Enrollment Grows Straining Limited Resource

The program was steadily growing at this point, with about 45 majors and 45 certificate students enrolled, and approximately 1500 students each semester took Women’s Studies courses taught in other departments.¹⁸ But support from the university was not generous. The National Advisory Council on Women’s Educational Programs had determined that UMass’ investment in Women’s Studies had been parsimonious compared with other institutions and the program had received the least adequate space and resources of all the Special Programs that had recently been reviewed. According to the Advisory Council, the UMass Women’s Studies program was one of just a few they had studied that did not have its own faculty slots.¹⁹

¹⁸ Julie Eagle, “Controversy surrounds Women’s Studies,” Daily Collegian, April 12, 1978, p. 10.

¹⁹ Florence Howe, “Seven Years Later: Women’s Studies Programs in 1976,” prepared for the National Advisory Council on Women’s Educational Programs, cited in Special Report of the Academic Matters Council concerning The Women’s Studies Program, Faculty Senate Doc. No. 78-032, March 9, 1978, p. 2.