As Lathrop Hall, one of the most historically important structures on campus turns one-hundred years old, it seems a suitable time to reflect on the history, comical ironies and astounding change which has surrounded the record of women on campus.
During the Civil War, the university lost all but one male student to the draft. Faced with the prospect of closing the entire school, the decision was made to open up academic opportunities to female students.
Although first granted rooms in South Hall, the first space truly dedicated to the Normal School and women's education on campus was the Ladies Hall, located on the current site of Chadbourne Hall. This building was the result of a consensus reached between the President of the university from 1867- 1870, Paul Ansel Chadbourne, and fellow state and academic figures. Chadbourne was very much against allowing full coeducational studies within the university and only agreed to accept the position of president when a separate female school was defined.
Chadbourne often blamed the female school for consuming spaces in South Hall and University Hall (Bascom Hall), and so Ladies Hall became both a residential structure for female students, as well as educational space. In 1901, 30 years following the completion of Ladies Hall, a petition was brought to then acting president, Edward Asahel Birge to change the name of the structure.
Birge concluded the building was to be named after Chadbourne because he was both responsible for securing the funding for the building and because [he] ""though it was only fair that Dr. Chadbourne's contumacy regarding coeducation should be punished by attaching his name to a building which turned out [to be] one of the main supporters of coeducation.""
It seems women had the last laugh over the stubborn Chadbourne.
Although women on campus by that time had been fully integrated under the academic structure of the university, many barriers remained among gender equality.
Following the exit of Birge, Charles Van Hise was elected as president of the university. Van Hise saw an immediate need for the improvement of women's facilities on campus. The women, at that time totaling over 500, could not use the facilities at the Red Gym, and were forced into the cramped recreational spaces inside Old Chadbourne Hall.
Van Hise proposed a new building to be located next to Chadbourne Hall which would serve as a recreational and social structure for the women of the university. Eventually named Lathrop Hall after the university's first chancellor, the building housed a gymnasium, swimming pool, bowling alley and meeting spaces for women on campus. The facilities were in fact so stunning, many at the time agreed they far out-paced those the men enjoyed.
Years later, in 1981, one of Lathrop's great-granddaughter, upon her first visit to the university, remarked at the historical justice of the building. She had been told as a young girl that she could not become a dancer. The building which now bears the name of her great-grandfather, of course, became home to the nation's first university dance program.
Although the Memorial Union opened in 1928, women were still allowed only secluded and scattered access to the building, and so Lathrop Hall continued to serve an important role for women on campus. However, over the next two decade of the Union, barriers continually and gradually fell until the entire facility became open to both men and women in the 1950s.
Since the inception of women into the university nearly 150 years ago, through the battles of equality, and above the petty arguments of societal norms, UW-Madison has continued to produce students who defy gender standards. Allumnus Lorraine Hansberry produced one of the most influential African American works of modern literature ""A Raisin in the Sun,"" while astronaut Laurel Clarke, who perished in the 2003 Columbia disaster, extended the ""Wisconsin Idea"" literally throughout the universe.
Although not a graduate of UW-Madison, in 1988 Donna Shalala became just the second woman to lead a major research university, and the first ever to head a Big Ten university. And, of course, today Chancellor Biddy Martin continues the pride and influence that generations of women at the university before her worked to achieve.
There is certainly no doubt that although the initial entry of women on campus was a contested controversy and continuous battle, today, as we celebrate the history of structures such as Lathrop Hall, let us also remember the history of those women who first fought to destroy societal barriers on this campus, and those who continue to lead the charge today.
Mark Bennett is a freshman intending to major in journalism. Please send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
