    EXHIBIT
    FINDING
A WOMAN'S PLACE AT VIRGINIA TECH 1921-2021

EDIT PER EXHIBIT In this exhibit you can explore the different phases of Solitude’s history. We begin during the period when this place was indigenous land, and go on to explore its history as a slave plantation in the nineteenth century.

LOSING GROUND—MERGER WITH RADFORD COLLEGE 1944-1964

Women studying agriculture remained on the Blacksburg campus.

For two decades, a merger between Radford College and Virginia Tech limited the number of women on the Blacksburg campus. The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation to prevent the duplication of academic programs in higher education. The merger between Virginia Tech and Radford and a similar consolidation between UVA and Mary Washington only affected female students. Radford College was renamed Radford College, Women's Division of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.  The merger with Radford ended in July, 1964. 

From 1944 to 1964, women could only live on the Blacksburg campus if they were studying agriculture, engineering, applied science or business. Women pursuing a graduate degree also studied on the Blacksburg campus. In 1953, one of these women, Betty Delores Stough, became the first woman at Virginia Tech to receive a PhD. 

Women students in a lab on the Blacksburg campus, 1950s

Home Economics Club, 1953 Bugle

Two women in a dorm room, 1950s-1960s

While women did major in subjects like applied science and agriculture, the numbers were considerably lower than in areas like home economics.  The Home Economics department was split between the two campuses. Home economics students had to live on the Radford campus for two years, but could transfer to the Blacksburg campus as upperclassmen. Students training to be teachers lived entirely on the Radford campus.
  
During the merger, students were bused between campuses. The women of Radford College seemed to benefit from the merger because they had access to classes at VPI that were not offered at Radford.