1980

Evelyn Reiman, assistant director of student development, sponsored the first NC State Women's Week-- a series of afternoon and evening programs for campus women.

1980 - 1981

Julie Shea was ACC Athlete of the Year for two years running and the first woman to receive the Alumni Athletics trophy.

1981 - 1982

There were 123 tenured or tenure-track women on the faculty and eighteen full professors.

Ada B. Dalla Pozza was the first woman to serve as president of the Faculty Club (now the University Club).

1982

Rev. Jacqueline Schmitt became NCSU's Episcopal chaplain and the first woman to be employed as a full-time priest in North Carolina.

Margaret Memory became NC State's youngest valedictorian.

1983

Katherine W. Klein, associate professor of psychology, was the first woman faculty member to be named an Alumni Distinguished Professor.

Approximately 8,000 women students were enrolled in a student body of 22,632. More than one third of the undergraduates were women.

1984

The Lee Marshall Smith Papers
Special Collections Department, NCSU Libraries

Nell Waltner was named assistant director of the D. H. Hill Library.

1985

Sondra L. Kirsch, associate professor of recreation resources administration, became the first woman to chair the NC State Faculty Senate.

Joyce P. Hilliard-Clark was the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. in forest resources.

1986

Debra W. Stewart was appointed interim dean of the Graduate School, the first female dean and the first woman to serve as dean of the Graduate School. Her appointment became permanent in 1988.

In the fall of 1986, women made up thirty-eight percent of the student body, the highest percentage of women ever enrolled.

Becky French was appointed university counsel.

Elizabeth C. Theil
Photograph Collection
University Archives, NCSU Libraries

The Division of Student Affairs established the first professional staff position to conduct rape prevention education and support women students on campus, with Janet M. Rogers serving as women student concerns coordinator for the Student Health Service.

Norma Jean Bond Burgess was the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. in sociology.

The first Ph.D. degrees awarded by the School of Veterinary Medicine went to women. Melinda Hollingshead in August and Cathy Carlson in December.

1987

Susan Nutter was appointed director of Libraries.

Alice Miller, director of Human Resources, was named assistant vice chancellor.

Kay Yow, women's basketball coach, was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

Yarbrough Court, the court surrounded by Holladay, Peele, Leazar, and Watauga Halls, was named after Mary E. Yarbrough, the first women to earn a graduate degree from NC State and one of the first three women to graduate from the university.

1988

Angela Lumpkin of physical education became the third female department head on campus.

Kaye Gibbons, former NC State student, was the NCSU Libraries' first author-in-residence.

Elizabeth C. Theil became the first NC State woman to hold a named professorship and was honored with the University of North Carolina's O. Max Gardner Award.

The Student Health Service appointed Merry C. Ward as the first campus rape prevention education coordinator. Women Student Concerns expanded and moved to the Department of Student Development. The first annual Take Back the Night March was organized.

1989

Joan J. Michael became the new dean of the College of Education and Psychology.

Nora Lynn Finch, associate athletics director, was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

Joyce Baffi was appointed assistant vice chancellor for finance.

The Women's Studies Program began with Barbara Risman as its first director. The Women's Resource Coalition was formed in January 1989 as an outgrowth of the Women Students Advisory Board, organized in the fall of 1988.