<p>I'm starting a new thread because I don't want this information to be buried in the other one about the "Commencement" book that's just come out. </p>
<p>Mini has mentioned Jill Ker Conway's book, "A Woman's Education," in the other thread and I'd like to give it its due. It's a fabulous book and I'd highly recommend it. It's about her experience as the first woman President of Smith 1975-1985. Conway was pivotal in maintaining Smith as a women's college at a crucial time when so many single sex schools were going co-ed in the late 1960s to mid-1970s. She not only initiated the Ada Comstock Scholars program for older, non-traditional women, and found ways to financially support Smith students who were on welfare, but she also worked to strengthen the endowment, alumnae network and the career services office, critical areas of development which we now take for granted but which were new territory at the time. She writes informatively and delightfully. I found this book on Amazon as a used hardcover (I like hardcovers), but it's also available as a current paperback. </p>
<p>Another book I'd recommend is "Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s" by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz. I ordered the book recently; however, before I could claim it, because I've been reading Jill Ker Conway's book, my husband latched onto it and has been devouring it ever since. So I've only been able to dip into it, but he's been enjoying it immensely. The focus is not just Smith, but all the Seven Sisters, plus three offshoots, Sarah Lawrence, Bennington, and Scripps. It focuses on their founders, missions, settings, and differences among the other sisters. Again, it's available on Amazon as a current paperback and I bought a used hardcover.</p>
<p>Happy reading this summer!</p>