Barnard – Columbia Relations, 1960s – 1980s
| Year | Date | Event/Development |
| Late 1950s | Columbia President Grayson Kirk (1953-68) and Barnard President Millicent McIntosh (1947-62) work effectively together on inter-corporate relations. | |
| 1962 | Rosemary Park, president of Connecticut College, named 2nd president of Barnard College. A recognized scholar and fundraiser. | |
| 1962 | Barnard and Columbia open more of their classes to cross-registration; net flow was from Barnard to Columbia, but no charge being exacted. | |
| 1967 | June | Rosemary Park resigns as Barnard’s 2nd president after five years in office |
| 1967 | November | Martha A. Peterson becomes Barnard’s 3rd president; a mid-Westerner with student-side administrative experience at University of Wisconsin. |
| 1968 | April 23-30 | Building occupations on Columbia campus result in arrest of 700+ Columbia students, 115 of them Barnard students. |
| May 6 | President Peterson expelled Linda LeClair for lying to Judicial Council and violating parietal rules by living off-campus with boyfriend. | |
| July | English professor Carl Hovde named dean of Columbia College; serves until July 1972 | |
| August | Grayson Kirk resigns as CU’s 14th president; University in financial disarray; Andrew W. Cordier named acting president | |
| September | Parietal rules for Barnard women relaxed. | |
| November | Plimpton Hall opened. | |
| 1969 | Fall | Barnard black students organize BOSS – Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters; press for separate housing, more black faculty and role in recruitment |
| 1969 | November | Altschul Science Tower and McIntosh Student Center open |
| 1970 | July | William McGill becomes CU’s 16th president; charged with overcoming University chronic deficits and mounting debt. 1970-71 deficit at $15,000,000. Total deficit stood at $40,000,000 on $151,000,000 operating budget. |
| 1970 | September 17 | CU position on the pricing of Barnard’s X-registration payment: Bernard Friedman to Provost Peter Kenen: “The object of the negotiation is not optimum pricing of x-registration, but maximum pressure for academic merger.” |
| BC and CU trustees adjust their financial arrangements, providing for Barnard to start paying for X-registration and for access to libraries, gym. Amount still under discussion. 1971-72 to be first year of cross payments | ||
| 1971 | Fall | Some co-ed living permitted in a couple dormitories. |
| 1971 | Columbia College dean and College faculty begin to press to make CC co-educational as a way of competing with other Ivies who have recently done so. | |
| Dean of Graduate Faculties George Fraenkel calls for merger of the Barnard and Columbia faculties as a cost-cutting measure. | ||
| 1973 | July 1 | BC-CU trustees reach intercorporate agreement on magnitude of BC financial obligations to Columbia, with estimated annual BC payment to CU on the order of $3 million. Barnard faculty tenure cases subject to University ad hoc provisions whereby University provost controls the process. |
| Amount of x-registration increases with Barnard attracting more Columbia students than anticipated, but still net negative balance. | ||
| 1974 | December | Turnover in Barnard trustee leadership as Eleanor Elliott succeeds Wallace Jones as Board chair; Jones (along with Robert Houget, Francis Plimpton and Samuel Milbank) viewed as being open to merger ; Elliott viewed as strongly opposed. William Golden and Helene Kaplan join the board and align with Elliott. |
| 1975 | June | Martha Peterson leaves Barnard for presidency of Beloit; general view that she was urged to resign by trustees distrustful of her commitment to Barnard’s autonomy. Some faculty protest trustee action. |
| November | Barnard trustees approve search committee’s unanimous choice of Brown provost Jacqueline Mattfeld as Barnard’s 4th president. | |
| 1976 | February | President-elect Mattfeld meets with CU President McGill; they do not hit it off |
| May | Mattfeld assumes the presidency, reporting to the Barnard community her difficulties working with CU administrators. Commits herself and trustees to eliminating the salary gap between Barnard and Columbia faculty. | |
| 1976 | May | President McGill: “Barnard’s faculty must be merged into the Columbia faculty by 1985.” |
| 1976 | Coulumbia College Dean Peter Pouncey relieved of post by President McGill following call for the College to admit women. | |
| Barnard trustees relieve Mattfeld of responsibility for dealing with BC-CU relations. | ||
| 1977 | Christine Royer succeeds the retiring Helen McCann as Director of Admissions | |
| Charles S. Olton appointed Dean of the Faculty; first outside appointment to the position; remains untenured | ||
| 1977 | Amherst economist Arnold Collery appointed Dean of Columbia College, succeeding the dismissed Peter Pouncey. | |
| 1977 | July | Barnard increases size of entering classes and accepted transfers as a way of balancing Barnard budget; College had run annual deficits since 1971. |
| Several disputed tenure cases where nominated Barnard faculty fail to secure Ad Hoc/provostial approval. | ||
| 1978 | Increased class sizes puts pressure on dormitories and increases percentage of commuters. Beginning of “Mattfeld bump.” | |
| 1979 | Barnard students protest fee hikes; administration trying to cope with high inflation. | |
| 1980 | June | Mattfeld obliged to resign; reasons for trustee action not specified; various explanations circulated at time. Many faculty protest her firing. |
| July 1 | Provost Michael I. Sovern becomes Columbia’s 17th president. Anxious to resolve the matter of Columbia College and its co-education proponents. Calls for “virtual coeducation” for Columbia College. Would require 40% of all Barnard enrollements be in Columbia classes. |
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| July 10 | Trustee Ellen V. Futter (BC ’71) named interim president; not expected to become president; national search underway. | |
| 1980 | Fall | CU committee chaired by Ronald Breslow projects that Barnard can survive Columbia College becoming co-ed, but that CC could not compete in the Ivies if it didn’t go co-ed. |
| December 21 | Sovern communicates CU decision to BC trustees to have the College admit women in the fall of 1983 | |
| 1981 | January 22 | A BC-CU agreement reached whereby Barnard acquiesced in Columbia decision to make CC co-educational; BC secures modest modification in Ad Hoc faculty-tenure arrangements. |
| May 6 | Ellen V. Futter named Barnard’s 5th president; then 31 years old. | |
| 1982 | Fall | Curriculum Review underway; led by TC president Lawrence A. Cremin |
| 1982 | Biologist Robert Pollack succeeds the retiring Arnold Collery as 11th dean of Columbia College | |
| 1984 | Implementation of First-Year Seminar Program; Quantitative Reasoning requirement; Centennial Scholars; some Barnard programs designated as Barnard-based programs by CC: dance; theatre; environmental science; architecture; urban studies. | |
| 1985 | Barnard trustees decide to go ahead to borrow funds from NY state for new dorm; intended to make Barnard fully residential | |
Last updated: January 10, 2016
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