Wesleyan University

I grew up in Havertown, Pennsylvania, but I'd always loved New England and hoped to go to college there. Happily, I was accepted to Wesleyan and I entered in the fall of 1971, one year after it went co-ed. I majored in American Studies with a concentration in sociology. After graduating in 1975, I took a year off to work and then attended Boston College Law School (class of 1979). I spent my career as a lawyer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region I (New England) in Boston, and for many years was also a part-time adjunct professor at BCLS and at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland Oregon. I recently retired after 41 wonderful years at EPA.

Among my fondest memories of Wesleyan are those associated with being on the Wesleyan Women's Crew. This year is the 50th anniversary of intercollegiate women's rowing at Wesleyan -- the Women's Crew began in the spring of 1972 as a club sport. 
 
That was a few months before the passage of Title IX, and several years before final Title IX regulations were issued in the area of athletics. Brian Dawe, Wesleyan '70, started the women's program as a volunteer program director and coach. He recruited the team by going around to the dorms and talking up what a great sport it is. About 12 women joined that first spring. We were all inexperienced rowers, and only some of us had done sports in high school (I was a figure skater). But what we lacked in experience, we made up for in enthusiasm and dedication.
 
Wesleyan did a number of things well as it transitioned from an all male to a coed school, but women's athletics wasn't one of them. Conditions for women's rowing in those early years bore no resemblance to current conditions. Since there were no women's boats or oars, we had to use the men's equipment. Coach Dawe spent hours rigging the heavy wooden boats each week to adjust them for our smaller sizes and lower weights.The men had boat house hours and we weren't allowed to be down at the docks when the men were there, so we tended to row quite early in the mornings. There was no locker room in Fayerweather Gym for the women. Instead, after we demanded that something be provided for us, we were relegated to a small area of the men's locker room separated by a big curtain or tarp. Women athletes weren't allowed in the trainer's room -- that space was just for the men. If we got injured, we had to be taken care of in the hallway. We felt like interlopers. 

Despite these challenges, we fell in love with the sport and formed a cohesive, committed, and hard working team. We weren't very big or strong, but we rowed well! We raced against other club and varsity teams in the springs of 1972 and 1973, and we competed in the Head of the Charles in the fall of 1972 against Wellesley, Yale, Princeton, Wisconsin, Vesper, and several other well-established teams.  

Women's crew became a varsity sport in the fall of 1973, and Wesleyan appointed swim coach Pat Callahan to be the women's rowing coach. Coach Dawe moved on to Williams College to coach the men's crew. (He later returned to Wesleyan to coach the women's crew from 2006 to 2009.) I continued to row through the spring of 1973 for Wesleyan, and the fall of 1974 for Williams (where I spent my senior year). After graduating in 1975, I turned to sculling and competed for a few years in single and double sculls.  
 
Title IX has made a huge difference in the lives of girls and women by opening doors, removing barriers, and promoting gender equality. While true parity still hasn't been realized, women's athletics -- and all the intangible benefits that accompany participation in sports -- have improved by orders of magnitude. I would never want to return to those pre-Title IX days. And yet, there was something exhilarating about helping to build a team from scratch with little support from those in power. We had to navigate numerous challenges stemming from the widespread sexism in those days, and that experience gave us confidence and determination that helped us prevail over similar challenges in our (often male-dominated) careers. I'm proud to have been at Wesleyan  during the early days of co-education, helping to lay the groundwork for women's successes today. 

* all photos courtesy of Brian Dawe '70