Today in NC State History: Female numbers increase slowly
The Board of Trustees of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts first debated the issue of admitting women to the all-male college in 1899, some 12 years after the college was founded.
But it was would be slow going for young women interested in studying at the college.
The 1928-29 course catalog, courtesy of Historical State
The trustees voted in 1899 to allow women to enroll in the college, but later rescinded that vote and only allowed women to be enrolled as “special students” in one or two courses. (They were allowed, though, to fully enroll to study textiles.)
But it would be two more years before the first woman enrolled to study in the college.
And it would be nearly 30 years later, on this day in 1928, for the number of female students at State College to reach 21. When that happened, it was nearly double the number of female students who had enrolled at State College the previous year.
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