Barnard Looks West

Barnard College, the feminine affiliate of Manhattan's Columbia University, last week picked a former Kansas farm girl as its new president. Martha Elizabeth Peterson, 50, who has been successfully contending with the problem of 53,000 students on the 13 campuses of the University of Wisconsin as dean for student affairs, will turn her administrative talents to guiding the 1,800 Barnard girls next fall. She succeeds Rosemary Park, who is moving to U.C.L.A. to become vice chancellor for educational planning--and also to rejoin her husband, U.C.L.A. Greek Professor Milton Anastos.

The idea of moving East, Miss Peterson concedes, makes her feel "like a latter-day Abe Lincoln coming out of the wilderness."

Self-described as "a healthy-looking Scandinavian," she grew up near Salina, Kans., earned three degrees, including a doctorate in educational psychology, and a Phi Beta Kappa key from the University of Kansas. A Kansas high school teacher, then a math instructor at the university, Miss Peterson served as dean of women at both Kansas and Wisconsin before becoming Wisconsin President Fred Harrington's special assistant and university dean for student affairs in 1963. At Wisconsin, she is widely respected as a champion of student rights. "It's remarkable how we can discuss policy for the university and forget how that policy will affect students," Harrington notes, "but Martha never forgets."

A flexible administrator who contends that regulations must grow out of ever-changing situations, Martha Peterson applauds students who question policy--even some of those who engage in organized protest. But she draws the line when such activity "interferes with the rights of other students who want to continue with their work." The possibility that there might be more problems with marijuana, sex, and even miniskirts in Manhattan than in Madison does not frighten her. "I am sure that there always will be something unusual happening," she says. "I'd be disappointed if it didn't." As for miniskirts, Miss Peterson (5 ft. 9 in.) says, "I like to see them on others, but I don't think they're for me."

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