Creatures that adapt survive, those who don’t disappear, that's the same with businesses and schools. Right now, Mary Baldwin has to adapt by having men live on campus, so what, I would rather have men on campus than no campus at all.
The fact is the “all women” education system is dying and it seems many of the students and alumni don’t agree with the changes. The change has left me with a bitter taste mainly because the dorm I've been living in for two years is being “taken off the lottery” as Dr. Fox stated while explaining to everyone who attended the student senate meeting last Tuesday, November 28, that “Tullege is the best housing for new members of the University Collge.”
Many students, including myself, found the beginning of the semester suspicious and wondered why everything was so secretive because we heard about possibly going co-ed, but no one knew much of anything or just wouldn’t say anything.
A recent graduate of 2014 commented on Mary Baldwin's Facebook page “I'm in full support of admitting male students to educational programs in proportional numbers... If you're going to sack this institutional pillar, at least be transparent about it. Because we get it. It's not hard to see why the change is coming.” The student, Linnea Kuglitsch, even believes that the school would lose even more finances by going co-ed, stating “We're a competitive women's liberal arts university, because of our values and our sense of community. These are not the selling points of co-ed universities. We're at risk of digging an even deeper financial hole than we started with.”
Alums and students alike have even pulled together to sign a digital petition in order to try and stop the co-ed program, there are currently 423 supporters and I am not one of them. Here recently it seems like people think if you just sign a digital or paper document you're going to be able to change everything, and that’s not necessarily the case.
During the student senate meeting Dr.Fox explained that “Over the last 50 years… Mary Baldwin college, like many other single-sex colleges have experienced a variety in enrollment pressure...” later going into depth about the need for finances and this being Mary Baldwin's last hope to survive, at least that's how she made it seem.
Students were not the only ones who were surprised by the information, but the faculty was as well. One professor of 15 years stated, “I suppose I didn't really consider that (the co-ed program) was an option on the table. The possibility of making it an option to consider has come up in the past, but it's never actually gotten to "the table" until now. I've always known there's a possibility it could happen.”
Still surprised she stated that her initial reaction was “I didn't like it at all - I'm very passionate about single-sex education and very passionate about women's empowerment.” However she continued to say “I understand the concerns, the anger, the fear of change, but I also believe that this move will help us to sustain the MBCW, which is where my heart certainly is.”
It’s clear that people are going to be upset face it, we don’t like change. But when it comes down to it, it’s just a means of survival and right now this change is going to upset many people, that is until it becomes a normalcy. Just wait for years from now it's going to be a program that seems just as normal to those students as the PEG program does to us now. All in all, it may seem like a big change, but who knows with more money rolling in and more mouths to feed maybe we will have better meals, now and again. Just kidding that would be too big of a change, then students would really lose their minds.
