The Eli Girls

Yale men were beginning to wonder what was wrong. All around them, men's and women's colleges and universities were going coed. But the Elis just could not find a partner. Yale even offered to go steady with its old friend Vassar--and was turned down. The frustrated students on the New Haven campus decided to take the initiative away from the university administration. They organized and carried out an exercise called "Coeducation Week."

Some 700 girls from 22 Eastern colleges were invited to New Haven to live in rooms vacated by their male occupants, eat in college dining halls, attend Yale classes, and generally brighten campus perspectives for Yale men. The administration gave its nervous approval and reported with relief that the experiment was surprisingly successful. The planning and organization were smooth, and no untoward incidents were reported, no criticism voiced. It was all so rewarding, in fact, that President Kingman Brewster Jr. accelerated his own plans to bring coeducation to Yale. Last week, while his undergraduates were still savoring the female invasion, Brewster announced that Yale will become coed officially next year.

The Brewster plan calls for 500 girls to be admitted to Yale College in September; the ultimate goal is 1,500 girls, with the male enrollment staying at its present total of 4,000. Of the first 500 women, 250 will be transfer students, the other 250 will be freshmen who will take over one of the twelve undergraduate residential colleges. The results of the first year, Brewster explained, will help Yale to make basic decisions about its new coeducational status--in particular, whether the girls should have their own residential college or share buildings with Yale men.

Brewster presented the plan to the Yale Corporation only a few days before he made the announcement. The faculty got only a few hours' notice. Brewster was acting in haste, he said, because he felt that a trial would be far more instructive than "further abstract study." It is a "drastic move," he admitted, but one which, if carried out "with style and quality," will put "Yale in a position to enhance greatly its contribution to the generations ahead."

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