. in education in 1961.
1963
Union's Committee on Coeducation recommends bringing in “a limited number” of women (20–30 per class at first). The College does not act.
1964
The Civil Rights Act prohibits sexual discrimination in college/university admissions.
1965
Nanette Funk joins Philosophy, the first woman to hold a regular teaching appointment
1960S
A handful of women are appointed to faculty. They include Mira Wilkins (Economics and History), Ruth Parker (Philosophy) and Jocelyn Harvey (English).
1967
The “July Committee” comprised of Union College faculty recommends coeducation.
1968
President Harold Martin appoints an ad hoc committee, headed by Prof. Carl Niemeyer of English, to study the question of becoming coeducational. The committee endorsed coeducation, followed by faculty approval in September. Colgate and Wesleyan had just become coed; Bowdoin, Williams and Amherst were poised to do so.
1969
Dena Abigail Wood George begins free dance classes in Old Chapel.
1969
Sheila Jayne Beam is appointed assistant dean of students, the College’s first woman dean.
1969
In a survey of 2,513 alumni, 60 percent favor coeducation, 32 percent oppose.
1969
The Board of Trustees votes for coeducation and calls for the addition of 100 women per class over four years, bringing enrollment from 1,600 to 2,000.
1970
Katherine M. Stout '74, described in College literature as “a top 10 percent scholar, track star, basketball player, sailplane pilot, musician and girl,” is the first of 484 female applicants accepted.
1970
126 women arrive on Union College campus.
1970
Muriel Kauffman, treasurer of Marion Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Kansas City, Missouri, is the first woman elected to the College’s board of trustees
1970
Dena Abigail Wood George writes and presents the play Minerva’s Daughters about the contributions of women to the College and the larger community.
1972
Prof. Helena Birecka of Biology is the first woman to receive tenure at Union.
1974
President Harold Martin reports to the trustees, “in ways too numerous to mention, the presence of women at the College has enhanced every aspect of undergraduate life.”
1974
Estelle Cooke-Sampson, a biology major, graduates and goes on to earn her medical degree at Georgetown University. She would later become a trustee.
1974
Andrea Barrett, a biology major, graduates. The novelist and short story writer would go on to win the National Book Award in 1996 for Ship Fever, and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001.
1974
Board of Trustees abolishes admission quotas based on sex.
1974
The College holds the first “Women’s Week.”
1975
Women comprise 33 percent of entering students
1975
President Thomas Bonner establishes the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
1976
Prof. Paula Brownlee of Chemistry is elected dean of the faculty.
1977-78
The first two sororities are established: Sigma Delta Tau and Delta Gamma.
1979
Christine A. Cameron '79 is elected captain of the newly-formed women’s track team.
1981
Delta Delta Delta sorority established.
1985
Jennifer Inman, a computer science major, is Union’s first woman valedictorian.
1985
Katherine E. Magliato, biology major, graduates. She would join the Board of Trustees in 2008, author Healing Heart: Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon, and inspire a TV pilot about a woman heart surgeon.
1986
Gamma Phi Beta sorority established.
1987
Diane T. Blake becomes the College’s first woman comptroller. She would advance to chief financial officer in 1992, vice president of finance in 1993 and vice president of finance and administration in 1997.
1989
The Women’s Studies program is formed by Prof. Linda Patrick of Philosophy and Joanne Tobiessen, director of the Career Development Center, who co–chair the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
1989
Trish Williams becomes first African American assistant dean of students. In 2019, she became senior associate dean of students and director of student conduct.
1990
The estate of Margaret M. Dyson, through the Dyson Foundation, contributes $5 million toward the restoration of the Nott Memorial, which was rededicated on the College’s bicentennial in 1995.
1992
The Class of 1992 is 50:50, men-women.
1992
Prof. Margaret Schadler, associate dean of undergraduate programs, introduces and administers the Steinmetz Symposium, still a popular annual exposition of student achievement.
1993
Constance (Connie) Schmitz, landscape specialist, becomes Union’s first full–time woman gardener.
1998
Rachel Graham graduates after founding COCOA House (Children of Our Community Open to Achievement), an outreach center for local youth served by Union student-mentors.
2007
Gretchel Hathaway, dean of diversity and inclusion, becomes the first African-American and Native-American woman reporting directly to the president.
2009
Associate Professor Deidre Hill Butler of Sociology is the first African American woman to earn tenure. She is director of Africana Studies and a POSSE mentor.
2013
Prof. Therese McCarty is the first woman acting president, serving six months. She also served 2007–2016 as the Stephen J. and Diane K. Ciesinski Dean of the Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs. She is the John Prior Lewis '41 Professor of Economics.
2015
The Board of Trustees alters the College’s motto to recognize women: Sous les lois de Minerve nous devenons tous frères et sœurs (“Under the laws of Minerva, we all become brothers and sisters.”)
(Source: Encyclopedia of Union College History, Wayne Somers, ed.; “Women at Union,” pp. 795–798, by Faye Dudden.)