© 1997 Lawrence University Press
Tradition and Change at Milwaukee-Downer under Lucia Briggs, 1921-1951
Ellen Sabin must have had feelings of considerable satisfaction when she retired from the presidency of Milwaukee-Downer College in June of 1921. She could look back upon a career in which she had not only successfully launched a college for women but had been the prime mover in the efforts to help it grow.
And grow it had. Back in 1895, the first year of joint operation of Milwaukee and Downer Colleges, the institution had a faculty of nine members, including President Sabin herself. The annual catalogue for 1896-97, the first in which a student roster appeared, showed an enrollment of 18 students in the college department. In 1921, when Sabin retired from Milwaukee-Downer, the institution had grown to include a faculty of 40 members and a student enrollment of 382. The curriculum had expanded as well, the actual number of course offerings having risen from 33 to 194.
Other evidence of growth during the Sabin period was also apparent and included expansion of the college's funds through endowment and the relocation and expansion of its physical plant. Thus, when Lucia Briggs was installed as Milwaukee-Downer's second president, she was inheriting from Sabin what appeared to be a well-established educational institution.
During her tenure in office, Lucia Briggs enunciated an educational philosophy that bore a clear relationship to that of Ellen Sabin. The thread that tied them together was their common emphasis upon women's special role being derived from their differences with men. Thus, in an address to the North Central Association, Briggs acknowledged that, in their college work, both men and women take courses for a liberal education as well as for professional training in a definite calling. But only women, she contended, "must prepare for two alternate and very different possibilities, home life and professional life, since, unlike men, women have a divided purpose because many do not know which kind of life will be their lot."
It was with this latter observation in mind that Briggs admonished college women to prepare for both intelligent handling of home responsibilities and possible professional life. In addition, Briggs repeatedly stated her belief that women are best equipped if their education goes beyond just the acquisition of narrow technical skills and gives them thorough grounding in the liberal arts. Expanding on this, she said:
I believe, for example, that would-be teachers should not crowd their college program with so many courses in education that they have no opportunity to get an adequate background in the subject in which they wish to teach and in kindred subjects which will enrich their teaching.
It was Briggs' view that, even though the content of liberal arts courses was often forgotten, just the process of learning these subjects improved the caliber of the mind and, hence, the quality of life. In this, as in her aversion to narrow vocationalism, Briggs' thinking was clearly a throwback to that of her predecessor, Ellen Sabin.
There is a great deal more to be said about Lucia Briggs' philosophy of education, but it is all more meaningful when placed in the context of her life at the college. Born in 1887, Briggs was 34 years of age when she took over as president of Milwaukee-Downer College. This was the beginning of the 1920s, a period of rapid and marked social change, especially among American youth, who staged a general attack upon accepted authority and tradition. Thus, genteel manners were discarded; clothing styles changed such that women started wearing bobbed hair, short skirts, silk stockings, and cosmetics; women drank and smoked; and men and women danced to the new jazz music.
Briggs, a New England Puritan and a staunch traditionalist, was very much at odds with this new pattern of social life. She thought that so much emphasis was being placed on developing the individual that people were coming to believe they could do as they pleased, without respect to other individuals or to established authority. It was fine, she felt, to cultivate individual initiative but not at the expense of "the fundamentals upon which every fine character must be built." These "fundamentals" included honesty; "industry," which meant seeing work through to its conclusion; "backbone," which meant facing tough jobs; and a "right attitude toward others." People of fine character were notable for their willingness to reach out to the community, to participate, to be helpful, to have civic interests. Briggs was even able to recommend particular organizations appropriate to participation by women with a liberal arts background, including the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women, PTAs, and various women's clubs and social welfare organizations.
What was the role of the women's college in all of the above? With respect to civic participation, the women's college provided students the opportunity to develop executive ability by holding school offices, such as in student government, usually held by men in coeducational institutions. With respect to the general rapid social change occurring, Briggs saw the role of Milwaukee-Downer as protector of students and faculty alike, against what she perceived to be evils in the larger society outside.
As president of the institution, she was in a position to influence what form this protection would take. Thus, during the 1920s, there was an increasing level of restriction imposed by college rules and regulations. Formulation of the rules was technically the province of student government, but, in reality, just as had been true during the Sabin period, the college administration had a great deal of input in this area. Milwaukee-Downer Dean of Women Aleida Pieters' statement about this was especially telling:
In the beginning rules were imposed by the president or faculty and the student respected vested authority. Later democratic principles developed and students formed College Government Associations which made the rules necessary for a successful and happy community life. These rules have been made with more or less aid, and shall I say pressure, from the college authorities.
This left little room for doubt as to the real source of social control at the college.
The publication of Milwaukee-Downer rules and regulations in 1927 increased the size of the Student Handbook by 20 pages over what it had been in 1926, indicating that there was clearly a perception that there was a great deal to protect students against. Mainly, for Lucia Briggs, there was a need to cope with the "fast pace of life" that she saw dominating the social life of the 1920s. In a speech to a Girl Scout convention, Briggs lamented:
The quiet intellectual matching of wits, which our fathers delighted in, no longer holds interest. And as for conversation? When a man calls on a girl nowadays, do they sit at home and talk? Not they. They must go and do something. They go to the movies or somewhere to dance; and of course the street car is too slow and plebeian for them [so they go out in an automobile]. It's an expensive kind of evening, and not one that makes for real understanding and companionship. We need to emphasize simplicity and to learn concentration in this age of distraction. We need to renew our interest in the simple things of home life. A jazz attitude towards life, overstimulated and restless, constantly tries to invade our strongholds.
The rules were complex and varied both from year to year and in how they applied to the different classes of undergraduates, freshmen, of course, being subject to the greatest restriction.
In the most general terms, regulations were established to control student behavior in areas regarded as posing the greatest threat. Thus, rules of 1927 required permission of the dean to attend dances, required the presence of chaperones at social functions, greatly limited the conditions under which students could go riding with men in automobiles, restricted students from having both automobiles and radios on campus (the electricity in dorm rooms could be used for curling irons only!), prohibited attendance by students at the theatre and at movies on Sunday, and strictly forbade smoking. In addition, there were detailed rules governing checking out of the residence hall and checking back in; there were curfews that, although different for each undergraduate class, applied to all; and there were definite hours designated during which "guests," presumably male, could be entertained in the college parlors.
The list could go on, but the point is clear: the college in the 1920s consciously functioned as an agent of social control. As in the Sabin period, it continued to believe that it was acting in loco parentis; although it turned out that some parents were not at all pleased with such a restrictive environment for their daughters. This was confirmed by cases, during the 1920s, in which the college took disciplinary action against students. While there were expulsions for stealing and for academic infractions, in a majority of these cases President Briggs expelled students from Milwaukee-Downer for social violations like drinking; spending a whole night out with men, without permission and un-chaperoned; going out with men whom the college deemed "unsuitable"; and going to unauthorized places, like dance halls in the city and roadhouses in the country. Briggs acted summarily and unilaterally in these cases, bringing howls from some parents to the effect that "the punishment far exceeded the crime" and that Briggs' handling of these matters showed her to be a petty and unfit administrator.
The intensity with which Briggs pursued violators of college rules, however, decreased markedly during the 1930s and 1940s, when matters of student discipline were handled by the Office of the Dean in conjunction with the College Government Association. Not only was there a relaxation of Briggs' personal participation in these matters, but there was also a general relaxation of the rules themselves.
What accounted for these changes? One likely possibility is that there was a change in Briggs herself. Lucia Briggs had come to Milwaukee-Downer as a young woman, embarking upon her first major administrative job. She was quite sensitive, perhaps oversensitive, to the rapid social changes going on right outside the boundaries of the campus. And it is likely that her expulsion of students for social infractions was an overreaction, based upon her own fears and insecurities. Still, she may well have been stunned by the intensity of some of the parents' reactions to the expulsions; for she quickly sought protection, coming to rely heavily on support from the college's Board of Trustees in letting the parents know that her decisions were not subject to change. In the end, she came to temper her responses in these cases, perhaps even making a conscious decision to steer a different course with matters such as these in the future.
That Briggs was maturing and feeling more the master of her situation was evident in the way she administered the affairs of Milwaukee-Downer during the 1930s. Given the disastrous condition of the American economy during these years, it was a credit to Briggs that she was able to keep the institution afloat. Her ability to do this was due in part to her New England frugality and taste for simplicity and in part to the nature of the relationship between herself and members of the Milwaukee-Downer faculty.
Briggs watched closely every dollar she spent and, by her own admission, faculty salaries were lower at Milwaukee-Downer than at other such institutions. In correspondence with applicants for teaching positions, Briggs often pointed out that the pay was lower at Milwaukee-Downer but that this was more than compensated for by the small classes and the warm, friendly environment of the school. Apparently the faculty agreed, for Briggs was not only able to cut faculty salaries during the Depression but managed to keep these reduced salary levels in force until practically the end of the 1930s.
It might be argued that faculty members really had no choice but to accept pay cuts, that they were fortunate to remain employed during these hard times. However, the fact that they remained at Milwaukee-Downer, accepting lower pay, also bespoke the deep sense of loyalty they had developed to the school. This loyalty was illustrated by the fact that, when President Briggs retired in 1951, fully a third of the faculty was still comprised of individuals who had been either Sabin appointees, before 1921, or hired by Briggs before 1939. The proportion rose to 40 percent when Briggs' appointments prior to 1945 were also counted.
Keeping her faculty intact was only half the Briggs accomplishment of the 1930s. She was also able to keep enrollments high, in the face of economic conditions that were forcing students out of school in search of means of support for themselves and their families. To keep up enrollment, many strategies were employed: Milwaukee-Downer student on-campus employment, known as "self-help," was greatly expanded; the college's Placement Bureau, in existence but dormant from early in Milwaukee-Downer history, now made concerted efforts to secure employment for students outside the school; scholarship policy, formerly applicable only to students already enrolled, was altered to allow the offer of such aid to potential freshmen to facilitate their entrance into Milwaukee-Downer; and administrative personnel were hired to carry on an active program of recruitment, carrying the search for students as far as California.
In sum, during the Depression the Briggs administration showed a heightened sensitivity to student needs and managed through frugality to keep the faculty intact. Apart from the financial aspects of the story, however, there also was the change already noted in the general atmosphere of the school, signified by a decided relaxation in college rules. Restrictions of the 1920s against theatre and movies on Sunday were dropped, as was the prohibition against having radios in dormitory rooms. The college deferred to parents on the question of permitting students to ride with men in automobiles; all that was now required was blanket, written parental permission on file. Chaperones were eliminated and curfews extended; even the ban on smoking was lifted, the college going as far as to designate smoking areas on campus.
The rules were relaxed not only because Briggs felt herself more in control of her institution but also because she saw change in the students. Behavior problems seemed to lighten as economic depression worsened. The reality was that students in the 1930s were of necessity taking more responsibility for themselves and that regulations were perhaps not now so essential to their well-being. That other educators noted this as well was evidenced in a 1933 article in School and Society claiming that a decline in financial resources was subduing students, leading them increasingly to appreciate the value of broad cultural training. This article further claimed that students were reading more and that student interest in extracurricular activities was declining, mainly because the importance of these activities faded in the light of a world-problems perspective. The Depression was, in effect, solving the problems that for Briggs and other educators had loomed so large in the 1920s.
During the 1940s, enrollment at Milwaukee-Downer hit an all-time high of 444, exceeding the record of 429 set back in 1927-28. It was indeed in the years during and immediately following the Second World War that Lucia Briggs was perhaps at her best as the college's president. As previously noted, Briggs had strong feelings about the importance of performing one's civic duty through participation in community affairs, which she now put into action by plunging the college into war work.
Furthermore, she capitalized upon the unique features of Milwaukee-Downer's curriculum to aid the war effort, bringing large numbers of extension students in to take courses in occupational therapy. The net result of this for the college was continued growth, such that, by 1951, the year Briggs retired, the number of women graduated by Milwaukee-Downer reached a record high of 80.
The history of Briggs' administration, then, was a history of change in the posture of an all-female institution, vis à vis the women who formed its constituency. In the 1920s it was important to families who sent daughters to Milwaukee-Downer that the college stand in loco parentis, as a bastion of good manners and good taste in a society that appeared bent upon challenging and undermining traditional values. The need for the rigid rules and regulations that were imposed was vitiated, however, by the desperate economic conditions of the 1930s, that seemed to sober students into taking more responsibility for themselves. This resulted in a significant relaxation of college rules, a trend that continued into the 1940s. With America's involvement in the Second World War, student demands for increased personal independence were met with much greater sympathy than the college would have displayed 20 years before. President Briggs could now be tolerant, for example, of students missing classes to participate in social activities with servicemen. To Briggs, students were no longer a threat to her authority; they were individuals, many of whom she took the trouble to get to know well.
The granting of increased personal independence to students, however, must not be misconstrued as representing a change in the college's view that the locus of women's proper roles was in a sphere uniquely their own. In this, the college administration in the 1920s and 1930s, under Briggs, did not deviate from that of Sabin before her. In the 1940s, while cognizant of the movement of women into critical industrial work, President Briggs nevertheless held that college women would best serve the war effort by remaining in school. It would be most helpful, for example, for women to train in occupational therapy and thus become equipped to deal with the ravages of war within the context of a bona fide women's occupation. Even in the face of women taking men's places in industrial jobs, Briggs would very likely have argued that this was a legitimate, if only temporary, women's role, an expedient with which to meet the demands of war.
In short, women were still confined to their own separate sphere, and their legitimate social roles remained those not identical with, but rather complementary to, the roles of men. This placed Milwaukee-Downer very much in harmony with the general society in the post-war decade, when the separate sphere ideology, now identified under the rubric, "the feminine mystique," enjoyed its final period of dominance.
Milwaukee-Downer Under John B. Johnson, 1951-1964: An Institution Transformed