Female students attended UT in 1804–7, when the institution was Blount College. The ages of the five women listed as enrolled suggest that they, like the majority of the men enrolled, were taking subcollegiate classes. After admitting America’s first coeds, women were not officially readmitted to the university until 1893.
In 1880 Judge Oliver P. Temple, member of the UT Board of Trustees, sent questionnaires to all faculty concerning curricular issues and general institutional matters. One question was whether, in view of the plans to develop a normal course for the training of teachers, it would be advisable to admit women to the university. Most faculty, with the notable exceptions of Professors Joynes and Alexander, felt that this should be considered. The trustees appointed a committee to study the question on July 2, 1880. The committee reported on July 12 in favor of admitting women but recommended that “since the necessary arrangements for the admitting of young ladies have not been made as yet, it would not be prudent to admit them until such arrangements are made.” The report was accepted and filed.
The board of trustees’ minutes of January 8, 1891, record that President Dabney was instructed to request funds of the legislature, and if the request was granted, that the president and faculty were to provide for the admission of lady teachers to the Teachers Department of the university. The university did not obtain any money.
The Teachers’ Department opened in the 1891–92 school year, and the faculty voted to allow women to enter the department. Ida Smith, Mary Smith, and Miss Luttrell registered in the teachers’ course in February 1892, a year before the board of trustees granted admission to women. Ida and Mary Smith were the daughters of Professor Frank (Francis) Smith, who was in charge of the newly established Teachers’ Department. Gertrude Bishop (Bradley County), Nannie Page (Tipton County), Jessie Parmalee (Knox County), and Hygean Phillips (Crockett County) also attended classes in 1892.
In the spring of 1893, the faculty (without dissenting vote) recommended to the trustees that no distinction be made on the basis of sex in awarding admission to the university, except that women should be at least 17 years old (men had to be at least 16 years old). The trustees approved the resolution at the spring 1893 meeting, with a delegation of women from Knoxville in attendance. In 1896 the minutes of the faculty indicate that the age for both men and women was to be 16. The trustees’ minutes for 1901 reflect the lowering of the minimum age of women students to 16.