Jackson College for Women

The Jackson College for Women was established in 1910 as a coordinate college associated with Tufts College and located in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It subsequently was part of Tufts University until 2002, after which it was subsumed into the Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences and since then exists in name only. It was also sometimes known as Jackson College of Tufts University.^[1]

Coeducation and origins

Tufts College was founded in 1852 by the Universalist Church of America, and while most other such endeavors of the Universalists were coeducational in nature, Tufts admitted male students only.^[2] Coeducation in the United States had begun with Oberlin College in 1833 and found the most traction in state universities.^[3] Despite the widely publicized views of the likes of Edward Hammond Clarke – who argued that woman's health would deteriorate as a result of higher education, and moreover that the education of women would come at the expense of their reproductive health^[4] – there was considerable pressure on Tufts College to change this policy.^[5] This was in the context of similar pushes for collegiate education for women happening in the Boston area, and New England in general, in the years after the Civil War.^[6] There were also nearby examples such as Cornell University, which was coeducational from its founding in 1865 and admitted women soon thereafter.^[3] In 1883, a committee was formed at Tufts to study the question of admitting women; they concluded that doing so would be too expensive.^[7]

The campaign to admit women did not stop and finally, on July 15, 1892, the Tufts Board of Trustees voted "that the College be opened to women in the undergraduate departments on the same terms and conditions as men."^[8] Tufts thus became coeducational.^[9] But after a while there was substantial pressure in the reverse direction, as it was felt among administrators that Tufts was failing to attract male students given a perception that the college was becoming more female in nature.^[10] In less than two decades, nearly half the students in liberal arts at Tufts were women,^[9] and in some years, the matriculating class was well more than half women.^[11] As president of Tufts, Frederick W. Hamilton, due to his strong opposition to coeducation, advocated a separate college for women, with a separate faculty and administration.^[12]

Jackson College for Women was created by the trustees on April 12, 1910,^[13] with Tufts thusly abandoning full coeducation.^[14] The new school was named after Cornelia Maria Jackson (1822–1895) a teacher and wife of a businessman, who had bequeathed half her estate to Tufts in furtherance of women's education.^[15] The legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted charter approval for the creation of Jackson College in that same year;^[3] with the motion facing little commentary, and no opposition, within either the Massachusetts House of Representatives or the Massachusetts Senate.^[14] An account at the time in the Journal of Education said that under the arrangement, the women of Tufts "are not to be deprived of their privileges ... but granted them under conditions that will be more acceptable to all concerned."^[9]

Other coordinate colleges began in similar circumstances, as a means to either avoid, or reverse, full coeducation.^[16] The most prominent coordinate instantiations were Radcliffe College for Harvard College, Barnard College for Columbia College, Columbia University, and Pembroke College in Brown University.^[3][17] Others included the Sophie Newcomb College for Tulane University, the Flora Stone Mather College for Women for Western Reserve University, and a Women's College at the University of Rochester.^[17] For a while there was also a special Women's Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[18] As these instances suggest, coordinate colleges were most frequently seen in the eastern United States.^[3]

Early history

Following the Armistice that ended World War I, the women of Jackson College celebrated with the men of the Naval Unit on campus

Initially there was an attempt to have full segregation of the Jackson women from the Tufts men,^[11] with separate classes for them, albeit taught by the same professors, and eventually separate buildings for them.^[19] But Tufts as a whole was always under financial stress.^[20] The complete segregation goal in particular soon proved to be infeasible due to these financial constraints and the unnecessary overlapping that it required.^[21] (Indeed, Tufts as a whole would long have a limited endowment and support from alumni, leading to it relying heavily on tuition payments.^[22]) The push for full separation lessened after Hamilton left the Tufts presidency in 1912, and dissipated almost completely within the next couple of years.^[21] Full segregation of classes was thus abandoned.^[11]

By December 1912, the largest schools at Tufts were the medical and dental schools, but outside of those, enrollments were in the Engineering School, 211; the School of Liberal Arts, 155; Jackson College for Women, 93; and Crane Theological School, 7.^[23]

Caroline S. Davies was the first dean of Jackson College.^[24] In addition, she taught Greek there and was known as an advocate for women's suffrage in the United States.^[25] She held the deanship until 1925.^[26]

Metcalf Hall, which had opened in 1893 as a women's dormitory, continued to serve in that role after Jackson College was founded.^[27] Between 1910 and 1915, both Miner and Paige halls became home to Jackson College, until women were integrated into the rest of Tufts in 1915 and the facilities were returned to the Crane Theological School.^[28]

In 1925, Jackson College had a quota of 250 female students, and prospective students were officially required to take the Tufts entrance examinations.^[29]

In terms of what diplomas read for graduates of Jackson College for Women, for the first three years, from 1911 through 1913, they were given a choice between getting degrees from Tufts College or from Jackson; most chose Tufts.^[30] Then for the next three years, from 1914 to 1916, the graduates received degrees from Jackson.^[30] However, in 1917, this switched to graduates receiving degrees from Tufts, and remained this way for several decades.^[31][30]

Academics and student life

Eleanor Bisbee, theology student and prominent figure at Jackson College

In terms of admission practices, Jackson College for Women was selective. In 1969, for instance, applicants were required to take the Achievement Test in English Composition, along with two other Achievement Tests of the applicant's choosing.^[1] This requirement was something typically only required by more selective colleges,^[32] especially the competitive admission schools in the Eastern United States, such as those in the Ivy League.^[33]

In 1962, women students of petitioned the university to have "Jackson College" added to their diplomas due to the sense of pride they had in belonging to it,^[34] and the change was made beginning in 1963.^[31]

The attitudes of Jackson College students regarding education, work, marriage, and motherhood underwent rapid change during the late 1960s and early 1970s .^[35] This included women students dressing much more informally, and less expensively, than previous generations had.^[36] These attitudes were studied by the professor of psychology Zella Luria, who was awarded the Jackson College Teaching Award by Tufts University in 1969.^[35]

Jackson College was more central to campus life than some other women-dominated professional schools under the Tufts University umbrella, such as the Boston School of Occupational Therapy.^[37]

Student groups included an a cappella singing group, the Jackson Jills, founded in the early 1960s and Tufts' oldest female group.^[38] The Lambda chapter of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority was active at Tufts and Jackson College during the 1907–1957 period. Also active was the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.^[39] The college also had a Christian Guild and a tennis team.^[40]

Later history and coeducation

In 1980 the school was integrated with the College of Liberal Arts but is still recognized in the formal name of the undergraduate arts and sciences division, the College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College. Unlike other schools associated with Tufts, Jackson College always shared the same faculty as the School of Liberal Arts. They also shared the same curriculum and facilities. Male undergraduates received their degrees from the College of Liberal Arts and female undergraduates received their degrees from Jackson College for Women.

In 1999, as part of a large university-wide reorganization, the trustees redesignated the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, & Engineering and formally created a School of Arts and Sciences (encompassing the College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences).

Undergraduate women in arts and sciences continued to receive their diplomas from Jackson College until 2002. From 2002 onward, all undergraduates received their degree from the School of Arts and Sciences. Jackson College became a distinct college in name only.

In other words, in 2002, a change was made such that women graduates no longer had Jackson College on their diplomas.^[34] The change had been requested by a number of female students,^[31] many of whom were unaware of what Jackson College was or why their diplomas showed it.^[34] The feeling was that the diplomas of male and female students should look alike.^[31] In addition, it was felt that the Tufts name carried more weight in the professional world, as the Jackson name was not as familiar to people as that of the best-known coordinate colleges such as Radcliffe.^[31] As one alumnus of the Jackson College class of 1966 said of the development, she and her classmates "were very proud of their identity in Jackson College. What the diploma says is totally up to the people now ... obviously, attitudes have changed."^[31]

However, Jackson College still existed as a legal, fiduciary entity, with a charter to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Tufts provost Sol Gittleman said, "It's too big a deal to go to the Commonwealth and change everything."^[34]

See also

• List of Tufts University people

Bibliography

• R. L. B. (July 7, 1910). "In the Massachusetts Legislature". Journal of Education. 72 (1): 21–22. JSTOR 42875731.
• Chayes, Antonia H.; Kaufman, Christopher L.; Wheeler, Raymond L. (November 1970). "The University's Role in Promoting Minority Group Employment in the Construction Industry". University of Pennsylvania Law Review. 119 (1): 91–161. doi:10.2307/3311400. JSTOR 3311400.
• Gittleman, Sol (2004). An Entrepreneurial University: The Transformation of Tufts, 1976–2002. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England.
• "Educational Intelligence: College Notes". The Journal of Education. 71 (16 (1776)): 443–447. April 21, 1910. JSTOR 42814494.
• King, Patricia M. (1981). "The Campaign for Higher Education for Women in 19th-Century Boston". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 93: 59–79. JSTOR 25080888.
• Miller, Russell E. (1966). Light on the Hill: A History of Tufts College 1852–1952. Vol. 1. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Miller, Russell E. (1986). Light on the Hill: A History of Tufts University since 1952. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MassMarket Books.
• Sauer, Anne; Branco, Jessica; Bennett, John; Crowley, Zachary, eds. (2000). ".". Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History. Tufts University. hdl:10427/14829.
• Sauer, Anne (2001). Tufts University. The College History Series. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing.
• Slocum, W. F. (1914). "Coeducation and Coördinate Education". In McLaughlin, Andrew Cunningham; Hart, Albert Bushnell (eds.). Cyclopedia of American Government. Vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton and Company. pp. 305–307.
• Solomon, Barbara Miller (1985). In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.