Although the Regents had expressed their intentions to make educational
provisions for women at the University as early as 1850, not until the exigen-
cies of the Civil War forced them into action, did they make a definite move.
After all, there could be no university if there were no students.
James L. High, a student at the time, described the new women students
as coming like an "army with banners, conquering and to conquer. . with
be-
witching curls, and dimpled cheeks, and flowing robes, and all the panoply
of
feminine adornment. Worst of all," said High, "they came to stay."'14
If enrollment was any indication, the opening of the Normal Department
was a resounding success. In the spring of 1863, 112 students, 76 of whom
were women, enrolled in the Normal School. Students of the Normal De-
partment had the privilege of attending lectures at the university in addition
to Normal School classes, but the rest of their work was completely separate
from the regular university.'5 One woman student felt the first years of
the
Normal School were of questionable value, but she felt it improved as it
grew
older. In 1865 the Normal Department occupied the lower floor of what is
now Bascom Hall and it "resembled a graded school in its content ....
It is re-
grettable to admit that in the early years the presence of women was rather
a
matter of necessity than of choice and justice, for the Civil War had so
de-
pleted the student ranks that the University was in danger of having 'finis'
prematurely written in its career on account of the small registration."'16
The Normal Department was short-lived; in 1865, after two years of
operations, its director, Charles Allen, resigned to serve in the Union army.
With his resignation the faculty suggested that the Regents combine the Nor-
mal Department with the preparatory department or drop it altogether. The
Regents chose the first alternative and in 1866 the state legislature provided
for the admission of women to all departments of the university.17
Coeducation had been achieved chiefly through expediency and the sup-
port of some state legislators and Regents. Just as expediency had given
wo-
men their first chance for education at Wisconsin, it also produced a serious
setback when the Regents approached Dr. Paul Chadbourne of Williams Col-
lege to be the new president. Chadbourne objected to certain provisions of
the 1866 reorganization act of the university. He felt the Normal School
was
better-provided for with state funds than the university and, therefore,
it
would be unwise to use university monies for it. He felt that, in the opinion
of
the great majority of the best educators in the country, coeducation had
not
brought good results in the education of either sex. If the university brought
together boys and girls from all over the country three or four times a day
for
four years "you have an element of incalcuable mischief introduced into
the
institution. "18
Chadbourne was convinced that women should follow a different course
of instruction than men. He felt that the university would lose rank if the
university authorities introduced coeducation. "A state institution
ought to be
so organized," Chadbourne continued, "that all can have its advantages,
while according to this law, (the coeducational provision of the 1866 reor-
ganization act), none can have its advantages unless they believe in the
mixed
system of college education....I can hardly believe, that a majority of the
Regents, indeed any of them, would choose such an institution for the ed-
ucation of their sons and daughters, or that a majority of the people of
the
state would desire such a system, if the question were fairly argued before


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