West Point marks 35 years as co-ed school

NEW YORK- They wouldn’t make it, the men said; the math and science wouldn’t interest them, the physical routine would be too tough and the opposition would drive them out. On May 28, 1980 — 35 years ago Thursday — the men behind those words were proven wrong as dozens of women tossed their caps alongside men at America’s prestigious military academies.

The Class of 1980 broke ground as the first to have women graduate from the U.S. Military Academy (USMA), the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, and the Coast Guard Academy. Among those pioneering women was Andrea Hollen, the first female graduate from West Point.

“This is a symbolic day, but it’s also a day for, I’d say, very careful consideration for exactly what we’ve done,” said Hollen in a 1980 interview with correspondent Ike Pappas that aired on the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.”

Andrea Hollen, U.S. Military Academy Class of 1980 USMA Hollen, 56, has had nearly four decades to consider what she and her fellow female cadets accomplished.

CBS News caught up with her this week. Hollen told us “significant progress” has been made since her time at West Point when she had to overcome hostility from men.

“We faced a good bit of opposition to our presence at the Academy,” said Hollen. “Much of it was very principled. It was rooted in a deep conviction that the academies are crucibles for combat leadership and because we weren’t going on to take combat positions, we were taking slots that men should have been filling.”

While enrollment numbers have grown over the years, Hollen admits there’s room for improvement. In 1980, 62 females graduated from West Point, representing 6.7 percent of the class. Last week, the Class of 2015 saw 162 women graduate, making up 16 percent of the class. Preliminary figures for the Class of 2019 show that number rising to 23 percent with a record 303 females.

Click here to read the full CBS News article.