Starting My Engineering Degree
The University of Washington was one of the few universities that allowed women in their Engineering College before 1977. But being female in the Engineering College was a significant disadvantage in many ways, even without a serial killer.
There was an alley behind the sorority and fraternity houses. One parking lot (pay by the hour) was across the alley behind my sorority house.
The Serial Killer
My mother drove me to the University of Washington (UW) to move into the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority and parked in the hourly lot. One woman stopped us in the parking lot to point out the place in the alley where Ted Bundy had killed a sorority girl the previous spring. I found out how desperate my mom was to remove me from home when her response was to tell me to hurry up, so she didn’t have to pay extra parking.
Ted Bundy had killed several young women but had escaped jail in Denver twice in June 1977, and no one knew where he was. The University was concerned that he would return home and start killing in Seattle again. My mother’s only response to that news was to tell me to hurry and get my things moved into the sorority so she wouldn’t have to pay extra parking costs.
The sorority girl, Georgann Hawkins, was abducted from that alley in the Fall quarter of 1974 – not the Spring of 1977. Ted Bundy did murder her, among many others, in the Seattle area.
UW Attempts to Protect Female Students
To protect women, the University instituted new rules for the school year starting in 1977. I am not sure if the UW enforced the rules, but if a female student left the library at night and wanted an escort home, there were two rules.
- Dorm students – she should ask a male dorm student in the library to walk her home. If he refused, she was to report him, and the UW would expel him.
- Sorority students – she was to ask a Fraternity student in the library to walk her home. If he refused, she was to report him, and the UW would expel him. The University would inflict consequences on the Fraternity as well.
I think the students who lived off campus were on their own.
The situation was stressful for students of both sexes. Cell phones were only available in science fiction, so there were limited options. If a woman wanted to walk home, she would look around the library for people she knew. She was OK if she could find a group heading towards her home.
If she had to ask a male student, then it got complicated. Could he also be dangerous? If he wasn’t scary, what if he was in the middle of something he needed to finish that night in the library? He wasn’t allowed to say no without severe consequences. All of the first quarter was like that. By the winter quarter, it was easier to find groups to walk home with as we learned who lived where.
Ted Bundy — Caught Again
On January 15th, 1978, our house mother woke everyone in the sorority early in the morning while it was still dark to call a meeting. The house mother never called a meeting in the middle of the night! Once she collected everyone, she told us that she had gotten a phone call from the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority at Florida State. Ted Bundy had just killed several sorority members at Florida State University.
What a mix of emotions! Ted Bundy was far away in Florida – a relief. He had killed girls like us in their sorority house – terrifying. He had been caught by police – uneasy since Ted had escaped jail twice so far. Would he run again and come back? Eventually, the answer was no. Florida kept him securely in prison until they executed him.
The Usual Hazards of Engineering College
Without a serial killer on the loose, the female students only had to deal with the usual hazards of engineering school:
- stalkers
- teaching assistants demanding sex for grades
- additional course requirements than male students
- different course requirements than male students
- limits on how many women were allowed in a class
- limits on how many women were allowed in an engineering degree program
- higher grade requirements than male students
- and the occasional stinky student
