ENMU Women first met on September 10, 1940 under the name of Faculty Dames with 28 founding members. The name was changed in 1981 to University Wives and Women and then to ENMU Women in 1990. The organization has always been involved in volunteering activities such as Meals on Wheels and KENW-TV’s quarterly pledge drives, but the organization first started out as very social and charitable. Since membership at the time was limited to wives of faculty members, they helped plan all the University’s events in addition to their own social and charitable activities. After about 10 years, the group started focusing on more social things related to special interests such as bridge, cooking, sewing, and home arts.
A loan fund was created in 1941 to be used for needy and worthy students for a short period of time, which was turned over to the Financial Aid office in the 1990s to administer. It still exists today, but ENMU Women no longer reports on it. The scholarship endowment at the ENMU Foundation was created in 1981, which was the turning point in the group to start becoming more charitable again. Social activities still occurred, but by the early 2000s, they were more limited to standard organizational meetings. Today, ENMU Women has a fall breakfast on a Saturday near the end of August, Lovers for Learning on a Saturday at the end of January or early February, and the Spring Luncheon in late April. Fundraising for ENMU Women’s scholarship is the organization’s primary purpose today in addition to finding new volunteer activities.
