History of Cornell University - Coeducation

Coeducation

In 1870, Cornell admitted its first female students, making it the first coeducational school among what came to be known as the Ivy League. However, the admission of female students was limited until the construction of Sage Hall to serve as a women's dormitory in 1872.

The requirement that women (at least freshman women) must live in dormitories, which started in 1884, served to constrain female student admissions until 1970, when Cornell dropped its freshman dorm residency requirement. As a result, the academic admission standards for women in each college were typically higher than the corresponding standards for men. In general, women have been over-represented in certain schools and under-represented in others. For example, the NYS College of Home Economics and the Cornell School of Nursing historically drew a disproportionate number of women students, while the College of Engineering attracted fewer women.

Early in the history of the university, female students were separated from male students in many ways. For example, they had a separate entrance and lounges in Willard Straight Hall, a separate student government, and a separate page (edited by women) in the Cornell Daily Sun. The male students were required to take "drill" (a precursor to ROTC), but the women were exempt. One account of the history of coeducation at Cornell claims that in the very beginning, "ale students were almost unanimously opposed to co-education, and vigorously protested the arrival of a group of 16 women, who promptly formed a women's club with a broom for their standard, and 'In hoc signo vinces' as their motto." In the 1870s and 1880s, female Cornell students on campus were generally ignored by male students. Women did not have a formal role in the annual commencement ceremony until 1935, when the student government selected a woman to be Class Poet. In 1936, the Willard Straight Hall Board of Managers voted to allow women to eat in its cafeteria. Until the 1970s, male students resided in west campus dormitories while women were housed in the north campus. As of 2010, the only remaining women's dormitory is Balch Hall, due to a restriction in the gift that funded it. Lyon Hall (which for most of its history was a men-only dormintory), also currently disallows male residents on its lower floors. All other dormitories were converted to co-educational housing in the late 1970s.

The NYS College of Veterinary Medicine was an early pioneer in educating women. Florence Kimball, the first woman in the United States to receive the DVM degree, graduated from Cornell in 1910. Seven of the first 11 women to become licensed veterinarians in this country were Cornell graduates. However, until the early 1980s, the Vet College limited the number of women in each entering class to four or less, regardless of female applicants' qualifications.

With the implementation of Title IX in the mid-1970s, Cornell significantly expanded its athletic offerings for women. The Department of Physical Education and Athletics moved from having all women's activities housed in Helen Newman Hall to having men's and women's programs in all facilities.