University of Tennessee Knoxville - Volunteer Yearbook (Knoxville, TN)

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th'lzz at EPW252522 The advent of women into the University of Tennessee twenty-nine years ago was not a new idea. In the parent institution Blount College. founded in 1794. no reference was made to the class of students admissable, and the name of one of these early students is memorialized now in the name of the first woments dormitory, Barbara Blount. This student, the daughter of Gov. Blount, was not the only girl to enroll for the names Polly McClung, Jennie Armstrong, Mattie and Kittie Kain also appear on the roster. But none of these seem to have attained the same grade of excellence in her classes that Mistress Barbara did. In these days the records were not kept in calculating figures or letters but by the words attentive . diligent , and ingenious ; of the five young women only Barbara achieved all three. Probably the general conservatism concerning higher education for women was responsible for the college's becoming exclusively masculine in enrollment. How- ever that may be. no womarfs name was to appear again on the college lists for the better part of a century. More than once a motion ttto take into consideration the propriety of admitting females to the University't. failed to pass the Board of Trustees tFEMMEl' CHAPEL and it was not until 1893 that the propriety was deemed unquestionable. The fact that forty-flve women availed themselves of the opportunity shows that the time was ripe for the action. About half of these were taking the special course for teachers, but twenty-three enrolled in the regular liberal arts course. Of this number, two were ranked as juniors. Miss Elma Eliza Ellis and Miss Elize Lucy Ogden, and in 1895 received B. A. degrees, the first to be awarded to women. As we glance back today from the vantage point of our organized Women's Student- Government Association, Y. W. C. A. and numerous smaller organizations and many buildings for the exclusive use of women such as dormitories and Tennessee Hall many things in those opening years may seem crude perhaps, small certainly, but it was then that the foundation was laid. And none can know so well as those Who came later to carry on the work how well they builded. Harriet C. Greve. Page Eighteen

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HARRIET C. GREVE, DEAN OF WOMEN Page Seventeen

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MALCOLM McDERMOTT, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF LAW Page Nineteen