Coeds at Arizona State University, 1885 to present


OK, I'll admit it. One of my fondest memories of ASU is just thinking about the coeds. A coed, by the way, is a slang term for a female college student, short for coeducational, which was a college that allowed both genders to attend. For a lot of colleges, right up through the 20th Century, that was a big thing. But ASU has always been coeducational.

Or rather, the Tempe Normal School, which is what it was called when it was first established in 1885. A Normal School was the old-fashioned term for a teaching college, which taught teaching "norms". And while there were many male students who were learning to become teachers, there were a LOT of females. The name of the school changed to the Tempe Teachers College in 1922, Arizona State Teachers College in 1928, Arizona State College in 1948, and Arizona State University in 1958.

The lovely young woman in the photo above is standing in front of Tempe Butte (A Mountain) in 1919. No, no one ever called her a coed, she was a Normal.

Palm Walk on the ASU campus in 1966

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