Martha Peterson

Martha Elizabeth Peterson (June 22, 1916 – July 14, 2006) was an American academic administrator. She served as president of Barnard College (1967–1975) and Beloit College (1975–1981).

Biography Peterson was born on June 22, 1916, outside Jamestown, Kansas, the daughter of a wheat farmer and a news reporter. She graduated from the University of Kansas in 1937. She also earned a PhD in educational psychology from Kansas in the meantime. She presided over the college during the Columbia University protests of 1968. As president of Barnard, she worked out an arrangement with Columbia on allowing students from both schools to take an unlimited number of classes at the other school while retaining Barnard's autonomy from Columbia.