Coeducation Celebration
Logo Inspiration
The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.” – ‘Abdu’l-Bah
As we thought about the significance of this commemorative year of coeducation at Seattle Prep, our conversation kept returning to the undeniable value it has brought to both men and women. Fifty years later it is clear that expanding this educational opportunity has resulted in a more complete and more expansive program by which all students have benefitted.
Our logo represents the two wings of a bird (symbolic of men and women) needed to truly take flight and rise!
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Seattle Prep going coed—a milestone that has shaped the trajectory of the school's history and future.
In 1975, half a century ago, the first female students joined the Prep family, paving the way for generations of Panthers to learn, lead, and grow together.
We’re excited to honor this momentous anniversary throughout the year with special stories, events, and reflections that celebrate the contributions of all alumni, past and present, to Prep’s history and mission.
We would love to hear YOUR story! If you have a story or memory from your time at Prep you’d like to share, submit it here, we’d love to hear from you!
COEDUCATION HERSTORY/HISTORY
Call it radical, call it a financial necessity, call it ingenuity, or call it long overdue. In the fall of 1975 the formerly all-boys school, Seattle Prep, welcomed ninety-eight female students onto its campus, four of whom earned the honor of graduating seniors. The era of coeducation had begun.
Ironically, at the onset of Prep’s founding, in 1891, the school’s 137-person student body included girls. But in 1905, the priest in charge of the small co-ed Catholic school asked the Order of the
Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to assume leadership. Since Jesuit institutions were historically male at the time, they no longer could accept new female students on campus. For the next 70 years, Prep would remain all-male.
But in September of 1975 Seattle Prep made the so-called “revolutionary” decision to start accepting girls into its student body and female enrollment quickly grew to a more balanced gender ratio and has been maintained to this day. Although many all-boys Jesuit schools around the country went co-ed because of low enrollment, this was not the impetus for Seattle Prep’s decision. The diminishing numbers of Jesuits created a need to close one of the four Jesuit schools in the Northwest unless they were able to “do something interesting and different.”
Under the leadership of the visionary President Fr. Thomas Healy the strategic decision was made to accept girls into their classroom. Simultaneously Prep introduced the Matteo Ricci program (an innovative and accelerated high school and college program for advanced students) which allowed students to complete their fourth year of studies on the Seattle University campus. (Matteo Ricci also offered Collegio, a teaching method synthesizing English, history and religion studies and has become a hallmark of a Seattle Prep education.)
It was stated that many of the boys were strongly opposed to the transition from being all-boys to coed, even when other Catholic schools like Bishop Blanchet had already made the transition. The announcement to go coed was met with a range of opinions, from “Oh boy, girls are coming, how exciting to “wait a minute, that’s 100 years of tradition gone.” Dissenters lamented the increased emphasis on academics, rather than the football team which was very strong in the 1960s. But many others embraced the new culture and “were willing to sacrifice Prep’s reputation as an athletic powerhouse for the benefits of a more diverse student body.”…the other boys gradually came around, and the women became an accepted part of the Prep community.”
In 1974, there were only five women on Prep’s staff—two secretaries, one assistant librarian, and two teachers. In subsequent years additional women were hired began to teach a variety of
subjects. Women’s sports were integrated into Prep immediately, with basketball, volleyball, and cross-country, track and cheerleading teams established in the first year. Later, a girls’ dance
team, called the Panther Express was added.
While the impact of half of a century of coeducation on the Seattle Prep experience has been profound, the legacy within the school community and beyond has been equally significant. It took visionary leadership and a transformational decision to establish a Jesuit school that would expand its mission in order to educate both men and women to be future leaders for the world.
This year we recognize, honor, and acknowledge all Seattle Prep alumni, those who broke new ground and those who stood alongside them to usher in this period of great change. This year is part celebration, part reflection, and part forward momentum. It is an invitation to “Go Forth and Set the World on Fire, men and women!”
