Last month, the Intercultural Affairs Committee sent a note to the college community that March is National Women’s History Month, inaugurated thirty years ago by the The National Women’s History Project, now celebrated across the land. “How is Women’s History Month relevant to me?” one student asked after reading the email. What follows is one answer to this question. 

During the month of March, the members of the Intercultural Affairs Committee decided to try to bring the significance of Women’s History Month home by investigating the importance of women to the history of Hampden-Sydney College.  We didn’t have to look far.  Through interviews with female administrators, faculty, and alumnae, and a great amount of help from Angela Way, Director of the Esther Thomas Atkinson Museum of Hampden-Sydney College, we learned a lot.  Although the mission of Hampden-Sydney College is to form good men, some of her good citizens have been women. 

There have always been women on campus and they’ve always played an important role in the lives of students.  Mention the names Gerry Pettus, Dottie Fahrner, and Erlene Bowman to any student or graduate of the last twenty years and you will likely hear stories of the smiles, greetings, care, and support these women have provided to their Hampden-Sydney “sons.”  Another such woman in Hampden-Sydney history is Ms. Minnie Lacy.  Her father was the college physician in the 1890s.  As was common at colleges across the nation at the time, students lived in boarding houses and there was no College-run dining hall.  Boarding houses were often the homes of faculty and staff.  Lacy house (now called Hampden House) was the most desirable of the fourteen boarding houses on campus.  Miss Minnie took over running the boarding house and fed up to fifty students while renting them rooms.  Miss Minnie required that all students arrive to dinner properly attired in coat and tie.  According to a statement in the Record (March 1976,) Miss Minnie was considered to “embody the spirit of Hampden-Sydney.  It was a better college because she had lived there.  Her noble life has been an inspiration and benediction to those who were privileged to know her.” 

Although a men’s college, there have been seven female graduates of Hampden-Sydney.  The first was Kim Stahl in 1977 and the most recent was Nicole Reamer in 2009.  There have been a number of other female students on campus as a result of cooperative learning exchanges with other area colleges starting in the early 1970s.  In 1976 Elsa Harvey shared the Wilson Greek Award with Daniel Hodgson.  Harvey was a student from Longwood and the 1976 edition of The Record states that she was “the first woman ever to receive an academic award at Hampden-Sydney.”  Harvey completed over 42 hours of study at Hampden-Sydney College before graduating from Longwood.  1992 graduate of Hampden-Sydney College Eunice Carwile had this to say about her time as a student on The Hill: 

I really felt I belonged in Mr. Brinkley’s Western Man (now Western Culture) class.  Whenever a student would answer his question correctly, the professor would throw a quarter in his direction.  The day Mr. B threw a quarter to me, I knew I was “one of the guys.”  

The late 1970s also brought another change to the classroom: women faculty.  Anne Lund and Mary Saunders were the first women to join the faculty and blazed the path that led to approximately 30 percent of the faculty being female today.  Drs. Lund and Saunders were the first female faculty to receive tenure and each served the college for approximately 30 years.  In a recent interview Dr. Lund had this to say about the changes she’s seen on campus:  

Hampden-Sydney College is different (now) because it is not a rare thing for women to be professors these days!  It is a great place to work and it always was for me.  I think early on I concentrated on doing my classes well and balancing raising a family with my academic life.  Students in the sciences were always wonderfully respectful…  Hampden-Sydney College is still a great place to work with wonderful people.  I have known wonderful men, students and colleagues too, from the beginning.  I still keep in touch with a few from almost the first years.  Wow.  There are also some of the strong traditions still present—honor and service among those traditions. 

Beyond the classroom, there are women making important decisions for the future of Hampden-Sydney College.  On our Board of Trustees are two women: Cynthia Citrone and Linda Marks.  Nor are they the first.  1973 member of the Board of Trustees, Mary Ross Scott Reed, stated her goal was to help the College with preservation of the historic buildings on campus.  And what decisions for the future of the College could be more important than those made every day by Anita Garland, Dean of Admissions?  She is at the helm selecting the very students who will carry on the traditions of the College. 

So, how is Women’s History Month relevant to the members of the Hampden-Sydney Community?  I would wager that every student on campus has been guided, taught, challenged, and encouraged by a Hampden-Sydney woman.  Women’s History Month, then, is a time to recognize and appreciate the contributions of all our Hampden-Sydney women.

Related posts:

1. Construction with a Cause
2. Restover Demolished Over Break