The First
Male Students
men of '64
first male class
Framingham State added two Bachelor of Arts programs in 1964: biology and medical technology. Along with
this change came the admission of men to the college for the first time. In September of 1964, Joseph Ahern, Paul
Champagne, Michael Desilets, George Duane, Alexander Exarhopoulos, David Hurley, Dennis King, Terrence
Montinari, Francis Murphy, William Priestman Jr., Norman Taylor, Joseph Valenti, and Paul Willitts became the
first men to enroll at Framingham State, which had been a women-only institution since its inception in 1839.
Of those thirteen, six students, Desilets, Duane, Montinari, Taylor, Valenti, and Willitts, graduated on time in 1968,
and a seventh, David Hurley, completed his degree in 1970. The number of men admitted increased each year. By
1970, Framingham fielded a full men’s basketball team and by 1972, the college was able to put together a football
team with a 44-man roster. Enrollment numbers have only risen since 1964, with men making up 35% of the
student body as of 2011. Current students could probably hardly imagine a time when men and women attending
FSU together was not the norm, which certainly marks that it was altogether a successful transition.