Keep the Girls at Ames: Iowa Time Machine December 20, 1912

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On December 20, 1912, Iowa State closed out a historic and controversial fall semester. While the school’s first homecoming celebration allowed alumni to reflect fondly on the college’s history, a vote by the Iowa Board of Education to move most programs that enrolled women to the University of Iowa sparked a campaign known as “Keep the Girls in Ames.”

In October 1912, the Iowa Board of Education approved a plan to concentrate liberal arts and non‑engineering and non‑general science work at the State University of Iowa, while limiting Iowa State College and the Iowa State Teachers College to more vocational or applied programs. The proposal would have transferred all non‑engineering and general science courses to Iowa City beginning in 1913, effectively removing the domestic science and general science programs from Ames.

About 337 women enrolled in domestic and general science at Iowa State would have been required to leave Ames for Iowa City, which many viewed as an expulsion of women from a campus that had included women since the first graduating class in 1872. The decision struck contemporaries as an attack on farmers’ daughters’ access to the agricultural college and on the principle that women could choose among the state institutions rather than be confined to one campus.

The night after the vote, the affected women met in the College Chapel in Morrill Hall, denounced the decision, and began organizing a campaign to overturn it, including a pledge that they would not simply transfer to Iowa City. About 150 male students in agriculture and engineering quickly joined by circulating petitions, and sending them to the Board. The slogan “Keep the Girls in Ames” came to symbolize the effort by students, alumni, and supporters to pressure the Board and the legislature to restore women’s programs to Iowa State. On April 3, 1913, the Board rescinded its order, ending the “Keep the Girls in Ames” crisis; the episode helped cement Iowa State’s identity as a coeducational institution. #Iowa #OTD #History #HigherEducation #Learning