Steering Committee for the 20th Anniversary of Coeducation Records

The material in this collection consists largely of correspondence, memoranda, and meeting minutes that document a fluid exchange of ideas among Steering Committee members and the University community to mark the celebration of the 20th anniversary of coeducation at Princeton. Produced as a part of background research, the collection contains a generous history on coeducation that includes the report recommending coeducation to the Board of Trustees, newspaper articles from The Daily Princetonian about the Trustees decision to admit undergraduate women, and articles about the arrival of the first matriculated undergraduate women.As one of the goals of the Steering Committee was to engage as much of the University community as possible in the celebration, the collection contains well over 50 activity proposals that were submitted for funding from the Steering Committee. From discussion panels that examined the impact of coeducation to the printing of posters commemorating the event to funds that would support speakers, these proposals offer an exceptional perspective on how the concerns of the Princeton were not just concerns of a university community, but concerns of society as a whole.Included in the collection is the final report to President Harold Shapiro by the Steering Committee. Joan Girgus, in her final letter to the President, noted that “the report . . . can serve both as a narrative description of the 20th Anniversary commemoration and as an archival compendium of the events and activities that occurred during the 18 months” of the commemorative period.