Remarks by Dean Michele Dillon
Good afternoon everyone! Welcome. Thank you for your presence on this gorgeous day. And I want to convey a special note of welcome to members of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation.
This is indeed a very special day for UNH – as the state’s flagship research and land grant university – and for the state of New Hampshire as we proudly mark - yet another – “first in the nation” status for New Hampshire.
Today, we unveil a marker commemorating the School for Citizenship, hosted here in July 1919, prompted by the imminent ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution – extending voting rights to women. The School was the first of its kind in the U.S. and subsequently became a model for other such Schools across the country.
About a year ago, Mica Stark and Professor Lana Peshkova contacted me to garner UNH support for the installation of a historical marker commemorating women’s suffrage. They had been in conversation with the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation who – in efforts to enhance the visibility of the NH Women's Heritage Trail - were working with the Pomeroy Foundation to obtain markers that the Pomeroy was erecting around the country to mark Women's Suffrage activities. The Pomeroy Foundation (which helps local communities celebrate their history) had a goal of installing plaques commemorating women’s suffrage in all 50 states, and it had some information about the existence of a "citizenship school" at UNH. After some back-and-forth discussion with Ellen Koenig from the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, and with Doug Bencks, now our emeritus architect and director of campus planning, about the need for UNH to grant land-permission-use to the Pomeroy, UNH offered to design and install the marker ourselves (making this a simpler process). And so here we are today.
Every historical marker is special: Markers nudge us to recall, and to reflect on, the significant debt current generations owe to the transformative actions and grit of those who have treaded on these paths before us. This marker is particularly special because it commemorates a major moment in the ongoing march toward women’s full equality.
Democracy gives us tremendous rights – and the right to vote is one of its most critical. One person, one vote affirms the inherent dignity and equality of each and every individual, and recognizes the power of each and every individual to help shape the laws and public policies that give reality to our professed values. As the School for Citizenship recognized, with these rights come significant duties and responsibilities.
The 20th Century saw huge gains in political and social equality in the U.S., and across the world. In particular, the Civil Rights and other social movements drew attention to the unevenness of democracy as it is practiced, and to the many persisting legal, institutional and cultural barriers to equality. It remains our obligation this century to continue to educate and to work so that we ensure a revitalized, participative democracy, where individual rights and self-actualization are always anchored by, and in dialogue with, the common good, locally and globally.
This plaque will directly advance our commitment to civic education. It includes a QR code that provides free access to an original, digital archive specially researched and developed by our own Dr. Nicole Ruane and two students in her humanities seminar last spring: Annelise Papinsick and Virginia Walsh. The digital archive is a fabulous repository of richly contextualized information about the 19th Amendment, the School and its participants. We will shortly hear about this work from Professor Ruane.
So, a lot of people have contributed in significant ways to this plaque’s installation. In addition to those I’ve already mentioned, I want to acknowledge: Stephen Pesci, special projects director, Capital Planning and Management Group; James Malo, our grounds supervisor; Susan Dumais and Kevin Sousa from my office; and colleagues in political science, history, and women’s and gender studies.
It’s now my great pleasure to ask you to join me in unveiling the plaque (with President Dean, Nicole Ruane and Tanna Clews).
**Unveil**
I now invite Tanna Clews, CEO of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, to say a few words, and we will then hear from Professor Ruane.
Thank you very much.
