Susan Jacobson – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

In Father’s Footsteps – Sue Jacobson and President Howell

Susan Jacobson, Bowdoin’s first college graduate, is pictured sitting next to President Dr. Roger Howell peering at her father’s signature in Bowdoin’s famous matriculation book (Document 18, GB). Jacobson, who recently passed away on October 4, 2011 graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English, then pursued a masters in library science at Simmons. She then worked at Yale and Youngstown State University as an acquisition librarian.

Native of Portland, Jacobson attended Bowdoin through the Twelve College Exchange Program and eventually transferred to Bowdoin from Connecticut College. Along with her interest in the small but highly touted English department at Bowdoin, Jacobson also wanted to attend the same college her father enjoyed during his undergraduate years. The administration of Bowdoin allowed alumni’s daughters a chance to attend Bowdoin helped the college transition to coeducation. Alumni would be in favor of coeducation because it was giving their daughters an opportunity to their alma mater.

Jacobson’s signature proudly holds its place as one of the first female names in this matriculation book. The tradition of signing the matriculation book at Bowdoin still holds firm where students meet briefly with the President of Bowdoin before signing the famous book themselves. Students have a brief one on one conversation with the President and are then invited to sign the book to become a part of Bowdoin’s history. The signing now takes place during orientation for freshman every fall.

GB18 - In Father's Footsteps - Sue Jacobson and President Howell

Susan Jacobson Orient Article

Susan Jacobson: Bowdoin’s First Woman Graduate

The article “Bowdoin Graduates Its First Woman Student” in Bowdoin’s student newspaper, the Orient, from June 4, 1971 (Document EN, 21), highlights an important milestone in Bowdoin’s history. Susan Jacobson studied at Bowdoin as an exchange student from Connecticut College through the Twelve College Exchange Program during her junior year. She was able to return for a third semester in the fall of 1970, which happened to be the same semester that Bowdoin decided to become coeducational. Although women were not expected to graduate until the spring of 1972, Jacobson made a strong case for herself and, after conversations between Bowdoin’s Dean of the College, Professor A. LeRoy Greason, Jr., and officials at Connecticut College, it was decided that she would be allowed to transfer and then graduate from Bowdoin in 1971.

The interview with Jacobson reveals some of the intricacies of life for Bowdoin’s first women students. Jacobson recalls that in her first year at Bowdoin, men seemed unable to find the women’s house a few blocks away from campus, but that, having moved closer to campus her second year, the women had many more visitors. She stated that “‘Bowdoin men have gone out of their way to be nice,’” but also that some of the men “‘don’t know how to treat girls and often put them on a different plane.’” Jacobson’s experiences parallel those of other women from the first and early classes at Bowdoin, as the oral histories for this project reveal.

Sadly, Susan Jacobson passed away in the fall of 2010, so we could not interview her as part of this project.

EN21- Bowdoin Graduates Its First Woman Student

Susan Jacobson’s Commencement Address

First Female Graduate Delivers Commencement Address

In her bold and eloquent 1971 commencement address, Bowdoin’s first female graduate, Susan Jacobson, assuages some common concerns about coeducation at Bowdoin and proposes insightful recommendations for the future of the college as a successfully coeducational institution (Document AK, 22).

Making a point to contextualize Bowdoin’s efforts not only in the contemporary world but also within history, Jacobson points to Bowdoin’s responsibility to seek out an international student body. Noting that other nations had long ago realized their “woman power,” Jacobson hopes that the United States – and hopefully Bowdoin itself – will “[…] someday be able to boast of having educated an Indira Ghandi or a Golda Meir.” Jacobson adds that allowing women to study at Bowdoin serves as a meaningful way to honor the many women who worked for and committed themselves to Bowdoin in non-academic ways in the past.

Jacobson is careful to note that the admission of women poses no threat to the preexisting academic and administrative features that make Bowdoin so effective and well respected. With what may be a hint of sarcasm she writes, “So firmly established are these areas that they need not fear any injury by the “weaker sex.”” On the contrary, she says, the presence of women serves to enhance already prestigious academic departments while helping to develop and improve the arts and humanities. She further asserts that, “Many wild speculations as to what the co-eds will be like and much needless worrying stem from a failure to realize that these girls have wants, interests, and aims similar to the male contingent. Instead of viewing these women as invaders from another galaxy, one should and must accept them as a complement to the male student body.”

Jacobson mentions but does not dwell on the adversity that many of these first Bowdoin women faced. She concludes with the hopeful sentence, “From now on [the alma mater] should read “Bowdoin from birth the nurturer of men, and now of women.” Little could she have imagined that in 1994, Anthony Antolini ’63, director of the Bowdoin Chorus, would honor Bowdoin’s bicentennial by officially altering the lyrics of the song to be more gender-inclusive, changing the words “nurturer of men” to “nurturer and friend.”

We were unable to reprint this speech in its entirety. If you would like to read the entire speech, please visit the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College

Jacobson, Susan. “Commencement Address,” Class Records, Class of 1971 [1.6.166], Bowdoin College Archives, Brunswick, Maine.