|
Web Exclusives:
Under the Ivy March
12, 2003: "No one could think of a reason why not, so the University last week admitted its first woman student," wrote Lester Munson '61 in his On the Campus column of April 28, 1961. He was referring to Sabra Follett Meservey, "a housewife who also spends some time teaching history at Douglass College in nearby New Brunswick. A graduate of Barnard and Columbia, Mrs. Meservey will pursue her studies in Turkish history in the Graduate School." Mrs. Meservey did indeed earn her Ph.D. in 1966, earning along with it a place in Princeton history. Curiously, however, the announcement of her arrival didn't seem to trouble usually curmudgeonly Tiger alumni, even with Munson's additional reporting of Dean of the Graduate School Donald R. Hamilton '35's comment that the only reason Princeton wasn't going to admit female graduate students on a regular basis was due to lack of housing. Not even Munson's insinuation of a university cover-up ... "Mrs. Meservey was admitted along with 500-odd other graduate students on April 1, but Nassau Hall apparently wasn't going to say anything about it" ... fanned alumni wrath. The only letter PAW received after Munson's announcement came from De Witt C. Jones '13, who sent a poem ... what is it about controversy that moves Princetonians to verse? ... he had composed after hearing that Yale was considering going coed. ("Dear old Princeton may need savin'/ From the plague now threatening good New Haven," hurrahed the final line.) Alumni found more to say about the ladies after the following issue, where a dyspeptic Rhys Evans '63 railed against the Trustees' decision regarding the "women-in-the-dorms" rule. The student government and the Faculty Committee on Undergraduate Life had asked for a midnight deadline on both Friday and Saturday nights; they got instead 11 p.m. on Saturdays, with Friday maintained at 9 p.m. (The rest of the week women were booted after 7 p.m.) A minor campus riot developed the next night, as 500 undergraduates rallied in front of Prospect House (then the President's home), ripping down part of a fence. Concluded Evans, "The campus will quiet down again to lick its wounds, betrayed again by a university which is, in my judgment, dedicated to scholarship and $53 Million for Princeton and in which the undergraduate is a necessary evil." Editor John Davies '41 found Evans's tone alarming enough to write the disclaimer, "Rhys Evans is managing editor of the Daily Princetonian and his indignant account of this hassle reflects the bitter editorials of that traditionally terrible-tempered publication. It should be taken not so much as what happened but what undergraduates think happened." This note earned a response from Hamilton Meserve '59, who wrote in sympathy with Evans that Princeton "takes a benevolent, boys-will-be-boys attitude toward student opinion and organizations" and that Davies's comments showed a "lack of respect." But Thomas Taplin '42 thought Evans should be counting his blessings. "In the olden days, as it were, a 6 p.m. curfew was in force ... every night," wrote Taplin. "The latest modification means, in effect, that during a college years approximately 332,775 additional hours can be spent by more young women in more dormitories, assuming that one quarter of the student body did it." He concluded, "The limitations imposed must be reasonable; otherwise, an additional 101,500 hours could be devoted to this sort of thing, and that would cause a stir." Obviously, it just took a bit of scientific evaluation to apply
to the problem. Mrs. Meservey no doubt chose the right place.
Jane Martin ’89 is PAW's former editor-in-chief. You can reach her at paw@princeton.edu
|
