{"id":212,"date":"2011-01-17T02:15:58","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T02:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/researchbdev.wpengine.com\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/?p=212"},"modified":"2011-12-09T01:23:07","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T01:23:07","slug":"letter-from-professor-j-h-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/process-of-coeducation\/letter-from-professor-j-h-turner\/","title":{"rendered":"Coeducation versus Coordination: Thoughts from Professor J.H. Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this letter (Document EN, 19), Professor of physics James H. Turner makes an argument for coeducation at Bowdoin. Written approximately two and a half years before the College made the decision to become coeducational, and three and a half years before the first class with women arrived at Bowdoin, Turner reflects on the possible effects of having women matriculate at the College.<\/p>\n

Turner notes that many colleges at the time were turning to coordination (building a separate but related women\u2019s college) rather than full coeducation. For example, Harvard had recently developed a coordinate relationship with Radcliffe College, one that would continue until 1999, when Harvard finally became fully coeducational. Turner argues, however, that Bowdoin would see a \u201cfar greater impact\u201d from coeducation if it admitted women rather than built a coordinate college.<\/p>\n

Regarding admissions, Turner suggests that coeducation will cause a much larger applicant pool that will have a \u201cbroader spectrum of talents and interests\u201d and \u201cresult in a better class.\u201d In fact, Marcia Synnott in Going Coed<\/em> claims that the admission of women at Princeton in 1969 \u201craised the academic caliber of freshmen\u201d (123). Turner also argues that bringing women to Bowdoin might result in a more academic college, because the men who will reject coeducation are likely the ones who \u201cstrongly identify with some nonacademic aspect of Bowdoin life at present.\u201d Although Turner admits that his ideas are largely speculative and the advantages he raises might also be true of coordination, he remains an ardent supporter of coeducation because he would like to see the addition of women have a strong impact on the College.<\/p>\n

\"EN19a<\/a>
EN19a - Coeducation versus Coordination: Thoughts from Professor J.H. Turner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"EN19b
EN19b - Coeducation versus Coordination: Thoughts from Professor J.H. Turner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"EN19c
EN19c - Coeducation versus Coordination: Thoughts from Professor J.H. Turner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"EN19d
EN19d - Coeducation versus Coordination: Thoughts from Professor J.H. Turner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this letter (Document EN, 19), Professor of physics James H. Turner makes an argument for coeducation at Bowdoin. Written approximately two and a half years before the College made the decision to become coeducational, and three and a half years before the first class with women arrived at Bowdoin, Turner reflects on the possible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[63,26,62],"class_list":{"0":"post-212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-documents-process-of-coeducation","7":"category-process-of-coeducation","8":"tag-en19","9":"tag-letter","10":"tag-professor-j-h-turner","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/forty-years-the-history-of-women-at-bowdoin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}