The month of March highlights the celebration of Women’s History. On March 13, 1913, Women’s Suffragettes paraded in Washington, D.C. in hopes of earning their right to vote. Since then, women in all places all over the world have impacted the lives that we live today and of those in the future.
Back in the early 1800s, Maria Wofford was the Co-Founder of Wofford College after the death of Ben Wofford. When Maria Wofford died in 1850, she left $100,000 to establish a college for literary, classical and scientific education.
Wofford is affiliated with the Methodist Church. Women from over 100 years ago worked in a missionary collective that pushed the Methodist Church from Virginia to South Carolina, where it laid its first foundation. Wofford College would be known for its Methodist background and mission for years to come.
Chief Equity Officer Dwayne Pruitt was in charge of putting together some events for this year’s Women’s History Month. There will be a multitude of guest speakers on campus put together by the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion staff.
“There are also events being planned by the Wellness Center and other partners during Women’s History Month,” Pruitt said.
One event in particular to look forward to is March 23 and will be a talk held by Shahram Mazhari featuring “The Genesis of the Recent Iranian Revolution: Women, Life, Freedom.”
The Wofford Women of Color organization is “dedicated to open conversations, genuine connections, encouragement, professional development, and academic success of women.”
They will also be hosting special events that can be found in the Daily Announcements.
To commemorate the impact of women leading the way at Wofford, the college will be reflecting on the first woman admitted to the college. Roberta Hurley, senior vice president of administration and secretary to the Board of Trustees, was in the group of the first women attending Wofford College as resident students in 1975 after the original 8 graduates in the years of 1901-1904.
Hurley’s father went to college and later got his master’s degree in physics. Hurley’s mother took a few college courses. As a young person, Hurley attended a college preparatory school in Aiken. Based on her childhood experiences, Hurley always knew she wanted to go to college.
When she was applying to colleges, she was looking at schools elsewhere, but her South Carolina counselor said Wofford had a great reputation and was going coed, and encouraged Hurley to apply.
In the 70s, when Hurley was applying to college, there was less competition in the college admission process. Additionally, admissions had no essay.
Coming into Wofford, Hurley thought the first night was the scariest. When she came into Wofford, the college only had a brief, one hour long orientation program.
“I remember the first night, my roommate and I walked into the dining room and it was literally a shock,” Hurley said. “My guidance counselor and the admission staff said it was going coed, but I did not think anyone ever said there would only be 60 women that year.”
When women came into Wofford as resident students in 1975, the professors, according to Hurley, were very supportive.
“They made an effort to make sure that the new female students felt welcome in the classroom,” Hurley said.
When it came to interacting with male students on a social level, there were some barriers. Some of them were curious why the college would appeal to female students. Additionally, some of the juniors and seniors who had expected Wofford to be all male were angry that women had started attending the college.
“They would tell you to your face that they didn’t think we belonged here. Then there were others that held the door open to Burwell and were very nice,” Hurley said.
Despite these initial concerns, women became heavily involved on campus. Hurley got elected to the campus union as the secretary. Once Hurley got to know people, she wasn’t thinking about their gender.
“I am still friends today with some of the original women (that came to Wofford).”
Hurley hopes that current students will make lifelong friends here, like she has.
Hurley has been working at the college since about 1981. Throughout her time with the college, she has worked as an admissions counselor, the director of admissions, assistant to the president, dean of Students, also known as vice president of campus life and student development, and now the senior vice President of administration and secretary to the board of trustees.
Throughout her experience with the college, she has seen the college grow and develop.
“It has been such a blessing and a wonderful life to see the institution grow and change and improve,” Hurley said.
Seeing the campus develop over the past forty years is a rare experience. The ability to see the campus become more inclusive, though, is a different one altogether.
“When I started, I did not have the ability to visualize that the little Wofford I went to with 900 students, at the time with only 100 women, would become a great national liberal arts college,” Hurley said.
