Haverford’s first full-time female students remember the early days of co-education.

As far as we know, the subject of co-education at Haverford was first broached in 1870, when, during a May meeting, professors began discussing “the propriety and advantage of admitting female students.” They then informed the Board of Managers that they were in favor, and the Board referred the issue to an unspecified committee…This committee didn’t leave a record of its opinion, and apparently never responded. Was it too controversial a subject for the 19th century? Was it against the tenets of Orthodox Quakerism? Haverford was the most conservative of the “trinity” colleges (Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore) at that time.

In the early part of the 20th century, the topic resurfaced as women became more and more a part of the Haverford academic environment. Female candidates for master’s degrees could attend the T. Wistar Brown Graduate School during the years of its existence (1917-1927), and three received M.A.s in the early 1920s. During World War II, between 1943-45, women participated in the Relief and Reconstruction (R&R) program, training to aid
the citizens of Europe

and Asia’s bombed-out cities and towns.In the late 1960s and early ’70s, the cooperation between Haverford and Bryn Mawr was at an all-time high, and a selling point for prospective students at both schools. Dorm exchanges were very popular—nearly 25 percent of each school’s student body lived on the other’s campus—and many students took classes and pursued majors at both places. Joint extracurricular activities like the Bi-College News provided additional links between Bryn Mawr and Haverford. “Many students saw the two schools as one institution,” says Greg Kannerstein ’63, current Dean of the College. “There was fear that if Haverford went independently co-ed, it would cut back on its cooperation with Bryn Mawr and lead to competition for prospective female students.” This was the main reason why Haverford took so long to go co-ed—had it not been for Bryn Mawr, the College might have begun admitting women 10 years earlier.

“Most people on both campuses liked the idea of going to two colleges at once,” says Ruth Lindeborg BMC’80, who lived on Haverford’s campus for two years during her undergraduate days. “Bryn Mawr women were at a place with a long history of empowering women to realize their greatest potential, and at the same time they were engaged intellectually and socially in a coed community.”

“I took economics classes at Haverford, lived there for a semester, and was active on the Bi-College News,” recalls Vicki Weber BMC ’78, who is married to a ’Ford, David Behrman ’77. “My experience was that the two schools felt very cooperative, yet still quite separate and distinct. When Haverford started talking about going co-ed, some at Bryn Mawr worried about what this would do to the special and unique relationship between the colleges.”

As the ’60s ended, Haverford students did express a favorable opinion of “co-education” in the form of a student exchange with other women’s colleges. Sixteen women from Smith, Vassar and Sarah Lawrence arrived in the fall of 1969; of those, six loved the College so much they petitioned then-president Jack Coleman to let them remain after their exchange year had ended. They went on to earn bachelor’s degrees in 1972.

These events prompted Coleman—a strong advocate of co-education—to appoint a Commission on Women, headed by Dean of Admissions Bill Ambler, to once again explore the idea; in a 50-page report, the commission concluded that the admission of women would “enhance the possibilities” of Haverford’s realizing “its educational goals.” However, the Board rejected full co-education in 1974, instead opting to strengthen Haverford’s relationship with Bryn Mawr by allowing students to live, major, and take classes at either school.

There turned out to be glitches in this plan: Freshmen got no co-ed benefits, because they weren’t allowed to live off-campus in their first year. Also, Haverford came to realize that, in comparison to its peer institutions across the country (such as Swarthmore, Williams, Vassar and Amherst), it was the exception rather than the rule when it came to co-education. “There was also the worry that Haverford could no longer compete for the best male students, because many of them would choose to attend co-ed schools,” says Kannerstein.

In the fall of 1976 the Committee on Admissions Policy, headed by Professor of Philosophy Aryeh Kosman, urged the faculty to support the admission of freshman women, and the faculty agreed—reaching consensus on the subject for the first time in 106 years. In response, the Board appointed an ad hoc committee which recommended admitting, not freshman, but upperclass transfer women. As a result of this decision, Jack Coleman resigned later that year, frustrated that the motion to go co-ed had again been defeated.

Seventeen transfer students arrived in September of 1977, and while most of Haverford welcomed them, their presence did not prove to be a true solution to the co-ed dilemma: “You couldn’t have a minority that small of one gender,” says Kannerstein. In September of 1978, new president Robert Stevens stated in his inaugural address: “While Haverford does not yet admit women to the freshman class, such a course of action may be a logical development.” On May 11, 1979, the Board of Managers—swayed by the overwhelming support of the president, faculty and students, and by the impassioned testimonies of female ‘Fords like Liz (Cohen) Bercow ’80 (see p. 28)—voted for Haverford to begin admitting first-year women in the fall of 1980.

Today, female Haverford students actually outnumber males, 621 to 547. Women’s athletic teams are award-winning and highly respected, and organizations like the Women’s Center significantly contribute to the campus’ intellectual and cultural atmosphere. Although few students take advantage of the Haverford and Bryn Mawr dorm exchange (none during the fall semester of 2006), collaboration between the two schools is still strong, with many students taking classes and majoring at either campus —just like the old days.

But some alumni remember the years leading up to and immediately following co-ed, years when non-Bryn Mawr women were viewed as celebrities, curiosities or intruders (depending upon whom you spoke to), varsity women’s sports teams were in their infant stages, and questions of single-sex or unisex bathrooms were among the hot topics of the day. Here, female transfer students from the 1970s and women from the first official co-ed class of 1984 recall their days as pioneers for a new generation of ’Fords.