University of North Carolina becomes fully coeducational
Friday discusses the process by which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened up full admittance to women students during the late 1950s and early 1960s. At that time, Friday was president of the university and he worked closely with Anne Queen, associate director of the YWCA and director of the merged YMCA-YWCA. Friday describes Queen's role (and his) in the process and the benefits of having a coeducational university.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with William C. Friday, December 18, 1990. Interview L-0049. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- CINDY CHEATHAM:
-
Well, I wanted to ask you about that. I wanted to ask you a little bit
about the environment for women on campus while you served as President.
What was it like and how did Ann work with the women at this
University?
- WILLIAM C. FRIDAY:
-
Well, you know, when I first came here, there was not open admissions for
women at all. Then when you ask Governor Sanford about this he, when he
was Governor, and I and a man named Dallas Herring down here who at that
time was head of the school system for the state, created what is known
as the Carlysle Commission. That work is really going to be a very
profound item of history in this state when somebody
takes the time to evaluate it because out of that process came the
opening up of the University where all four year degree schools became
arts and sciences campuses. We opened up the admission of women. We
opened up UNC-G for the admission of men. We delimited the range of
doctoral training, projected the development of the community college
system, actually outlined the development of the University by taking in
the campuses at Charlotte and Wilmington and Asheville. All of this, you
see, in one particular report. Now, once it became true that the old
policies that were very restrictive for women were to go, you know who
jumped right in the middle with the emergence of that new idea. And that
was Anne. Now look at the result of it today. Women predominate in
enrollment here and this is true at N.C. State I found out. There are
more women now than males. But it's the new day. You make
these kinds of changes for many reasons. First, it's
economic. You couldn't afford to have big university plants
that weren't open to coeducation. Secondly, it is the way you
want to have the academic experience because that's the way
life is out there. You know, men and women, male and female; you work
that way every day of your life. So, why have such a sequestered
arrangement when you're reaching the years that are
important. One of the great skills that Anne Queen possesses is that she
never lost sight of where she's going. But she learned long
ago how to do that with grace and style so that even when you disagreed
with her you could never get angry because you knew that ultimately she
would wear you down. It had to happen. And wear you
down because the idea she had was right. It was the idea itself that she
finally saw through. And it was not a matter of resistance. It was just
a matter of how much can you achieve at one time in scheduling things
and programming things. But she was and is a person whose mind never
sleeps. She's just stirring up ideas all the time and
that's what you want around a university community. You
absolutely have to have an Anne Queen to work with young people.