Co-Education

J        Brief History of Co-Education.

An act of Congress signed by George Washington in 1792 stipulated that a university be located in the Miami Valley north of the Ohio River. The official act to establish Miami University was passed on Feb. 17, 1809. Miami is the second oldest State University west of the Alleghenies and takes its name from the tribe that once inhabited the area  know as Ohio's Miami Valley.

Delayed by the War of 1812, instruction began in 1824 with a president, two faculty, and 20 students. Enrollment grew rapidly, reaching 250 by 1839.

In the 1830s, William Holmes McGuffey wrote the first of his Eclectic Readers while a Miami professor. Among the many talented young students was Benjamin Harrison who graduated in 1852; he was elected the 23rd president of the United States in 1888.

A few years after the Civil War, with changed conditions and advancing prices, the income of the university became insufficient to support its work. Miami closed in 1873, opening 12 years later when resources had accumulated and the state of Ohio began a policy of appropriating public funds for support.

Coeducation began in 1888, by 1903 there were more than 100 women on campus—one third of the total

Enrollment. Our first African American student, Nelly Craig, graduated in 1905.

Many other milestones have been reached. The concept of artist-in-residence began here. Beginning in 1835, four national fraternities were founded here, giving Miami a nickname, "Mother of Fraternities." Another nickname is "Cradle of Coaches," referring to the coaching success of so many former players and coaches. Ohio's first intercollegiate football game was played at Miami in 1888 against the University of Cincinnati.

In the beginning, the course of study at Miami was strictly classical. Over the years new academic divisions were added to meet the changing needs of students and society: education in 1902, business in 1927, fine arts in 1929, graduate programs in 1947, applied science in 1959, and interdisciplinary studies in 1974.

Western College, a 120-year-old private institution adjoining the Oxford campus, merged with Miami in 1974 and became the site of interdisciplinary studies (Western College Program).

Miami's Middletown and Hamilton campuses opened in 1966 and 1968, respectively. Also in 1968, Miami opened a European center, now named John E. Dolibois European Center, in Luxembourg.

A number of campus buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including Elliott, Stoddard, and Peabody halls, and the Western College for Women Historic.

J           MEANING OF CO-EDUCATION

    Co-education, instruction of both sexes in the same institution. The economic benefits gained from joint classes and the need to secure equality for women in industrial, professional, and political activities have influenced the spread of coeducation. There were scattered examples of coeducation in the late 17th cent. in Scotland and in the American Colonies, but there was no general trend until the great expansion of public education between 1830 and 1845 in the developing W United States. The distance between schools in that region and the small number of pupils caused elementary schools to admit girls. The movement spread naturally to the secondary schools during the reorganization of public education after the Civil War. Oberlin College gave degrees to both men and women as early as 1837, but it was the development of state universities during the post–Civil War era that standardized collegiate coeducation. Since 1960 nearly every formerly single-sex college has become coeducational; only about one hundred, mostly historic women's schools and men's seminaries, remain. The coeducational movement encountered stronger resistance outside the United States. In Europe, the Scandinavian countries were the earliest supporters, but many other nations limited coeducation to institutions of higher learning. Although coeducation has expanded since World War II, there are many nations where it still meets opposition on religious and cultural grounds.

 Coeducation is the integrated education of men and women. Before coeducation became predominant, most important institutions of higher education restricted their enrollment to men. Women were educated in all-female schools, if at all.