Overview
The names of programs, people, and events described in this section are intended as background information to help researchers locate and contextualize archival documents related to women at Norwich University. They represent topics of recurring interest to our archival researchers and are not intended as a comprehensive timeline.
Overall Timeline
1968 August –> The "Russian School" graduate summer program moves from Windham College to Norwich University and confers masters degrees on a coeducational group at its first Norwich commencement.
1971 May –> Maureen Virginia Lippincott and Christine Annette Litchfield complete their studies in Norwich's new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program.
1972 January –> An agreement to merge Vermont College, a two-year women's college located in nearby Montpelier, into Norwich University is signed by both parties.
1972 July –> The merger with Vermont College is finalized and goes into effect. Norwich becomes a coordinated two campus institution offering associates and bachelors degrees as well as post-graduate programs to both men and women.
1972 Fall –> Conforming to language in the merger agreement that the campus in Northfield would be “a residential campus for males” and that the institution would offer “male military training and a Corps of Cadets at Northfield,” female students are bussed from Montpelier to attend classes on the Norwich campus in Northfield.
1973 January –> A proposal to house four-year female students in buildings off the main campus in Northfield is approved for the 1973-1974 academic year but ultimately halted due to conflicts with local zoning regulations.
1973 May–> Commencement consists of dual ceremonies in Northfield and Montpelier. Most two-year programs (excluding the bachelor of science in medical technology) are located in Montpelier and celebrated there. A small number of women complete bachelors degrees and graduate in the ceremony in Northfield.
1974 March –> The trustees approve accepting and housing two-year male students as residents of the campus in Montpelier.
1974 May –> Housing four-year female students in the barracks on the Northfield campus is also approved with the caveat that "an effort be made during the ensuing years to integrate them into the corps system."
1974 Fall –> The first women are admitted into the Norwich University Corps of Cadets. Five upper-class women became cadre or mentors to four freshmen female recruits, forming L (Lima) Detachment.
1975 May –> Diane Gionet, the first female member of the Corps of Cadets to graduate, commissions into the United States Air Force.
1979 Fall –> New four-year students (Class of 1983) are assigned to a residential campus based on their participation in the military program. Montpelier becomes the “civilian campus” for both men and women and Northfield the “military campus” for Corps students of both genders. The only immediate exception made is for civilian women already living in Northfield in 1979. These students are permitted to remain in Northfield while they complete their degrees.
1979 December –> Norwich issues a press release describing Christine Mary (Conway) Rodgers as the first female battalion leader in the Corps of Cadets.
1981 November –> After Norwich’s Continuing Education Division acquires graduate programs and students from Goddard College, the Montpelier campus becomes a base for low-residency coeducational graduate and continuing education programs at Norwich as well as the residence for the civilian undergraduate students.
1988 May –> Joan Boyce graduates and is the first woman to commission through Norwich's recently established Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program.
1990 June –> Adrienne Evertson is reported to be Norwich's first female graduate to commission into the Marine Corps through a campus ROTC program.
1990 Summer –> A new direct commissioning program for graduates of Norwich University into the United States Coast Guard is announced with the eight graduates initially selected including four women.
1993 June –> All residential civilian undergraduate programs and students (male and female) are relocated from the Montpelier campus to Northfield. The Montpelier campus is used solely for graduate, continuing education, and adult degree programs until the sale of these programs and the physical plant to Union Institute and University in 2001.
1994 Fall –> The first women athletes are inducted into Norwich's Athletic Hall of Fame, including Carolyn (Cunniff) Mullaney, Jennifer Smith, and Coach Joan Mussmacher.
1997 Fall –> Sarah Patchem is selected as Norwich's first female regimental commander.
1997-1998 –> Female cadets from Norwich are invited to the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) to act as advisors to their transition to coeducation.
Norwich Nurses in the Record, Spring 2016
- Norwich Nursing – A Half-Century of ServiceArticle By Jacque E. Day, with contributions by C. T. Haywood ’12.
- Where Are They Now? Nine Proud Norwich NursesArticle by By Diana L. Weggler and Jacque E. Day.
Vermont College Chronology
Vermont College of Norwich University existed from 1972-2001. During those years Norwich also interacted with alumni from earlier incarnations of that institution, which included notables like Linda (Eastman) McCartney, Alice (Converse) Plastridge, and Jane Hinton. In 2001, Norwich sold the campus in Montpelier and remaining programs based there to Union Institute & University.
Names changes in Vermont College history:
- 1834 –> Newbury Seminary
- 1841 –> Newbury Theological Institute
- 1846 –> Springfield Wesleyan Seminary
- 1865 –> Vermont Conference Seminary
- 1870 –> Vermont Methodist Seminary
- 1894 –> Montpelier Seminary
- 1941 –> Vermont Junior College
- 1958 –> Vermont College
- 1972 –> Vermont College of Norwich University
- 2001 –> Vermont College of Union Institute & University
- 2008 –> Vermont College of Fine Arts
Women's Club
The Ainsworth Aid Association was first formed by “wives of the members of the faculty, trustees and citizens” for the purpose of supporting (“securing supplies for”) the newly constructed Ainsworth Infirmary in 1916.
After a period of inactivity, the group re-established as a Faculty Wives' Club under Norwich president Ernest Harmon (1950-1965), with members serving as Norwich University hostesses. By the mid-to late 1970s, the group opened membership to all female members of the Norwich community and reorganized as the Norwich University Women’s Club.
Norwich Female Seminary
1829 –> Following correspondence between James Wheelock Woodward and Alden Partridge, Mary B. Ware opens the Norwich Female Seminary in the old American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy building owned by Partridge in Norwich, Vermont.
1835 –> The equivalent of the university catalog is published contains a brief description of an attached, Norwich Seminary for young ladies, including that "the young ladies will have the advantage of attending lectures from time to time at the University."
1850-1852 –> Charlotte Rockwood and Sarah Barker (Tufts) Wheaton, the wife of former university president, Henry Steward Wheaton, are involved in the organization and operation of another incarnation of the Norwich Female Seminary.
1911 –> In his history of Norwich University, William Arba Ellis, describes the Norwich ladies seminary opened in 1835 as a "not strictly co-educational" institution that continued for several years past its inception.
1953 –> Former Norwich president, Charles Plumley, argues that Norwich was coeducational during the operation of the female seminary in unpublished, citing recollections from the family of a former seminary alumna as one piece of potential evidence.
Notice: The summer term of the Ladies' Seminary at Norwich ...
Early Female Faculty and Staff
1942 –> Vera Newbrough, wife of Professor George F. Newbrough, is described by the Norwich Guidon as Norwich's "first woman prof. in history" after she replaced Paul Pelton in the music department following his departure for military service.
1948-1949 –> Carol (Landon) Porter is hired as ski coach following the resignation of the Bob Searles.
1955 –> Alleen Hedges is honored for over 50 years of service in various positions, including registrar, secretary, Record mailing manager, and library assistant. She retires four years later in 1959.
1960 –> Kathleen J. ("Kay") Bowen begins employment at Norwich as a class club hostess, remaining integral in various positions related to student life for decades. Following her death in 1990, the Bowen Staff Recognition Award was created in her memory.
1965 –> Three years after her arrival in 1962, Jane Wehe Bonnette, an assistant professor of mathematics and director of Norwich's computer center receives permission to wear a Women’s Army Corps uniform with captain’s insignia, reflecting her academic rank.
1974 –> Spanish professor Nadine Nunez-de-Cela is appointed Norwich's first dean of women and assistant commandant, with responsibility for coordinating campus life for the first female students living on the Northfield campus.
1975 –> Following Nadine Nunez-de-Cela's departure from campus, Norwich graduate, Maureen Lippincott (MAT, 1971) replaces her as dean responsible for women, continuing to serve in other roles including as chair of the Committee on the Status of Women at Norwich and as Vice President for Vermont College before retiring in 1984.