Women dominate vet school

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 2, 2004 by Matt Moline Capital-Journal

MANHATTAN --- The odds were stacked against a young New York City woman who arrived at Kansas State University in the spring of 1944 to begin veterinary medicine studies.

Because first-year student Ruth Kaslow was deaf, the Brooklyn resident knew she would have to lip-read her way through the demanding three-year course of study. But Kaslow faced another obstacle --- only four women had graduated from K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine since the doors opened in 1905.

Kaslow, who overcame both challenges to graduate with honors in 1947, is the subject of a forthcoming history that tells the personal stories behind the resourceful trailblazers who opened paths for women to earn K-State veterinary medicine diplomas.

"The early graduates at K-State were all very gutsy and courageous women," said author Lesley Gentry. "Their stories reveal that from a very early age, they made up their minds they were gong to take care of animals. They were very determined."

Gentry's manuscript, "The Lady is a Veterinarian," will be published in 2005, coinciding with the upcoming 100th anniversary of the establishment of the KSU veterinary medical college.

Gentry's research also highlights the dramatic male-female enrollment reversal that took place five years ago at the K-State professional school.

In 1999, women graduates outnumbered males for only the fourth time in school history, beginning an uninterrupted trend that has accelerated in five succeeding graduating classes, reports associate dean Ronnie G. Elmore.

In 1999, women made up 55 percent of the 102-member graduating class, and in May, 2004, the proportion of women to men had increased to 66 percent of 107 graduates.

"The pendulum has probably finished swinging," Elmore said, "and things seem to have settled in pretty much for the future, with our percentages of women holding at about two-thirds of each of the upcoming graduating classes."

Elmore attributed the increased numbers of female veterinary students to a larger pool of professional role models for young women to emulate, coupled with an overall attendance decline by males in post-secondary educational programs.

"For many years, admissions committees discriminated against female applicants," he said. "Fortunately, this is no longer true. Part of the reason for increased numbers of women in the program relates to knowing that they are just plain welcome."

According to Gentry's research, the K-State veterinary college maintained an open admissions policy for both sexes from the school's inception, although no applications from women were received until 1928, when Omaha applicant Helen Richt enrolled as a first-year student.

Richt went on to graduate with a veterinary medicine degree in 1932 --- the KSU vet school's first woman graduate. Richt died in 1990. Kaslow currently resides in Arizona, Gentry said.

The first female Kansas native to graduate from the K-State vet school was 1944 graduate Joann Scherger, now deceased, of Wichita.

"It's very interesting that many of the first handful of veterinary medicine students at K-State were out-of-staters who simply couldn't get in at schools in their home states," Gentry said. "They found out that they were not discriminated against at K-State just for being women, although it still wasn't considered the thing to do for young women, and they all had to prove their worth in school more than men."

Nevertheless, only nine women had received K-State doctor of veterinary medicine degrees through 1949, and the percentage of women enrolled didn't reached double digits until the late 1970s.

Gentry works as a veterinary nurse at her husband's veterinary practice in Beloit.

KSU WOMEN

Breakdown of women graduates and those expected to graduate from the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine since 1991.

Year_____Class size____Percent female

1991_____86____________35 percent

1992_____91____________51 percent

1993_____95____________51 percent

1994_____80____________44 percent

1995_____86____________48 percent

1996_____86____________46 percent

1997_____83____________51 percent

1998_____79____________49 percent

1999_____102___________55 percent

2000_____99____________59 percent

2001_____100___________66 percent

2002_____98____________59 percent

2003_____101___________66 percent

2004_____107___________66 percent

2005_____110___________68 percent

2006_____108___________64 percent

2007_____114___________68 percent

2008_____104___________64 percent

Matt Moline is a freelance writer in Manhattan. He can be reached at moline@networksplus.net.