Three Panelists Give Their Perspectives during Common Hour Event
What: Four people who played key roles in the admission of women to Trinity and have keen recollections of that groundbreaking event, will share their perspectives during a Common Hour event, “Coeducation at Trinity: The Early Years, 1969-1984.”
When: Thursday, October 8, at 12:15 p.m.
Where: Washington Room in Mather Hall on the Trinity campus.
Background: In 1969, Trinity admitted its first female students. A moderator and three panelists will be on hand to discuss that historic occasion. They include College Archivist Peter Knapp ’65, who will discuss the reasons why Trinity made the momentous decision to admit women and the process by which the decision was implemented. In his book, Trinity College in the Twentieth Century, Knapp wrote that, “Coeducation has had an impact on every facet of Trinity’s institutional life, ranging from the composition of the student body, the content and breadth of the curriculum, and increased diversity of the faculty, to student life and intercollegiate athletics.”
A second panelist will be Judy Dworin, who was one of the first four women to graduate from Trinity as a member of the Class of 1970. She had transferred into the College, beginning a 35-year association with the school. She returned to Trinity to teach dance and found the dance department. She also founded the Judy Dworin Performance Project in 1989 based on her belief that the arts play an important role in challenging and creating change in the universe – personal, educational, and global. The Project provides cutting-edge performances that address issues of social justice through the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble; an educational residency program of long standing, Moving Matters!, that supports a collaborative residency with Trinity at Parkville Community School; and a mentoring program for artists called “Artists Mentoring Artists.”
Dori Katz was the first woman to be appointed to a tenure-track position. She joined the faculty in 1969 to teach French. Katz will offer her thoughts about what it was like to be a female faculty member in the early days of coeducation and her observations of female students and their experiences. Katz was not only the first woman on the faculty to hold a tenure-track position, but the first to be granted tenure, the first woman elected to the Appointments and Promotions Committee, and the first woman to chair that committee. Before retiring, Katz was a professor of modern languages and literature.
Ronald Spencer ’64, associate academic dean emeritus, will moderate the panel. He will speak about coeducation from the perspective of someone who graduated from Trinity when it was all male and joined the faculty in 1968, just a few months before the coeducation decision was announced. That action, he contends, “was the most important, most beneficial decision in the modern history of the College -- and perhaps in its entire history, save for the decision to found it in the first place.”
A light lunch will be provided for pre-registered participants. To reserve a spot, please email: common-hour@trincoll.edu.
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