{"id":15372,"date":"2017-08-16T21:56:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T21:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2017\/08\/16\/clark-prepares-to-celebrate-75-years-of-women-undergraduates\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:35:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T18:35:45","slug":"clark-prepares-to-celebrate-75-years-of-women-undergraduates","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2017\/08\/16\/clark-prepares-to-celebrate-75-years-of-women-undergraduates\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark prepares to celebrate 75 years of women undergraduates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Oct. 28 events will include screening of student-created video<\/p>\n

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There was a time when the only undergraduates crossing Clark’s campus were men — but that changed in 1942, when the University made the decision to admit women to its undergraduate college. An Oct. 28 celebration<\/a> will mark the 75th anniversary of this historic occasion, and honor the generations of women who came to Clark and later went on to lives and careers of consequence. The day’s events will include a screening of “Challenging Convention: The Women Who Changed Clark’s World<\/a>,” a documentary by Hannah Kogut ’17.<\/p>\n

Kogut, who double-majored in screen studies<\/a> and history<\/a>, was recruited to the project by her adviser, Professor Hugh Manon<\/a>. “It was a perfect marriage of what I like: film and history,” she says. She recorded interviews with several of the first Clark women as well as an alumnus who, to his delight, found himself sharing campus with female classmates. Those interviews, interspersed with archival footage and interviews with current Clark students, were edited into an 18-minute documentary.<\/p>\n

“They were very sweet, and also extremely interested about my own Clark experiences,” Kogut says of Clark’s women pioneers. “And some of their stories were just Clark stories. Yes, they paved the way, and we wouldn’t be here without them. But really, they were no different than we are now. They had fun, went on trips, hung out with their friends, struggled — they were just Clarkies.”<\/p>\n

Clark’s women kept marching forward, doing more and more on campus and leading clubs and activities when the men went off to fight in World War II. Kogut’s video captures a time of change on campus through the recollections of those who experienced it. Some of her footage turned out to be unexpectedly poignant as it includes interviews with Barbara Norris Andersen ’46 and Dr. Martin Deranian ’47, who both passed away last September.<\/p>\n

“They had fun, went on trips, hung out with their friends, struggled — they were just Clarkies.”<\/p>\n