When we were first told that I would be researching in the archives, I’ll admit, I was a little apprehensive. I wasn’t sure how the whole experience was going to go or what I would find.
Source: Giphy
My Worries
Entering the archives, I didn’t have a solid topic to research. I thought that this would be a disadvantage and would cause me to waste time looking at sources that I didn’t need. I feared that I wouldn’t be able to find enough sources to support my claim. I was also worried that by the time I found a topic that interested me, time would be up and I would’ve gotten nowhere with my research. So in other words, I was already against our trip to the archives.
What I Found
I ended up spending most of my time looking at the Santa Clara University newspapers from the 1960s. I ended up discovering that SCU wasn’t always a co-educational university! This interested me and I wanted to observe how the students reacted to the first group of women enrolling at Santa Clara University. Obviously I won’t be able to know the exact thoughts every student had at the time, but the newspapers in the archives definitely allowed me to see the language and the viewpoints of most students.
Let me just say: the male students at SCU were very unhappy with the new transition. Women were enrolled at SCU in 1961, which happened to be during the same time as the women suffrage movement. It’s important to notice this timeframe because it probably influenced a lot of thoughts about women, especially men. Looking at the newspapers, the male students were heartbroken to hear that their 110 year tradition of being an all-male school was about to be broken. Some of the faculty members were even against this transition. The opinions of these SCU members surprised me and I wondered how this helped transform SCU into the school it is today. I think that it’s also important to note that these are just the thoughts that were published; I’m sure that there were many other negative and harsh comments made about women coming to SCU, but there’s no way to know.
In Conclusion
The archives aren’t that bad! It can actually be a very cool and interesting place to find sources that you can’t search on google. It offers a unique perspective on researching and I highly recommend others to try it. Now that I found an interesting topic, it’s time to continue digging!
Source: Giphy