Mariella ’72
Courtesy Anne M. Mariella ’72

In Response to: When Women Came to Princeton [6]

It is the consensus of friends and family that I am the woman in the picture on the cover of the Oct. 5 issue (“In the beginning: How coeducation emerged”). The photo credit specifies only that the picture is from the University’s archives, circa 1970s. I can attest that this picture would have been taken in September 1969, the day I arrived on campus and moved into my assigned dormitory room in Pyne Hall. 

I appreciated reading about the work of Nancy Weiss Malkiel, much of which seemed familiar and some of which provided a slightly new point of view. At the time I was only 18 years old, transferring in as a sophomore, and had only a limited appreciation of the bigger picture across the United States. I remember shortly after undergraduate women officially arrived at Princeton in the fall of 1969, a meeting or assembly where the results of the Patterson report were reviewed. It did not seem particularly surprising that the main reason to admit women was to get the men Princeton really wanted, men who in those days were not willing to attend an all-male University. 

Thank you for making this publication easily available online.