Yale Will Admit Women in 1969; May Have Coeducational Housing

Yale President Kingman Brewster announced yesterday that Yale will become coeducational in September 1969.

The announcement came shortly after the Yale faculty approved with only one dissenting vote a plan to admit 250 freshman women plus 250 upperclass women by transfer. Eventually 1500 women will be admitted in addition to the 4000 male students.

Yale has promised to encourage and help students find off-campus housing to ease the overcrowding. The university hopes to raise $55 million in additional endowment to provide for the increased cost.

Housing arrangements for the new students remained indefinite, however, because angry students persuaded Brewster late last night to change the original plan. Brewster had promised that any coeducational proposal would not unduly inconvenience any present Yale students.

Brewster Hissed

An editor of the Yale Daily News said Brewster was "hissed and embarrassed" in a stormy meeting with residents of Trumbull College, who would have to scatter among the other residential colleges. Students in other Yale colleges also objected to the proposal, and urged that women be equally distributed among the colleges, occupying one or more entries in each. The student protest threatened to delay coeducation until the Fall of 1970.

But at the close of the meeting last night, Brewster said, "We will reconsider the question of the optional residence of transfers in residential colleges, if it can be done without overcrowding existing facilities." He also promised to reconsider housing freshman women in Wright Hall, presently used for overflow freshmen housing Brewster had Warned that requiring women to live in predominantly male dorms could cause recruitment difficulties.

A recent student-sponsored Coed Week brought women students from throughout the northeast for academic and social activity. Brewster denied that Coed Week had a direct effect on his decision, but his proposal to the faculty praised the organizers of the week and their guests for providing Yale with "uncommon excitement." The Daily News editor said a study of the additional costs of co-education was ordered by the administration concurrently with Coed Week.

The faculty first approved under-graduate coeducation at Yale in 1962, after women graduate students had been admitted for several years. The administration considered establishing an independent coordinate college for women, similar to Radcliffe, two years ago. Later, Vassar was invited to consider affiliating with Yale, but its trustees declined to abandon Poughkeepsie for New Haven.