The Cleofan and the Cheney Room
When Katharine Dexter attended MIT, there was no on-campus housing. Students lived at home or in boarding houses nearby. In fact, MIT’s first on-campus housing wasn’t established until 1916, after the Institute’s move from Boston to Cambridge.
For decades the only campus space specifically for women students was the Margaret Cheney Room, named in memory of Margaret Swan Cheney, who attended MIT as a special student from the earliest days of the Woman’s Laboratory in 1876 until her death in 1882. The Cheney Room served as a space for women to rest and do homework, providing couches, a library, a kitchen, and a bathroom for the handful of women students at MIT beginning in 1884. It still exists today.
The Cheney Room was also where the women students’ society, The Cleofan, held meetings. The Cleofan was a social club with an interest in supporting women students and women’s rights. Katharine served as president of The Cleofan from 1899 to 1900.
