ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Changing names, changing perspectives, and alumni discontent

• In Event: Plural Worlds of Science and Shifting Perspectives on Home Economics, 1870-1990

English Abstract

Starting in the mid-1960s, home economics programs in higher education began to consider changing the name of the discipline, to better reflect mid- to late-20th century changes in science and higher education. As university after university discussed new names, it became contested space, with faculty, staff and administration often aligned with students, but against alumni. The reasons to reconsider “home economics” included new fields of study, new sources of government funding, and student discontent. The reasons to maintain the status quo included old sources of government funding, and alumni discontent. With the national organization silent on this issue until conferences, one in the late 1980s and another in the early 1990s, every campus made its own decision about what its name should, or could, be, leading to a lack of cohesion and identity.

The possibility of a new name aroused alumni, with some in favor of a new moniker and some opposed; all dangled loss of (significant) support were the name to change, or not change, depending on perspective. Using Georgia, Iowa, Kansas and Oregon institutions, this paper will analyze how some alumni aligned themselves with students, and used write-in campaigns, protests, and calls to campus presidents to assert their voices. This paper highlights the role of often-silent women alumni, and their strategies for visibility, media attention, and change at a time when women’s educational opportunities were increasingly leading them away from the (seeming) confines of home economics.

Author

• Gwen Kay, SUNY Oswego