This year marks the 100th anniversary of the University’s first female freshman class, which contained 17 women. The women’s and gender studies program celebrated “100 Years of Women” at the French House on Monday night to mark the historic event. Becky Ropers-Huilman, women’s and gender studies program director, said “100 Years of Women” is a year-long celebration. “The purpose for tonight was to get people to come and enjoy and celebrate, and I think we accomplished that,” Ropers-Huilman said. Students, faculty and staff watched a slide-show presentation chronicling the accomplishments of women at the University over a span of 100 years. “It’s interesting,” said Amy Potter, geography graduate student. “You see the pictures in the slide show of the students and their organizations, and you slowly see that women were making their mark.” Mary Christine Herget and her cousin Mary Catherine Huckabay VanDuzee attended the event. The University named Herget Hall after their grandmother who graduated in 1921. “We recognized so many people in the slide show who our grandmother spoke so highly of,” said VanDuzee, who wore her grandmother’s 1921 graduation ring. The slide show presented information about many of the premiere academic and social accomplishments of women at the University. The University’s first sorority, Kappa Delta, was established in 1909, the first woman was admitted into the law school in 1914 and the first all-female dorm opened on campus in 1929. The slide show also presented facts about women overcoming inequality concerning gender and race at the University. When women first enrolled at the University, they attended co-ed classes and were prohibited from studying law, chemistry or agriculture because they were not considered “suitable” subjects for women to study. Women began lobbying for equal rights on campus in 1966. The American Civil Liberties Union, which advocates equal rights for all individuals, filed suit on behalf of female students at the University on March 10, 1970. The equalized rules were finalized in 1973. In 1956 the University celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first female freshman class. Many of the women who graduated in 1906 attended the event. It was not until the 1960s when the first African-American woman enrolled at the University. Maxine Crump became the first African-American woman to live in a dorm on campus, but she lived alone because of segregation rules. The slide show documented several other accomplishments by female African-American students including the establishment of the first African-American sorority, the first African-American Golden Girl, Claudeidra Minor, in 1981 and the University’s first African-American female Corps of Cadets Commander, Daphne Lasalle, in 2002. “It’s nice to recognize the accomplishments of women from over 100 years,” Potter said.
—–Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected]