Record Accession Number: 1435
First UVA program	NURS	Second UVA program
Comments on UVA programs
Home town	Summit	Home state	NJ
Comments on Home town and state
Home town classification	Suburb
Comments on Home town classification
High school classification	Public
Comments on High school classification
Was your high school co-ed?	Yes
Comments on Co-ed high school
Did you come directly from high school to UVA?	No
Comments if not directly from high school	Madison College, 2 years
Important activities before coming to UVA
Comments on important activities	Attending Madison College x2 years and having long-term relationship with high school sweetheart attending Penn State University.
If married, was it before, during, or after UVA?	After
Comments on time of marriage
Was your spouse associated with UVA?	Student
Comments on spouses association with UVA
Mother's first degree	B.A.	Mother's first college	Moravian College
Mother's second college		Mother's second degree
Mother's third college		Mother's third degree
Father's first degree	B.S. engineering	Father's first college
Father's second college		Father's second degree
Father's third school		Father's third degree
Comments on parents' schooling
First sister's level of schooling		Second sister's level of schooling
Third sister's level of schooling		First brother's level of schooling
Second brother's level of schooling		Third brother's level of schooling
Comments on siblings' schooling
Family members at UVA
Comments on family members at UVA
Mother's first occupation		Mother's second occupation
Mother's third occupation		Father's first occupation
Father's second occupation		Father's third occupation
Comments on parents' occupations
Date entered UVA		Date left UVA
First other college		First other concentration
First other degree		First other dates of attendance
Second other college		Second other concentration
Second other degree		Second other dates of attendance
Third other college		Third other concentration
Third other degree		Third other dates of attendance
Fourth other college		Fourth other concentration
Fourth other degree		Fourth other dates of attendance
Fifth other college		Fifth other concentration
Fifth other degree		Fifth other dates of attendance
Comments on college experiences
Why did you choose UVA?
Comments on choice to attend UVA	High caliber BSN program in the Country. BSN Program was a 4 year and summer program, rather than 5 year program. Was enchanted to go to a "Southern school." Parental influence - they lived in Waynesboro, Va., as newlyweds where I was conceived.
How did you finance UVA?
Comments on financing	Parents savings. I worked in the hospital affiliated program of working weekend shifts as a student nurse and all summer full-time to finance my room and board at McKim Hall while attending U.Va. It gave me excellent clinical experience!
Why did you choose your UVA concentration(s)?
Comments on choice of concentration	Wanted to be a nurse since age 5. Role-model Aunt and my mother who wanted to be a nurse (but parents forbade it) influenced me to choose the profession. Great fulfillment helping others, interested in health issues.
Description of UVA classroom experiences
Comments on classroom experiences	Superior quality instructors/professors. Intimate and small with individual attention. Enjoyed class sessions with medical students and couple of subjects with mainstream men's programs. Enjoyed opportunities of 2 libraries - Medical School and Main Library. Convenient classrooms in McKim Hall where I lived.
Description of UVA professor interactions
Comments on professor interactions	Interactions were of the nature of respectful, somewhat fearful nature. Professors were personable but somewhat intimidating. They forced me to give it all "my best" with high perfectionistic expectations. They were very available on the floors when we worked in our clinical settings.
Who impacted your life at UVA?
Comments on life impact	1. William M. Clark - undergraduate and graduate Engineering student who became my husband and father of 4 after graduation. Seven years later we divorced but we continued to raise the children together and are "working parent-partners" to this day. 2. The men of the University as a whole. Their existence in mass numbers and our existence of women in such small numbers was a ratio that spelled SOCIAL FUN for the women. I studied and partied harder than most and it was all very excellent.
Most memorable UVA educational experience
Comments on memorable educational experience	The fine quality and excellence of my program. It prepared me to be a well-educated and clinical experienced graduate RN. Other BSN programs of the time were not preparing their students clinically. I got that. My sister in the RN program at Duke 5 years later didn't. Also my education experience was very challenging it was extremely demanding and difficult.
UVA weekend activities
Comments on weekend activities	Fraternity parties, dating, studying and working shifts on the floors in the hospital helping to support my R&B and getting clinical experience. Occasionally going home with a friend or 2 to their families in Virginia. Very different from the "North."
UVA extra-curricular organizations
Comments on extra-curricular organizations	Don't remember, but whatever they were they had little significance - didn't have time due to activities listed in #22.
Important local, state, national, and international issues while at UVA
Comments on important issues	Vietnam War issues. Post JFK assassination issues. Women's movement issues. Birth control/abortion issues. Segregation-integration issues of the South - restaurants, buses, restrooms. Sexual liberation issues. Music issues - Beatles; folk rock concerts, "Easy Rider" movie, "Splendor in the Grass," new movies and books, "Joy of Sex."
How interest in issues was expressed
Comments on how interest was expressed	1. Debated with fellow students and parents. 2. Had to have an illegal secretive abortion. 3. Loved the new music, danced a lot, went to concerts and films. 4. Would deliberately practice role-model integration in public places. Fight for integration. 5. Worried a lot about Vietnam and men going to war. 6. Became sexually liberated and more daring as a woman in the times.
UVA housing
Comments on housing	dorm - McKim Hall; Summer - Randall Hall converted for summer women students.
Likes and dislikes about housing
Comments on likes and dislikes	1. Great Randall Hall was fun, especially men's bathrooms! 2. McKim Hall was convenient, comfortable, and loved my private room and maid service for cleaning and laundry and bed changing! My "hall-buddy" classmates were a great group of women.
Where were meals eaten
Comments on meal location	hospital cafeteria mostly; at "The Corner" - couple restaurants there - special times
Did you interact outside of UVA?
Interaction detail	Landlords of male students. Merchants, clergy, MD for abortion. Priest and congregation at Episcopal Church on Corner. Off campus housing - grad student program.
Memories of Charlottesville
Comments on Charlottesville memories	Beautiful, small and quiet. Rolling green hills and horses. Skyline Drive. Train station - NY city destination and back trips. Loved the Southern people and lifestyle! Flowers, Southern hospitality! Formal, proper Thomas Jefferson history and buildings everywhere.
Did you feel part of UVA community?		Did you feel part of community?
Incidents that caused these community feelings	All! I used the main campus facilities on a daily basis - for library. Graduation! Fraternity activities. Attending Corner and sports performances productions. Being infused with the medical students. Attending all home sports games: football, basketball, rugby, polo.
Vivid UVA memories
Comments on vivid memories	My experiences in the Psychiatric Specialty Area in the last year of our program and my experiences in the 6 month Public Health portion of the P.H. Degree Program. My roommate and I lived in an apartment we had to find ourselves in Arlington while we worked out of the health dept. there assigned to a PHN. This was during the last semester of our senior year. That experience was terrific and gave me a hands-on feeling for Public Health Nursing which I love to this day. Psychiatric nursing became my specialty area after a few years in pediatrics thanks to my positive experience at U.Va.
Did marital status affect UVA experiences
Comments on influence of marital status	I was single but engaged when I started at U.Va. Because I was single, I was able to take advantage of the dating opportunities at U.Va. and ultimately met my future husband and rejected my original long-term partner who was far away. Because I was single, I was able to take more advantage of the sexual revolution and Women's Liberation Movement than my already married sisters.
Did cultural background affect UVA experiences
Comments on influence of cultural background	Because I was white I was accepted racially easily. But because I was female in an all men's University, I was looked at with prejudice, but at the time I don't think I minded it that much. Because I was a nursing student I was also looked at with prejudice. Thus, I was prejudiced to be: 1. A female who isn't as smart as a man; who is submissive and needs to be protected (and controlled). And who is a Southern female stereotype which I was not - having come as a Northern female. 2. A Nurse who is supposed to be loose, sexually knowledgeable and experienced and a party girl and fun date and attractive. "M*A*S*H TV nurse image." 3. Coming from a Northern NYC suburb I was an outsider in a predominantly Southern attended university. I was still a "Yankee" - the enemy/threat" so to speak. 4. But the above was an attractive quality of mine because I was different.
Did UVA prepare you for post-UVA life?
Comments on preparedness	I was academically and clinically well-prepared and could feel the difference compared to fellow-workers from other schools. I was favored because I was a U.Va. graduate and received more "automatic respect." It also prepared me in areas of discipline, fortitude, methods of achieving goals successfully.
Most significant post-UVA events
Comments on most significant event	1. My marriage at age 22, 2 weeks after graduation 1965. 2. My move to California in 1971 after my 3rd child's birth. 3. My mother's death when I was 27 and pregnant with my 4th child. 4. My divorce from husband at age 30. 5. Raising my children as a single parent throughout their childhood and graduation from colleges - all four. 6. Dealing with corneal eye disease since my childhood throughout my career. 7. Having 4 children in 5 years and being a single working mom most of their life.
Personal factors that affected professional life
Comments on personal factors	If I hadn't married at a time when my husband was still in grad-school, I may never have worked in my career. Financial need forced me to work. When my husband finished M.A. level, I didn't work. When he returned to Ph.D. work, I worked and had babies and when he finished Ph.D., I didn't work outside the home. When I left my husband, financial need forced me to return to work. I continued to work because I had to. I would rather have been a stay at home mom and was happiest in that role - or a part-time clinical nurse and at home mom!! Because I needed money as a single mom, I went for the top paying positions - ie. DON and Administrator positions.
Other factors affecting life after the university
Comments on other factors	Women's liberation. Status of professional woman changing health factors - eye problems - various other serious health issues with children throughout the years and myself. Financial factors - grew up in a upper-middle income family and due to divorce lived in a lower income situation for years when children were growing up.
First post-UVA job		First job dates
Second post-UVA job		Second job dates
Third post-UVA job		Third job dates
Comments on post-UVA jobs
First post-UVA volunteer position		First volunteer dates
Second post-UVA volunteer position		Second volunteer dates
Third post-UVA volunteer position		Third volunteer dates
Comments on volunteering
Do you think of yourself as a career woman?
Comments on career woman question
Barriers faced in work and volunteering
Comments on barriers question	Unpaid - Being a woman and a nurse in a man's world - particularly as I climbed the career ladder and advanced into the "Good Ole Boys" level of management. Hospital systems are notorious for exacerbating these sterotypes. Men think of you in the boardroom similar to their wives at home - "A complaining nudge." Paid issues - being paid below a man's equivalent level. Being underpaid for level of responsibility and amount of hours necessary to complete job requirements. Not being paid enough to support my family as a single mom. Childcare issues - needed childcare I could afford and hours I needed to work.
Current marital status
Comments on current marital status
Current age range
Comments on current age range
Number of children
Comments on number of children
Current employment status
Comments on employment status
Additional comments	I had very positive experiences as a woman at U.Va.. I felt smart, attractive, respected, and was fun-loving as well as hard-working. We women "packed it in" in terms of studies, clinical work at the hospital , and dating at fraternity party - sports events, functions. I was privileged to have my first 2 years at an all women's college, Madison, and my last 2 years at an all men's Ivy League-type Southern University. Quite a cultural contrast and great for my edcuation experiences as well as social opportunities. Connections with women were strong at both schools (in the dorm-life and classroom) but it was more fun and liberating to move to U.Va. It was a very unique time for the University - the period before official later co-education occurred across the campus. I loved the traditional old way. Coming from the Northeast near Princeton, N.J., it reminded me of that school and other Ivy League men's schools. The men wore coats and ties to class and walking on the large grounds to and from. The men walked everywhere! No bikes, few cars. And they walked in loafers (Weejuns) or wing tips with matching socks and slacks. The socks were held up with garters and your sports jackets with button-down collar shirts all match beautifully and a pile of books were carried under the arm. Sometimes the walk could be 3 miles long to class and back in that outfit everyday at least once. I'm glad I attended the University when I did - grad 1965. It being all men was part of the fun and attraction and specialness. I'm sure it would not have been as unique and special if it had been co-ed. I felt like I was allowed into a men's world and I opined confidence through that earlier experience. It prepared me to deal with the "Men's World" in hospital business and corporations and dealing with most of my career peers and supervisors which were men. It also better prepared me to deal with men socially.
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