Twelve College Exchange – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

Exchange Students at Bowdoin for Fall Semester 1969-1970

In the academic year of 1969-1970, Bowdoin College opened its doors to a program called the Twelve College Exchange. Students from Bowdoin as well as Smith, Amherst, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Wheaton and Williams had the option to spend a semester or year at another institution within these twelve. The Exchange at Bowdoin was meant to introduce coeducation in an effort to see if men and women could co-exist on this small campus.

The first year Bowdoin participated, twelve female students chose to study at Bowdoin for either one or two semesters (Document GB, 9). A year later, in the fall of 1971, Bowdoin began to admit women into all classes. A grand total of 147 women came to the Bowdoin campus in order to take advantage of this newly coeducational institution. 64 women were admitted as first-years, expected to graduate in 1975, 29 were junior year transfers that would graduate in 1972, 39 were a part of the Twelve College Exchange and 15 were Special Students according to the November 1971 Alumni Magazine.

GB9 - Exchange Students at Bowdoin for Fall Semester 1969-1970

Orient: Exchange Isn’t Coeducation

The administration at Bowdoin College believed that participation in the Twelve College Exchange would enable members of the college community to determine the viability of coeducation at Bowdoin. This article (Document 14, GB) from the student newspaper reveals that the program had significant limitations. One of the most significant problems with the Twelve College Exchange was the number of women who came to Bowdoin. In the first year, only 12 women came and there were 900 men already on the campus. Most men did not even attempt to make contact with the women. The placement of women in housed on Federal Street isolated them from everyday flow of the college.

Today, forty years later, not only are all dorms home to both males and females but each floor of first-year dorms are half female and half male as well. The ratio of men to women has also changed from the first years of coeducation and is now 47% male and 53% female. In 2010, Bowdoin made yet another housing accommodation: students can now choose to live with the opposite gender in gender-blind or gender-neutral housing.

GB14.1 - Orient: Exchange Isn't Coeducation

GB14.2 - Orient: Exchange Isn't Coeducation

Student Twelve College Exchange Questionnaire Evaluation and Questionnaire Evaluations Summary of the first year of the Twelve College Exchange (1969-1970) – Sept. 1970

The Twelve-College Exchange was a program through which students from Amherst, Bowdoin, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Welleseley, Wesleyan, Wheaton and Williams could apply to spend a semester or year at one of the other institutions listed. It began as the “Ten-College Exchange” but was expanded within months when Trinity, then Wellesley, expressed interest in joining. The Twelve-College Exchange arose as a response to the push towards coeducation; each school was single-sex at the time and wished to experiment with coeducation without completely committing to the process.

The academic year 1969-70 marked the first year of the Exchange and the first year of women students at Bowdoin. This document (Document SB, 15.1) is a student evaluation of the program. According to the Questionnaire Evaluation document (Document SB, 15.2) that summarizes the returned evaluations, approximately 26% of the students who participated the first year returned an evaluation and most of those evaluations were “overwhelmingly affirmative.” Many of the evaluations, like the selected evaluation (Document SB, 15.1), suggested the expansion of the program. This evaluation specifically described Bowdoin’s social atmosphere as “abnormal” because the nearest women were 2½ hours away. Expanding the Twelve College Exchange would increase the number of women at Bowdoin and perhaps improve this “abnormal” social atmosphere.

The student evaluations express the difference in social environment between colleges. On average, female students reported that male institutions had more “relaxed” and “friendlier” communities. Both sexes reported that one of the most significant parts of the Exchange was getting to know the opposite sex. Based on these evaluations, students from these institutions were ready and excited for coeducation. At Bowdoin, there sentiments reinforced the general feeling of staff and students that Bowdoin was ready to make the commitment.

Student Twelve College Exchange Questionnaire Evaluation - sb-15.1

Questionnaire Evaluations Summary of the first year of the Twelve College Exchange(1969-1970) - Sept. 1970 -sb-15.2-page-1

Questionnaire Evaluations Summary of the first year of the Twelve College Exchange(1969-1970) - Sept. 1970 -sb-15.2-page-2

Questionnaire Evaluations Summary of the first year of the Twelve College Exchange(1969-1970) - Sept. 1970 -sb-15.2-page-3

Questionnaire Evaluations Summary of the first year of the Twelve College Exchange(1969-1970) - Sept. 1970 -sb-15.2-page-4

Letter from Richard Moll to Liddy Berry

This letter (Document 17, SB), from the Director of Admissions, Richard [Dick] Moll, to Elissa [Liddy] Berry, marks receipt of the first formal application from a female in Bowdoin’s history. Bowdoin matriculated its first class of women in the fall of 1971. There had been female students at Bowdoin as early as 1969 as part of the Twelve-College Exchange, but they stayed at most one year. Elissa Berry was one of the first women to spend four years as a Bowdoin student, graduating in 1975.

Berry came from a long line of Bowdoin grads: from a young age, she had set her sights on Bowdoin. There was only one problem; Bowdoin was an all-male institution. This did not deter Berry who planned to study at Bowdoin by any means necessary, and who considered applying to a Twelve-College Exchange institution so she could apply for a semester at Bowdoin. During the fall of 1970, Bowdoin announced that it would go coed the following academic year. Once Berry heard the news, she had her application completed and submitted within the week.

This letter reveals the excitement surrounding coeducation at Bowdoin. Berry was one of 147 women on Bowdoin’s campus during the 1971-1972 academic year. These courageous women served as the trailblazers for future Bowdoin women. Their enthusiasm overshadowed the potential risks of being in a significant minority. Like the applicants, Bowdoin staff members were also excited about coeducation. Richard Moll’s words in this letter affirm this as he describes the “appreciation and excitement” felt on campus.

SB 17