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In early spring 2023, the Margaret Cheney Room will reopen following a months-long renovation project that began last summer. From the start, the Cheney Room has served as a haven and gathering place for MIT's women students and continues to evolve to meet the needs of women students. First established in 1884 and part of today’s Division of Student Life, the redesigned Cheney Room includes a seating area and kitchen with additional spaces including a Zoom room, an updated lactation/quiet room, a conference room, and an event space. The Cheney Room provides 24/7 tap access to a space centered on all women as well as women-identifying students. Gender is nuanced and complex. You can find out more about the center, WXGS, and gender by reading the FAQ page.
The traditional objection to the admission of women to MIT had always been the lack of laboratory space and appropriate restrooms. The Woman’s Laboratory, established in 1876 by Ellen Swallow Richards 1873 with financial support from the Women’s Education Association, expanded laboratory space, trained over 100 women, and opened MIT’s doors for women to earn degrees in Chemistry. During the same time, MIT had outgrown the Rogers Building on Boylston Street. To make room for a new building, MIT needed to demolish the Woman’s Laboratory. While the proposed Walker Building would provide plenty of laboratory space, MIT claimed it did not have “sufficient funds [to make] provisions for women.” Troubled about future opportunities for women students, Ellen led an effort to raise the money to provide a dedicated space for women with appropriate restroom facilities. MIT accepts the donation and updates the MIT Course Catalogue: 1883-84. Women are now eligible for admission to MIT.
The space honors the memory of Margaret Swan Cheney 1882, one of Ellen’s students who died of typhoid in September 1882. Margaret’s mother, Ednah Dow Cheney, donated funds and furnishings for the space. She also bequeathed $13,741.66 to establish a fund to support the Margaret Cheney Reading Room and the oil painting of Margaret that hangs in the Cheney Room. This summer, the MIT Museum removed the painting for safekeeping during the renovation. The painting was re-installed by the Museum in January.
Margaret is more than a portrait on the wall. A charter member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, she hiked to the top of Mount Adams in 1876. Passionate about science, Margaret gathered a group of like-minded women in an attic lab to study Chemistry based on Elliot & Storer’s textbook and supplemented Lowell Institute lessons with extra laboratory work in Quantitative Analysis and Mineralogy. In 1876, she was among the first to register for the Woman’s Laboratory classes taught by Ellen.
Margaret attended classes at MIT from 1876-1882. During her time at MIT, she coauthored a paper with Ellen published in the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. XIV. September 1877. When MIT moved to Cambridge in 1916, the Cheney Reading Room moved to the third floor of Building 10, including Margaret’s portrait and their library of nearly 900 books. Since the School of Architecture remained in Boston until 1938, the previous Cheney Room’s furnishings were transferred to a new space for women students, renamed the “Rogers’ Restroom.” In 1938 MIT completed the new Roger’s Building, and the School of Architecture moved to the Cambridge campus. The following year, the Cheney Room moved to its current location at 3-308.
Lauryn McNair (she/they), the Assistant Dean of LBGTQ+, Women and Gender Services (WXGS), who oversees the Cheney Room space and programming, ensured students had a strong voice in the redesign process. Students provided their input into some of the design choices and options for the renovation. Student focus groups met and posted the meeting notes on the WXGS website.
Student input shaped the renovation: keeping it student-centered, having personality, making it feel "homey," having a private space, having more space to hang out, and seeing themselves reflected in the art. This shaped the rooms’ color scheme, the wide diversity of indie artist prints on the wall, and the homey touches of having throw blankets, throw pillows, floor pillows, ceramic mugs, plants, and affirming messages.
During the planning, Lauryn opted to remove the locker room, shower, and restrooms (neither the shower nor restrooms were ADA compliant) to make more space to accommodate the needs of students. A wall of smaller lockers with enough space to secure laptops, backpacks, and purses replaced the large free-standing ones. Although there is no longer a bathroom as part of the space, Lauryn checked with students to ensure they still wanted a women's bathroom, instead of an all-gender one nearby. The focus group still wanted a women's restroom. She also worked with ICEO and WGS to change the sanitary dispenser in that bathroom directly across the hall to a free one and purchased dry shampoo and individual wipes for the student credenza so students can still use things to "freshen up."
Music is still a part of Cheney Room socializing. The new design exchanges the grand piano for an upright Yamaha N1X Grand Action Hybrid. With a smaller profile, there's more space in the multi-purpose room. It's made with real piano pieces except for strings, weighted keys, and is compatible with headphones. New piano books have been added to the old ones. The older piano is in good condition and has been donated to Burton Conner for students to still play. Contemporary artwork created by female and nonbinary individuals now joins the 19th Century portrait of Margaret that has adorned Cheney Room walls since 1905.
Lauryn worked with DCB, Campus Construction, and Facilities for the renovation and described them as “amazing to work with.” Although the Margaret Cheney Room has been closed for months, Lauryn has continued to support her students. “WGXS is still really new as of last year when I created the office and entered into the Dean position, so it's not long. We've done smaller programs for Women's History Month, self-care, trans day of remembrance, creating space for students to process Roe v. Wade, worked with women's groups around gender-inclusive best practices, and created workshops for women's leadership.”
WXGS and the Margaret Cheney Room exist to promote community and empower all students at MIT who experience gender-based systems of oppression. This includes (but is not limited to) transgender women, cisgender women, women-coded and/or non-binary individuals who feel that the Margaret Cheney Room is a space for them.
For more information on the Cheney Room’s programs and resources: