My short time at Smith fueled me with something when I got back to Pittsburgh. I led the resistance and joined the alumnae who fought for their school. Consequences be damned, teaching job be damned, because academia wasn’t going to be for me. And of the 1,000 women on campus, few had an interest in saving something that was supposed to mean so much to them. To us. To me.

I took pride in my women’s college education. Even though it took me a while to do so. Even though I had to sift through some of the rubble of friendships that had changed, even though I didn’t want them to. But that was part of life. And that wasn’t just what college was about, the friendships. It was about trying to figure out who you were, what you wanted to be and hurdling the obstacles you faced on th...

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