Within a few years of Macalester’s founding, a new challenge would emerge in accommodating the student body on campus: women. Macalester first admitted two women in the fall of 1893. In some ways, this was not a major change for the institution. The precursor to Macalester, the Baldwin School, had served a majority of female students, and the ability to accept more students to the college meant more tuition, something the college certainly needed.¹ However, this new development went against the wishes of Macalester’s founder, Edward Duffield Neill, who declared that he would not step foot on campus while the college educated women.²

As the story goes, President Ringland visited Neill at his home one day in hopes of discussing the issue. Neill was often characterized as quick to anger, and so it’s likely that the two men argued. After their meeting, President Ringland left Neill’s home, and later that afternoon, Neill suffered a heart attack and died.³ The incident was certainly a dramatic way to mark the introduction of women to Macalester, and made it clear that women would not be able to follow the same path as their male counterparts during their time at the college. Over the next several decades, Macalester administrators would frequently limit the freedom of female students in the name of educating and disciplining them appropriately.