Male students debut at Randolph College

One of my graduate student classmates went to Randolp Macon for undergraduate and really enjoyed it. She transferred there after attending a larger state school. Whenever we discussed our undergraduate experiences, she always had positive things to say. I remember emailing with her when I read about the college’s decision to become coeducational. Many alums were angry, believing the school was betraying them and current students along with the overall integrity of the institution, while others knew it had to happn because of financial reasons.

Well, its a different school now. This past week it opened its doors to female and male students. In recent historical memory, we have heard a lot about schools like Harvard and Yale opening up their doors to female students in the 1960s and 1970s but one rarely hears about the reverse.

Certain schools that were once all female like Vassar did start accepting men but are still referred to as being mostly female, for low female to male ration and the like. Rumors abound that only gay men or straight guys looking to date a lot of women attend these schools. While that may be true, it must take a lot of guts to be one of the first, female or male, to attend a school that used to be single sex the year before.

Hopefully, the new students, all of them, at Randolph Macon will learn a lot, have fun and adjust accordingly. But its hard to say the school won’t be changed dramatically.

I know this for a fact, as my own alma mater went throught the same transformation back in the 1970s.

Funny thing is you don’t hear the rumor that girls attend Yale to get laid.