ACLU Case Brings Full Coeducation to UVA

ACLU Case Brings Full Coeducation to UVA. UVA Change Agents.

"I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of this suit and to watch it unfold. I am grateful for the outcome which enabled me to receive an education that enriched my life across many dimensions." , -Virginia "Ginger" Scott.

, On May 29, 1969, Jo Anne Kirstein, Virginia Scott, Nancy Jaffee, and Nancy Anderson, represented by lawyers John C. Lowe (Law '67) and Philip Hirschkop, filed a complaint in a class action suit against the University of Virginia. The case challenged the constitutionality of the University's admissions policies for the College of Arts and Sciences., On September 8, 1969, United States District Judge Robert H. Merhige responded after reviewing all documents filed. He issued a Temporary Restraining Order that required the University to consider the Plaintiffs for admission to the next regular session while the case was pending. Though she risked losing her tuition if the case was lost, Virginia Scott entered the College of Arts and Sciences as a first-year student in the Fall Semester 1969., In a hearing in late September 1969, a three-judge panel realized that while the Board of Visitors voted to allow women into all of UVA's schools, their coeducation plan was inadequate. It called for gradual admittance of women over ten years, with female enrollment restricted to thirty-five percent. In response to the plan, a College Representative to Student council, Kevin Mannix, had written a Minority Report denouncing the plan and its quota system and calling for a two-year transition period. He shared this report with Lowe, who had not seen it, as it had been left out of UVA's Coeducational Committee report submitted to the Court. Lowe entered it into evidence for the Court's immediate consideration., Subsequently, the Court agreed that the ten-year plan based on a quota system was unacceptable, and worked with the plaintiffs and defendants to come up with an acceptable plan. The Board committed to the enrollment of 450 women for the academic year 1970-71, and an additional 550 women for the academic year beginning in September 1971. In the 1972-1973 year and each academic session to follow, there would be no limitation on the number of women admitted to the University., While the case gained national attention and helped officially institute coeducation, women had been members of the University community for over a century, living, working, and studying on Grounds, including as graduate, professional, and even (under specific, limited conditions) undergraduate students. This case remains a pivotal moment in University history, however, and is representative of those many women and male allies, and all whose collective efforts led to a more equitable and accessible University of Virginia.