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Page 3 • Thursday, September 17, 1998
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Anime show';
i Evangelms..
Story by Meredith Might
Graphic by Brad Qraeber
and Brandon Bollom
At Right: Today’s female leaders, ready to take A&M into
the next century (from left to right) are Amy McGee,
Speaker of the Student Senate, Kelly Garrity, Deputy Corps
Commander, and Laurie Nickel, Student Body President.
Below: Sonja Faye Oliphant was the first female veteri
nary student at Texas A&M in 1963.
A tradition for
years
Call 84S1:1.
men's Interns !
:le (WISC): \
nen in the An-
regional art?;
>9:30p.m.in2
5ion and refre?
at 822-525(4
W
love and
men
know to
appreci-
honor our
) NOVA: Ope
i noon to 2 a
hotd ^
Chris at 6902 ien, but we also know
■side
a I Sell
as fro
t a fix Eve got us in in
garden of Eden. Let’s not
hat happen at A&M.”
Gordon Wisenbaker, Class of
. in a letter dated May 8, 1963
n exas Governor John Connolly,
seminar wilh ising the admission of women
f Admissions- '
his alma mater Texas AMC.
JD — — ——
Wisenbaker was not shy about voicing his un
happiness with the decision of the Board of Di
rectors in April 1963 to admit women to the Agri
cultural and Mechanical College of Texas.
In 1963, TAMC was changed to TAMU and the
A&M did not stand for Agriculuture and Me
chanical anymore.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the de
cision, which allowed “qualified A&M students
on a day-student basis to all graduate programs
and to the school of Veterinary Medicine.”
A&M would also admit to undergraduate pro
grams “qualified women who were either A&M
staff members or the wives or daughters of stu
dents and college employees.”
After 92 years as an all-male military institu
tion, the leaders of A&M had decided to open its
doors to women.
The decision ran und.er such headlines as “Tra
dition Shattered” in the Dallas Times Herald, and
was greeted with dissension by many former stu
dents, one of whom turned in his Aggie
ring in protest.
In a Houston Post article from Apr. 28, 1963,
several students shared their reactions. Howard
Conner, Class of ’65, said he thought of A&M on
the same level as West Point, and could not imag
ine West Point going co-ed. West Point was the first
military academy to accept women.
The student body president, Sheldon Best, said
in the article he “was really disappointed, and
hoped against hope that they wouldn’t do it.”
However not all reaction was negative. Colonel
Eugine C. Oates, Class of ’41, did not find fault
with the ruling.
“Maybe I’ve been away too long, but I frankly
don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said.
Dr. Sara Alpern, associate professor of history,
said the decision came down as part of a national
civil rights and women’s movement and also as a
reaction to legal and economic pressure.
“We had legal pressure to admit women. We
were experiencing economic loss by not accepting
women,” she said. “For example, our growth was
29 percent compared to 70 percent at the Univer
sity of Texas. That affected our Permanent Uni
versity Fund.”
The Corps of Cadets did not organize a protest
or demonstration in reaction to the decision from
the board. That could be because Gen. Earl Rud
der, president of the University at the time, or
chestrated the students’ activities to minimizie
their free time.
A letter from Bill Bammel Jr. and Gene Edel-
man, both Class of ’65 and representatives of Com
pany F-l, describes a series of events that pre
vented students from having a say in the matter.
The two men wrote the letter in response to
Texas newspapers that described the atmosphere
at A&M as “calm.” In the letter, they said they felt
the papers insinuated the students were happy
with the decision.
Bammel and Edelman argued that the Board
of Directors made its decision on a Saturday. On
Friday, the Corps of Cadets had been given a dis
missal from Saturday Drill for the first time that
year. Most students went home, unaware that the
directors meeting was taking place.
see Women on Page 7.
Aggieland File Photo
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Join us at
First Baptist Bryan
this Sunday!
On Campus
Bus Pick Up
9:15 a.m.
Quad • Commons
Fish Pond
Welcome Back Brunch
Free Food!
Division or f .
phone: 845-3 31 -
.For camp®
fcDonald.e 1
local, ^
j single MW
ester
Texas Avenue at 28th Street
Just 4 Miles North of University Drive
www.fbcb.com
APPEARING LIVE
WEDNESDAY
SEPT. 23, 1998
JERRY JEFF
WALKER
VANILLA
ICE
Also
ROGER
CREAGER
Limited Amount of Tickets Available at: MSC, Rothers, Dudley’s, Disco Round or 1-800-333-7188