Randolph-Macon Woman's going co-ed...Many Students and Alumnae not happy

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by alum

Unfortunately it's even harder to persuade smart young men to see the benefits of a single-sex education than it is to persuade smart young women to go to a women's college. That's why there are so few all-male colleges and why they are not terribly selective. The majority have gone co-ed.

I'd say that's one reason that there are so few all male colleges, but I don't think its the main reason.

25 years ago, there were fewer than 10 all male schools in the country, and at least two of them were state military academies (VMA and The Citadel). Most all male schools, public and private, went co-ed in the 60s and 70s, and they did so not because it was that hard to persuade smart young men to go to an all male school but because society as a whole was demanding that the advantages of these schools be available to women as well as men. I'm not saying that going co-ed was a bad thing altogether, although I can wish that more of the all-male private schools had stayed that way. But the reality is that there was never the societal pressure on all-female schools to go co-ed that there was on all-male schools.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I'd say that's one reason that there are so few all male colleges, but I don't think its the main reason.

25 years ago, there were fewer than 10 all male schools in the country, and at least two of them were state military academies (VMA and The Citadel). Most all male schools, public and private, went co-ed in the 60s and 70s, and they did so not because it was that hard to persuade smart young men to go to an all male school but because society as a whole was demanding that the advantages of these schools be available to women as well as men. I'm not saying that going co-ed was a bad thing altogether, although I can wish that more of the all-male private schools had stayed that way. But the reality is that there was never the societal pressure on all-female schools to go co-ed that there was on all-male schools.

In the case then there should be nothing going the other way around.

Male schools being forced to go Co-Ed and Female schools going Co-Ed?

It cannot be just a one way street and in many cases it is do, die, or survive.

[alum]

The federal and state service academies as well as state schools were pretty much forced to go co-ed because of anti-discrimination laws AND the fact that they are public institutions funded in part through the public coffers. W&L and other privates have Boards of Trustees that vote on this decision. In the Amherst, Williams, W&L cases, the Board voted to go co-ed. H-SC actually took a vote sometime in the 90s and opted to remain all-male.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I'd say that's one reason that there are so few all male colleges, but I don't think its the main reason.

25 years ago, there were fewer than 10 all male schools in the country, and at least two of them were state military academies (VMA and The Citadel). Most all male schools, public and private, went co-ed in the 60s and 70s, and they did so not because it was that hard to persuade smart young men to go to an all male school but because society as a whole was demanding that the advantages of these schools be available to women as well as men. I'm not saying that going co-ed was a bad thing altogether, although I can wish that more of the all-male private schools had stayed that way. But the reality is that there was never the societal pressure on all-female schools to go co-ed that there was on all-male schools.

I agree with you about the societal pressure of the 1960s and 1970s. But I'm suggesting that evidence from the mid-1970s on, men's schools have trouble attracting the same caliber students they once did. That is quite explicitly the reason W&L went co-ed and even some of the most vehement oppoents of the switch now admit that it saved the school academically, because the number of applications and the level of SAT and academic achievement in the incoming classes were dropping.

There are a few insitutions that escaped this problem: Morehouse, because of its location in Atlanta and the proximity of Spelman, and the military institutions, some (all?) of which are still predominantly male, because of their special missions.

It's VMI, not VMA.