The shortage of teachers and staff in higher education became so acute in 1960 that some colleges resorted to tapping a new pool of talent: faculty wives. These women, housewives with top college degrees themselves and bored by the daily grind, became perfect candidates for jobs with the stimulus of books and research. Smith College, Mount Holyoke, Amherst College, and the University of Massachusetts formed a clearinghouse for spousal talent that placed twenty-four women in academic jobs ranging from museum director to exam grader in anthropology. Charles Porter, dean of all-male Amherst, said, "There are a lot of well qualified women around here and they can do us a lot of good."

Source: "Wisdom and Wives," Newsweek (11 January 1960): 54.

Expanded Government Loan Programs for College.

As a college financial officer said in 1966, "If there's a will, there's a way. Practically no high school graduate with...