Saint Mary’s goes co-ed

By Ashley Acosta
Cardinal Staff

The 1960s brought many drastic social changes to the United States. The Vietnam War was in full swing, psychedelic music dominated the airwaves, Women’s Liberation was a household concept, hippie ideals overtook the youth and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
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During this new age, Saint Mary’s College was searching for a new identity and looking for ways to grow and keep up with the times. In 1968, officials at Saint Mary’s acknowledged that its staff included female professors, but the student body was all-male. The college decided it was time for a transition to a co-ed institution.

The Saint Mary’s all-male campus was experiencing a decline in numbers. The challenge was to find ways to increase and expand the enrollment pool while still keeping up with a changing society. At that time, the college was affiliated with the College of Saint Teresa and Winona State University. Administrators concluded the best solution was to merge with the Saint Teresa all-female campus.

Saint Mary’s officials proposed integrating the campus to the Sisters of Saint Francis, who would ultimately make the decision on behalf of Saint Teresa.

After much discussion, the Sisters decided Saint Teresa was not ready to join forces with the all-male campus, and Saint Mary’s was back to square one.

A new proposal called for opening its admission to women, but this idea presented another concern. Officials worried that it would adversely impact the enrollment of its sister school. Saint Mary’s administration debated how to open enrollment to women without taking students from Saint Teresa.

Officials came up with a compromise. Saint Mary’s students would be able to take certain areas of study, such as nursing, elementary education and home economics, strictly at Saint Teresa while remaining official students of Saint Mary’s.

In December of 1968, the Saint Mary’s Board of Trustees
approved the new proposal that would allow admission of women as full-time students. Twenty-nine women attended Saint Mary’s that December with the full support of the faculty and staff.

Former history professor Dr. William Crozier supported integration of females. “The decision to admit (women) was a great one,” Crozier said. “Women changed the atmosphere, making it better. Women challenged the males academically in a sort of competitive way, making the education better for everyone.”

Women on campus not only resulted in a change of atmosphere, but also physical changes. There was need for additional housing, so the college renovated Skemp Residential Hall as well as Griffin Hall.

Since the first class in 1968, the enrollment of women has rapidly progressed. Throughout the 1970s, when most colleges experienced a severe decline in enrollment, Saint Mary’s saw a 20-percent increase.

By 1979, Saint Mary’s experienced record enrollment numbers with 1,200 students, half of those being female. From 1968 to 1979, women’s enrollment continued to increase, and today 53 percent of the Saint Mary’s student body is female. In the last four decades, Saint Mary’s has evolved from its initial 29 women to nearly 700.

Today, women play vital roles in academics, athletics, arts and student organizations and clubs.