'Our real estate, too': Notre Dame women reflect on 50 years of undergrad coeducation

SOUTH BEND — When Notre Dame opened up undergraduate enrollment to women in the fall of 1972, the university converted two of the existing men's dorms on campus instead of building new dorms for women. 

Junior transfer student Micki Flanagan, class of 1974, remembers that the urinals in her home Badin Hall weren’t even removed, just covered.  

“They didn't think we were going to stay, so they didn't renovate the bathrooms,” she said.  

Eventually, years after she graduated, Flanagan heard they renovated the bathrooms.  

“I guess they decided we were going to be there for a while.”