Emmie V. Baine

Encouraging young women to pursue leadership positions was not commonplace on college campuses when Dean Baine began her career at SMU. She created a new paradigm for the education of women, making their professional development a priority.

Emmie Baine, when once asked to comment on her extraordinary accomplishments, simply replied, "All I did from the beginning was to provide a place and a center for things to happen". And they did! In 1966, Dean Baine founded the Women's Symposium as part of the University's 50th anniversary celebration. Today the SMU Women's Symposium is recognized as the longest continuously running program of its kind in the nation and one of SMU's oldest and finest traditions.

The Women's Symposium is only one component of Dean Baine's legacy. In 1972, she wrote the initial grant proposal securing funding for the Women's and Gender Studies Program at SMU. The SMU Women's Center, founded by Baine in 1973, was the first in the southwest. Another program initiative was the SMU President's Commission on the Status of Women, which continues to identify and address issues of importance to female faculty and staff.

Emmie Baine is remembered as an intelligent, compassionate, insightful woman who was a role model and mentor to hundreds of young women at SMU. Her legacy is not only the programs she established, but also the women she inspired to carry on her work.