Founders, Founding Sites and HQs for NPC groups - State by State

[DubaiSis]

The University of Iowa was the first to accept women and men on an equal basis. So no surprise it has so many single letter chapters. I had conversations with alumnae who had founders attend their initiations and stuff. Somehow that seems like knowing someone who knew Abraham Lincoln personally.

[nyapbp]

Harvard was founded in 1636. Its sole focus at that point was to train clergy for the colonies, rather than having to send sons back to England to train for the ministry. It was another 200 years before women were admitted to higher education. Oberlin is generally thought to be the first male institution to admit women, but the fact is that manual labor was part of Oberlin's curriculum and having women to do some of the domestic work made life easier.

In the west, as the midwest was then known, small church-affiliated institutions took shape. Looking at them from a 2014 perspective isn't the best idea. Back then the president was also the chief bottle washer. He (except for women's colleges, Presidents were male) was the chief fund raiser visiting churches and asking for funds to run the college. He may have even served as the librarian. What needed to be done, needed to be done by someone, and the President was often that someone.

There were generally two tracks - Classical and Scientific. Those studying the arts, when those courses were offered, were usually known as "special students." (We're talking pre-1900). Recitation was a big part of a college curriculum.

During and after the Civil War coeducation took a hold, especially in the western states. Female tuition dollars were the same as male tuition dollars and with the men off to war, keeping the doors open took precedence. Also some of the church members who were supporting the institution wanted their daughters educated as well as their sons.

Iowa State was indeed an early spot for coeducation. Carrie Lane (Chapman Catt) was a member of the Pi Phi chapter (when it was known as I.C. Sorosis, Pi Beta Phi was the Greek motto from the beginning). The Greek system at Iowa went on hiatus when the administration forced the organizations off-campus.

The University of Kansas has one of the oldest, continual Greek systems at a state institution (it may be the oldest, continual, but I am doing this from memory and don't have the time to check). It dates to the 1870s.

The established Ivy League institutions opted for coordinate schools rather than coeducation (Radcliffe, Barnard, Pembroke are some of the schools which come to mind). Mount Holyoke, founded in the 1830s, lauched the all-female college.

So, yes, to answer a question, the west (midwest) was much more open about educating women along with the men.