Mississippi University For Women V. Hogan - Background of The Case

Background of The Case

The Mississippi University for Women was established in 1884 in Columbus, Mississippi and previously named Industrial Institute and College and Mississippi State College for Women. It was the first state-supported women's college in the United States. In 1971, the School of Nursing was established, initially offering a two-year associate's degree and later four-year baccalaureate degree and graduate degree program.

In 1979, Joe Hogan, a registered nurse and nursing supervisor in Columbus who did not have a baccalaureate degree in nursing, applied for admission to the MUW School of Nursing's baccalaureate program. Although he was otherwise qualified, he was denied admission to the School of Nursing. School officials provided the option to audit courses in which he was interested, but could not enroll for credit because he was male. Hogan could have attended classes and received credit in one of Mississippi's two public, coeducational programs leading to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, but these were at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg (178 miles from Columbus) and the University of Mississippi in Oxford (114 miles from Columbus). Hogan filed an action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, claiming the single-sex admissions policy of MUW's School of Nursing violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and seeking injunctive and declaratory relief as well as compensatory damages.