Transition to Coeducation
At its 25th anniversary as an academic institution, Claremont Men’s College was faced with a question that would change the landscape of the College–should CMC admit women students? Many of CMC’s “brother institutions” on the east coast like Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Amherst all began going coed in the early 1970s and it was thought that CMC’s pool of applicants would likely decline by 1980 as young men weren’t as interested in attending all-male colleges. In addition, women were entering the fields of law, business, and government in increasing numbers and CMC was determined to continue to be a liberal arts college centered in the modern world. Serious discussion of CMC becoming a coeducational institution began in July 1972 and a subcommittee on admissions of the Academic Affairs Committee was formed that fall to explore the idea. President Stark and Board of Trustees Chairman Jon Lovelace’s plan was that the committee first would decide the basis on which CMC would decide to go coed. Their assumption, correct as it turns out, was that if everyone first agreed with the procedure to be followed, they would not subsequently second-guess the eventual decision. The committee was chaired by Founding Trustee Donald McKenna and also included economics professor Procter Thomson, who summarized the issue CMC faced on the question of coeducation. Thomson explained that the moment dean of admission and financial aid Emery Walker mentioned CMC, he had to spend “the next hour explaining that it is not a monastery,” and also observed that it is “far easier to peddle a coed college” and the fact that “wider selection clearly promises increased quality and a chance to rid ourselves of the marginal 15 or 20 percent of men we now take.” However, Thomson did raise the issue of a public relations/fundraising problem as CMC had spent twenty-five years promoting itself as one kind of institution and if it went coed, it would have to change its name and start all over again.
By May 29, 1973 the subcommittee on coeducation was solidly in favor of admitting women. The subcommittee relied on five major arguments: 1) The admission of women would increase the total number of qualified applicants; 2) Women were increasingly finding law, business, and government compelling professions–hence, the admission of women would not change the fundamental orientation of the College; 3) The number of male applicants interested in an all-male college was limited and declining; 4) A national trend toward coeducation had developed (Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Williams, and Amherst had all gone coed; Harvard, Brown, and Notre Dame achieved the same goal through amalgamation; and Haverford had aligned itself closely with Bryn Mawr); and 5) Court decisions could conceivably compel CMC to go coed whether it wanted to or not–the College would otherwise lose tax support and state scholarships. However, by July 10, 1974, development director John Payne was urging caution despite two years of surveys, debates, and visitations to other colleges like Amherst, Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, Hampshire, and Clare College (England). The Board of Trustees hoped to resolve the coed matter at a special meeting the following April (1975), but Payne urged caution noting that a name change would most likely be needed to accompany the decision and that an April decision would not give CMC enough time to secure a major gift worthy of a name change. Payne also feared a split among the trustees, which would be bad for fund raising.
A vast majority of the CMC student body favored coeducation. A student-opinion survey, completed in March 1975, showed that 73 percent of the student body favored coeducation; 16 percent were not favorable; and 11 percent were undecided. Students favored coeducation for three reasons: 1) Women had a fundamental right to attend CMC–exclusion would be discriminatory and unjust; 2) “The unnatural social situation, created by CMC’s all-male character, does a great disservice to the student by not allowing him an unstrained, informal social atmosphere in which women can be regarded as friends and equals;” and 3) The admission of women would enlarge the applicant pool and the quality of the student body would be increased.
President Jack Stark considered the admission of women among the most important decisions in the history of the College. While both Jack and Jil resisted temptations to publicly state their opinions on the issue of coeducation, they privately decided that if the coeducation proposal were defeated, they would announce their intention to step down from the leadership of CMC.
On Thursday, April 24, 1975, the Board of Trustees voted to admit women to CMC with a final count of 28 for coeducation and 13 opposed. The two-thirds majority vote required by order of the Chairman of the Board Jon Lovelace had been reached by a single vote. CMC’s first group of entering women was scheduled to enroll in the academic year 1976-1977.
