For Marjorie Leedy Green, The Cavalier Daily’s first female editor-in-chief, the central focus of her year in the role and her time at the University was not women’s newfound presence in the spaces of higher education and leadership roles within the University. Instead, her focus was The Cavalier Daily’s concern with freedom of the press under an encroaching University administration.
As Leedy Green wrote in her parting shot — an opportunity for fourth-year Cavalier Daily staffers to write a column on their time at the paper — just before her graduation, “This influence of the student media carries with it a huge responsibility, of which the students in the media are very conscious … the journalists’ concern for fairness and the care with which they treat stories are not often revealed.”
The University adopted full coeducation in 1972 — meaning students were considered for admission without regard to gender for the first time — after smaller groups of women were admitted as first-year students in 1970 and 1971. Leedy Green began her first year in 1973, studying to earn a degree in Government. At the same time, the University established its Media Board in 1976, with the purpose of supervising student-operated news organizations…