Item Information
Title
News on the 1922 Commencement, Greensboro Daily News, 1922
Description
Newspaper article, Chapel Hill Alumnae Plan Big Celebration Co-Education to Stay, May 31 1922. Published by the Greensboro Daily News. Voiced by Lauren Ragsdale
Creator
PlayMaker’s Repertory Company in collaboration with the University Archives at Louis Round Wilson Library
Date
2021
Language
English
Identifier
https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/items/show/7502
Transcription
Female voice:
News on the 1922 Commencement Greensboro Daily News, May 31, 1922
Chapel Hill Alumnae Plan Big Celebration Co-Education to Stay Chapel Hill, May 30. -- Women students of the university, past and present, are preparing for a big celebration at commencement, two weeks hence. The occasion is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of co-education here. The triumphal entrance into Chapel Hill of Mrs. Robert L. Gray of Durham, this June will be very different from her arrival in 1897 when, as Miss Mary McRae, she registered as the first woman student. Now she is to be welcomed as one of the most honored guests of the university. Then she was – well, she was greeted in friendly enough fashion face to face, but her presence was scowled upon as a dangerous threat against the ancient privileges of the male. Dire prophecies there were, of the fateful effects that co-education would have upon the university. Wise old men of 19 and 20 were sure it would weaken and well-nigh ruin the old place. There have been 246 women registered here since the first one came 25 years ago. Their prevalence about the campus is taken as a matter of course. Not that there aren’t some grumblers. There are some students who make it known now and then that they would like to sweep the place clean of all the skirted inhabitants. But they achieve about as much as the famous personage who motioned with his hand and bade the ocean tide recede. With 62 women on the rolls, co-education is firmly intrenched – here to stay. There are pretty definite plans afoot for a women’s building. The money for it is not available yet, but it is regarded as one of the chief needs of the university, and the hope is freely expressed that the legislature at its next session will make provision for it.
News on the 1922 Commencement Greensboro Daily News, May 31, 1922
Chapel Hill Alumnae Plan Big Celebration Co-Education to Stay Chapel Hill, May 30. -- Women students of the university, past and present, are preparing for a big celebration at commencement, two weeks hence. The occasion is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of co-education here. The triumphal entrance into Chapel Hill of Mrs. Robert L. Gray of Durham, this June will be very different from her arrival in 1897 when, as Miss Mary McRae, she registered as the first woman student. Now she is to be welcomed as one of the most honored guests of the university. Then she was – well, she was greeted in friendly enough fashion face to face, but her presence was scowled upon as a dangerous threat against the ancient privileges of the male. Dire prophecies there were, of the fateful effects that co-education would have upon the university. Wise old men of 19 and 20 were sure it would weaken and well-nigh ruin the old place. There have been 246 women registered here since the first one came 25 years ago. Their prevalence about the campus is taken as a matter of course. Not that there aren’t some grumblers. There are some students who make it known now and then that they would like to sweep the place clean of all the skirted inhabitants. But they achieve about as much as the famous personage who motioned with his hand and bade the ocean tide recede. With 62 women on the rolls, co-education is firmly intrenched – here to stay. There are pretty definite plans afoot for a women’s building. The money for it is not available yet, but it is regarded as one of the chief needs of the university, and the hope is freely expressed that the legislature at its next session will make provision for it.