Burke's Dramatism Theory and University Coeducation Debate

Introduction

Today, the university is attended by nearly 10,000 male and female students, but it has not always been that way. Just over half a century ago, it was a male-only institution that only began accepting female students into its main South Orange campus after a series of debates spanning more than four years. The artifacts of interest for this study are two newspaper articles from issues of The Setonian in 1963 and 1967: the first announcing the student vote on whether the university should become a co-educational institution, and the second announcing the approval of that initiative. This paper reviews the relevant literature to connect these articles to Kenneth Burke's Dramatism Theory, examining the reasons women were treated less fairly than men and why they did not experience the same academic opportunities. A summary of the research and important findings is presented in the conclusion.

Overview of the University Today

Founded in 1856 as a college by Catholic Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, the institution was reorganized into a university in 1950 and currently provides undergraduate and graduate studies in more than 90 majors to almost 10,000 male and female students (About [University], 2015). The university has been widely recognized for its commitment to academic excellence by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, and Bloomberg Businessweek (About [University], 2015). This commitment is reflected in the university's student-to-faculty ratio of just 14:1, and nearly half (46.8%) of its classes have fewer than 20 students ([University], 2015). At present, the most popular majors are: (a) Registered Nursing/Registered Nurse; (b) Biology/Biological Sciences, General; (c) International Relations and Affairs; (d) Finance, General; and (e) Humanities/Humanistic Studies ([University], 2015). With an average freshman retention rate of 83.5%, the university is clearly attractive to incoming students ([University], 2015).

The university's main 58-acre campus is located in South Orange, New Jersey, and its School of Law is located in Newark, New Jersey (About [University], 2015). Today, more than half (59%) of the university's undergraduate enrollment consists of female students (About [University], 2015). According to U.S. News & World Report — Education (2015), "As the nation's oldest diocesan Catholic university, [the university] embraces students of all races and religions" ([University], 2015, para. 3). This mission and the current enrollment levels of women stand in sharp contrast to the school's undergraduate enrollment in the mid-twentieth century, when the institution was male-only, as discussed further below.

The University in the 1960s

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education that the "separate but equal" provisions of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) placed minority students at a disadvantage and mandated integrated schools across the country (Moore & Lewis, 2014). It was against this backdrop that the debate over whether women should be allowed to enroll in the South Orange campus took place. Although the university established a "university college" for women in 1937, it was not until 1968 that it transitioned from a male-only to a co-educational institution ([University] history, 2015), and this change occurred only after a prolonged series of debates among students and the board of trustees.

For instance, the headline of the February 7, 1963 issue of The Setonian read, "Should SHU Go Coed? Students To Decide." An excerpt of this article states, "The student body will be asked to vote on February 27 on whether the South Orange campus should become co-ed" (p. 1). The decision to allow a vote on the co-educational issue was described in the article as a "compromise": "Student Council authorized the referendum in a compromise move. Earlier, it defeated a resolution to reject all future women special students and passed another advocating complete co-education at [University]" (Should SHU Go Coed?, 1963, p. 1).

More than four years later, on October 25, 1967, The Setonian announced that the university would "[go] Coeducational in September — Trustees Approve Changeover." An excerpt from this article reads, "Starting next Fall [sic], applications for admission into any school of [the university] will be accepted from both males and females" (p. 1). The article also noted, "This move by the school follows the already scheduled exodus of girls from the [university] campus in Newark. It was originally planned that the girls from Newark would remain only in the School of Education. Now, girls entering [the university] will have the opportunity to seek a degree in Arts and Science or Business as well as Education" ([University] [goes] Coeducational, 1967, p. 1). The initial enrollment for women was estimated at under 100 students due to a lack of appropriate resources for female students ([University] [goes] Coeducational, 1967).

It is also noteworthy that while the February 7, 1963 article refers to "women students," the October 25, 1967 article refers to them as "scholarly young ladies" but also as "girls" — a demeaning reference even at that time, and one consistent with Kenneth Burke's Dramatism Theory, as discussed below.

Conclusion

Today, most people in the United States take it for granted that women will be allowed to attend any institution of higher learning of their choice, provided they can otherwise meet the enrollment criteria. The situation was far different just one generation ago, when major universities like this one were all-male. The fact that it required more than four years from the start of the debate to the time women were finally allowed to enroll in the main campus in South Orange, New Jersey, indicates that the issue was heated and that opinion was divided. The fact that approximately six out of ten students currently enrolled are women also demonstrates that the outcome of this debate was highly positive for female students — though those gains were not achieved overnight.

Indeed, with fewer than 100 female students to start, it is clear that the university's initial efforts were intended to make the transition as gradual — and therefore as palatable to the male student body and board of trustees — as possible. In the final analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that Kenneth Burke's dramatism theory provides useful insights into the motives behind social change, and that women attending the university today enjoy the legacy of the enormous challenges faced by female students during the early twentieth century in the United States.

References

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