Women's Colleges Continue to Dwindle

[Ralph]

Trustees called traitors for admitting men

LYNCHBURG, Virginia (AP) -- Amid boos and shouts of "traitors" Randolph-Macon Woman's College officials announced Saturday that men would be admitted to the 115-year-old institution starting in 2007.

In the eyes of the board of trustees, going coed could help stabilize the school's finances as interest in all-women schools wanes.

But when officials floated the idea last month, it drew a sharp response. Online petitions and campus protests decried the move, angry e-mail flooded in, one alumnae group even hired a lawyer to try to discourage the board by citing legal concerns.

Saturday morning, an agitated crowd of some 400 students, alumnae and their supporters greeted the board's announcement by drowning out trustees president Jolley Christman as she tried to explain.

"Today we begin to heal. We begin to write the next chapter in our history," Christman said, barely audible over the shouting.

Christman said the 25-2 vote followed more than two years of study. The board determined coeducation was the best way to preserve the school's mission of high academic standards for undergraduate students and said a co-educational version of Randolph-Macon would emphasize global honors programs.

Interim President Ginger Worden told the students and supporters, "Do not, I implore you, turn your back on this college," but many in the crowd swiftly turned their backs on her in response.

"I'm sad. I'm really sad," said Gabriella Medina, a freshman from Puerto Rico. "If we can't reverse this, I guess I'm going to transfer."

Before Saturday's vote, supporters of single-gender education gathered on campus, many wearing yellow T-shirts distributed by the students' Coalition to Preserve Women's Education. A red-brick campus wall was lined with bedsheets turned into banners, one reading: "115 Years of Women Can't Be Wrong."

College officials expected resistance but said the move was necessary. Enrollment this fall was about 700, down from a student body of almost 900 in the 1960s.

Worden said the school has had to dip into its $140 million (&euro110.12 million) endowment for operations because of the large financial incentives required to attract good students.

Across the United States, only about 60 women's colleges remain, from nearly 300 in the 1960s, according to the Women's College Coalition.

To go coed, the school must now adopt a new name -- there already is a Randolph-Macon College, a former men's school in Ashland. Christman hoped a task force would have a name to suggest this fall.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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[jbuck919]

It is a huge double standard, isn't it? (As far as I know, there is not a single all-male college left in the country, and the trend is devolving rapidly down to the secondary level). Anyone who thinks there is some advantage to separate-sex education is just these days SOL.

The Dean of Students overheard when Princeton went co-ed (before my time), best read with a sing-songy voice:

"They're gonna f..k!"

[Corlyss_D]

I wanna hear about the women's equivalent of the movement that preserves and promotes HBCs & MIs. The basic premise is to revive racism and sexism in the interest of historicity. Good job! We should have thought of that for all-white and all-male institutions. Obviously, what is nonsense for the goose is historicity for the gander.

[Richard]

I wonder if we have forgotten, in this country, the whole concept of being "free to choose"?

I can remember, back in the 1990's, a Virginian Military college (I think it was VMI) wanting to remain an all-male institutution, despite a growing demand it become co-ed. Thanks to pressure from various feminist and other women's groups, it eventually went co-ed. I think there may even have been a Supreme Court decision to force them to..with the penalty of losing federal funding otherwise (?).

About the same time, Mills College, in Oakland, Calif. was getting pressure to go co-ed. Mills has been an all-women's college since the 1870's. You should have heard the howl...students at Mills organized a large protest and blocked entrance to many administration buildilngs. Mills remains an all-women's college, to this day (for which I am glad, just as I wish VMI could have remained an all-male institution as they desired).
It really is a double standard.

[jbuck919]

I wonder if we have forgotten, in this country, the whole concept of being "free to choose"?

I can remember, back in the 1990's, a Virginian Military college (I think it was VMI) wanting to remain an all-male institutution, despite a growing demand it become co-ed. Thanks to pressure from various feminist and other women's groups, it eventually went co-ed. I think there may even have been a Supreme Court decision to force them to..with the penalty of losing federal funding otherwise (?).
.

One of my high school clssmates and friends (remember I basically came from West Point) was in the last class that excluded women. It was hugely controversial at he time. Since then, a woman has been the First Seargent of the Corps, the highest ranking cadet.

Women can do anything men can do and don't anyone ever forget it.

[living_stradivarius]

Oh, the things people do for the sake of tradition. I could say the same thing for a lot of the threads here regarding some of the dumbest things people do nowadays.

[Corlyss_D]

I wonder if we have forgotten, in this country, the whole concept of being "free to choose"?

I can remember, back in the 1990's, a Virginian Military college (I think it was VMI) wanting to remain an all-male institutution, despite a growing demand it become co-ed. Thanks to pressure from various feminist and other women's groups, it eventually went co-ed. I think there may even have been a Supreme Court decision to force them to..with the penalty of losing federal funding otherwise (?).

The feminists had zero influence except thru their access to Clinton and his DoJ.

[Ralph]

I wonder if we have forgotten, in this country, the whole concept of being "free to choose"?

I can remember, back in the 1990's, a Virginian Military college (I think it was VMI) wanting to remain an all-male institutution, despite a growing demand it become co-ed. Thanks to pressure from various feminist and other women's groups, it eventually went co-ed. I think there may even have been a Supreme Court decision to force them to..with the penalty of losing federal funding otherwise (?).

About the same time, Mills College, in Oakland, Calif. was getting pressure to go co-ed. Mills has been an all-women's college since the 1870's. You should have heard the howl...students at Mills organized a large protest and blocked entrance to many administration buildilngs. Mills remains an all-women's college, to this day (for which I am glad, just as I wish VMI could have remained an all-male institution as they desired).
It really is a double standard.

*****

Virginia Military Institute is a state college and subject to the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court correctly decided that it could not be maintained as a male-only institution. It wasn't a matter of losing federal funds - its operation was unconstitutional.

[Ralph]

I wonder if we have forgotten, in this country, the whole concept of being "free to choose"?

I can remember, back in the 1990's, a Virginian Military college (I think it was VMI) wanting to remain an all-male institutution, despite a growing demand it become co-ed. Thanks to pressure from various feminist and other women's groups, it eventually went co-ed. I think there may even have been a Supreme Court decision to force them to..with the penalty of losing federal funding otherwise (?).

The feminists had zero influence except thru their access to Clinton and his DoJ.

*****

An Equal Protection lawsuit couldn't have been brought without support from Clinton's administration? Interesting. Perhaps you should review the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

[living_stradivarius]

I wonder if we have forgotten, in this country, the whole concept of being "free to choose"?

I can remember, back in the 1990's, a Virginian Military college (I think it was VMI) wanting to remain an all-male institutution, despite a growing demand it become co-ed. Thanks to pressure from various feminist and other women's groups, it eventually went co-ed. I think there may even have been a Supreme Court decision to force them to..with the penalty of losing federal funding otherwise (?).

The feminists had zero influence except thru their access to Clinton and his DoJ.

*****

An Equal Protection lawsuit couldn't have been brought without support from Clinton's administration? Interesting. Perhaps you should review the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Correction: An Equal Protection lawsuit couldn't have been brought to Corlyss' attention without support from Clinton's administration.

[Corlyss_D]

It wasn't a matter of losing federal funds

Sure it was. The school toyed briefly with going private, until the feds threatened to withdraw all federal funds and ROTC association.

An Equal Protection lawsuit couldn't have been brought without support from Clinton's administration? Interesting. Perhaps you should review the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

? You're thinking strictly within the confines of the law. I'm thinking strictly within the confines of politics. A bunch of frivolous teenager girls fronting for the ACLU trying to break VMI pales beside the picture of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT bringing to bear all its weight against an institution. First was the suit, then the threat to remove federal money from the school, then the threat to terminate the ROTC association.

[jbuck919]

It wasn't a matter of losing federal funds

Sure it was. The school toyed briefly with going private, until the feds threatened to withdraw all federal funds and ROTC association.

That is correct. Also, VMI (unlike West Point) still maintains a standard of non-gender-based norms, meaning they make absolutely no adjustment for women, which is why they still don't have many.

[Ralph]

It wasn't a matter of losing federal funds

Sure it was. The school toyed briefly with going private, until the feds threatened to withdraw all federal funds and ROTC association.

An Equal Protection lawsuit couldn't have been brought without support from Clinton's administration? Interesting. Perhaps you should review the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

? You're thinking strictly within the confines of the law. I'm thinking strictly within the confines of politics. A bunch of frivolous teenager girls fronting for the ACLU trying to break VMI pales beside the picture of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT bringing to bear all its weight against an institution. First was the suit, then the threat to remove federal money from the school, then the threat to terminate the ROTC association.

*****

I guess gender equality means nothing to you if it isn't an issue directly affecting your life.

VMI, like the service academies, attracts dedicated, patriotic, tough, determined women. A "frivolous teenager" wouldn't stand a chance at any military academy, male or female.

[Corlyss_D]

I guess gender equality means nothing to you if it isn't an issue directly affecting your life.

In most things that women consider important, gender equality hasn't been an issue since the late 60s/70s when the laws were changed to allow women to sign real estate contracts, take out loans, and work wherever they wanted to.

VMI, like the service academies, attracts dedicated, patriotic, tough, determined women.

I'll alert the media about Ralph's statement of the obvious.

The ACLU on the other hand, has a track record of attracting frivolous petitioners like Shannon Faulkner just so they can have a name to paste in their canned briefs attacking whatever's on their issue agenda for that day. No coincidence that both VMI and the Citadel were broken by the cabal of Clinton's DoJ and the ACLU.

[jbuck919]

VMI, like the service academies, attracts dedicated, patriotic, tough, determined women.

I'll alert the media about Ralph's statement of the obvious.

The ACLU on the other hand, has a track record of attracting frivolous petitioners like Shannon Faulkner just so they can have a name to paste in their canned briefs attacking whatever's on their issue agenda for that day. No coincidence that both VMI and the Citadel were broken by the cabal of Clinton's DoJ and the ACLU.

I'm going to get hives from starting to agree so much with Corlyss, but there was never any good reason that VMI and perhaps the Citadel should not have continued their tradition. VMI offered, out of hand to set up a female academy at its own considerable expense. It boils down to an issue of whether it is appropriate to have all-boys and all-girls schools, and while I realize that enormously great service academies like those of the military of the United States cannot very well be all-male in this day and age, I do wonder why it is impossible to maintain an older tradtition in other places.

[Corlyss_D]

I'm going to get hives from starting to agree so much with Corlyss,

'S okay, John, I won't hold you to it.

I do wonder why it is impossible to maintain an older tradtition in other places.

Because all races and genders are not protected equally. Whites and males are inherently suspect in the world the ACLU has created for us since the real civil rights battles were settled by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, better to fight the phantoms than to admit there's not much left to "fix" in the society and thus render the organization obsolete. Better to expand the domain by rubbing salt in the wounds that would heal by themselves without the organization. The ACLU is only slightly more respectable than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, but they use the same tools to keep themselves relevant and necessary.