College has served women for 165 years.
By John Chambers
St. Mary-of-the-Woods College is full of 165 years of spirituality and tradition, something its leaders are always finding new ways to preserve.
The institution began as a Catholic college for women in 1840, a time when it and similar schools attracted mostly wealthy students, said co-Chancellor Sister Jeanne Knoerle.
"So what you had was kind of a French academy in the wilds of Indiana," she said. "And gradually, that grew into a full-fledged college."
Five miles northeast of Terre Haute, more than 300 students live at the Woods as part of its in-house undergraduate program. It is the only part of the institution not open to men.
"Because every time women's roles started to shift and new roles became open to women, you saw the college's curriculum shift," Knoerle said. "But I think the difference is here, it's all seen through the lens of women."
Beginning this fall, men can take classes through the Woods External Degree program. Graduate study opened to them more than 15 years ago.
"Well, the [external] program began because in the 1970s, it was not easy to get students," said Knoerle, college president from 1968 to 1983. "It was necessity" to keep the institution alive.
The Woods has 1,700 students, according to 2004 enrollment figures.
"We've been working for the last three years on an institutional plan," said Sister Jeanne Burrows, chief academic officer and academic dean.
It includes such developments as new classes, campus improvements and a plan to increase an equivalent of 881 full-time students to 1,100 within the next five years.
The institution's 67-acre wooded campus could be used more in undergraduate curriculum and be developed as a large part of its future, Knoerle said.
"There's a reality here that you don't find a lot of places," she said. "I used to tell the students here that spirituality hangs on every tree."
The campus is shared with the Sisters of Providence, the religious order that founded the college but functions separately.
Of the more than 300 women's colleges in the United States in the 1960s, about 60 schools remained as of June 2004. Only 13 of those have strictly women students, Burrows said.
"For campus students, we envision that we want to be a college of first choice for women students in the Midwest," she said.
And some stick around. Of the 6,812 alumni on record, 1,038 live in the Wabash Valley.
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Tribune-Star/Elizabeth Goodman |
| Woodsies: Alums and current students represent St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in front of Le Fer Hall. Back row are current students Marissa Anne Finder '07, Sara Little '07 and alumna Mary Helen Clayton '65. Seated in front row are alumnae Paulette Campana '01, April Simma '03 and Susan Gresham '79. |
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SAINT MARY-OF-THE-WOODS FAST FACTS
St. Mary-of-the-Woods College: Some notable alumnae by name, class and profession:
- Linda Burger, 1996, auto dealer and owner who is retired from Burger Chrysler-Jeep Inc.
- Barbara Brugnaux, 1970, judge in Vigo County Court Division 5
- Marilyn Seibert Leinenbach, 1969, math professor at Indiana State University
- Virginia "Ginger" Smith, 1989, secretary-treasurer at Princeton Mining Co.
- Carmen Hansen Rivera, 1970, president at Carmen Inc., a marketing and diversity management firm in Indianapolis.
- Karen Steffen Blesch, 1999, chief financial officer at Ohio Valley Heartcare, based in Evansville
- Kathryn A. Martin, 1963, chancellor at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Minn.
- Norma Valle Ferrer, 1969, journalism professor at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, P.R.
- Jean Wilkowski, 1941, Washington, D.C. - Director, CPC International, served as U.S. ambassador to Zambia.
Source: St. Mary-of-the-Woods College