Henrietta Hay's Column

I have had people ask me whether I think I will live to see a woman become President of the United States. No, I don't think I will. But I have seen something almost as startling. The University of Colorado has chosen a woman to become its 17th President. That is something I truly did not expect to see in my lifetime but to borrow a cliché, my joy is unrestrained! The recent appointment of Dr. Judith Albino created a firestorm of publicity, including criticism of the selection procedure and shock at her sex. But there has been very little criticism of her credentials.

In any event we have hit the big time. Imagine publicity about Boulder, Colorado, in the same week as the public scrutiny of President Nancy and Teddy's trousers.

When I went to the University of Colorado back in the Dark Ages, the thirties to you, George Norlin was President and had been for many years. He started his educational career as a Greek scholar. I assume that he was also an able administrator, but administration did not involve the complexities that it does today. He was, perhaps, the last of the scholar presidents.

In the years since, college education has become big business. The most recent President of C. U. was Gordon Gee, a fine administrator who was an articulate, highly intelligent man and a superb salesman, both of scholarship and of football.

Somewhere between the scholar and the administrator, I believe, lies the ideal college president, a person who combines the best of both, who considers learning the number one objective of a university, has a scholarly background, can keep football in its place, can manage a multi-million dollar budget, can handle four campuses, knows how to sweet talk the legislature and can walk on water.

Whether Judith Albino is that person remains to be seen. She certainly has her work cut out for her. Like anyone else she will have to prove herself and the rule of thumb is that she will have to be twice as good as a man to succeed. She neither trades on nor denies the fact that as a woman she faces special challenges. She says "It's enough to think about the challenge of trying to provide leadership for a university of this stature.

If this were a perfect world, the fact of Dr. Albino's gender would not be a part of the news story. The fact that her spouse works in the athletic department would not be a large part of the story. The fact that she has two teen-age sons would be a minor part of the story. But it is not a perfect world. The history of higher education in the United States has been frighteningly discriminatory from the beginning. Harvard was founded in 1636 and was exclusively male for nearly 350 years. Oberlin became the first co-ed college two hundred years later.

Now, after another hundred and fifty years, Judith Albino joins four other women in a very select group, as she becomes the fifth woman to be selected as the president of a major university. The other four are presidents of Kent State, the University of Houston, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Chicago. Women administrators are finally putting cracks in the "glass ceiling" and I hope we break it clear out soon.

Judith Albino is a woman of proven intelligence, vision and ability. She is energetic and enthusiastic. But she does admit, to my great relief, that her traveling wardrobe will probably not include buffalo-print slacks or bow ties.

Granted the selection process was a disaster. The Regents did not cover themselves in glory, but nobody ever accused the Regents of perfection. If, however, out of the whole mess a good president got selected, it was worth the money and embarrassment and newspaper ink.

So, while I may not live to see a woman in the White House, much as I would like to, I have seen one in the President's House in Boulder. That's one objective reached. Let's wish her luck. She'll need it.