The incoming freshman class at The College of New Rochelle”™s School of Arts & Sciences will be its first with male students, and it will also likely be its largest in a decade.
That”™s not a coincidence, according to Kevin Cavanagh, CNR”™s vice president for enrollment management.
“As we”™ve anticipated, more women have decided to attend the college next year,” Cavanagh said. “Going coed opens us up to a number of young ladies who just tuned out the idea of going to a completely all-women”™s college.”
Enrollment figures are not exact until students actually step foot on campus in late summer, but Cavanagh said the school is expecting a class of about 200, including 50 men. The school enrolled a freshman class of 87 last year, the final year the School of Arts & Sciences was women-only.
But the shift for CNR to fully coed will ultimately be considered for much more than its enrollment figures. While three of CNR”™s other schools are already coed, the change for the School of Arts & Sciences represents a significant shift for a school with a history that dates back more than 100 years.
National difficulties
Ursuline nuns founded The College of New Rochelle in 1904, though it wouldn”™t be known by that name until 1910. It was founded as the College of St. Angela, the first Catholic college for women in New York.
As with many women”™s colleges, it was founded during a time when women were often excluded from male universities. By 1960, there were about 230 women”™s colleges.
While times have changed since CNR was founded, women”™s colleges have faced difficulties.
Women passed men to make up the majority of college undergraduates in the 1970s. In 2012, the share of young women entering college immediately after high school was 71 percent. The number was 61 percent of young men, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
In announcing that its School of Arts & Sciences would go coed, CNR cited data that just 5 percent of women entering college apply to women”™s colleges.
“We were not serving any of the male population and very few of the women,” Cavanagh said. “So we thought that in opening up the school and the opportunity to both men and women, that many more students could benefit from an Ursuline Catholic education.”
CNR noted in its announcement that its review process throughout the fall involved conversations with thousands of stakeholders, including Ursuline nuns, faculty, students and alumni. The college”™s board of trustees unanimously voted to make the School of Arts & Sciences coed in December.
CNR certainly isn”™t alone in making this move. There were 47 women”™s colleges in the U.S. and Canada in 2014, according to the Women”™s College Coalition, a decrease of 80 percent from the total in the 1960s.
The College of New Rochelle won”™t even be the only historically women”™s college to start admitting men in the fall. Midway University, a liberal arts school of about 1,600 in Kentucky, announced in May that it would start admitting men to its undergraduate programs this year after 169 years as an all-women”™s institution.
“Generally, campuses that have made this change have been happy when they made it,” said Paul Hassen, the director of communications and marketing for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “It generally has improved their revenue and improved enrollment.”
Hassen, whose organization represents 900 private colleges and universities in the U.S., said that it often takes several years for a school shifting to coed to have its change recognized in the college marketplace.
Reaction
While the move won”™t mark the first time that men have attended class on CNR”™s campus, the change still sparked debate on campus and among alumni.
The School of Arts & Sciences was the only school on campus that wasn”™t already coed. The college”™s School of New Resources, School of Nursing and Graduate School have all been accepting male students for more than 40 years.
The School of Arts & Sciences has the smallest enrollment among the schools at the college. It is the oldest, however, founded with the college in 1904.
CNR”™s student-run newspaper, the Tatler, dedicated its December issue to the possibility of the college going coed, with a bold-faced front page headline “The Decision Of The Century.”
Michelle Goyke, the editor of the newspaper at the time, said students knew before the announcement that the decision was coming.
“It was a very mixed response,” said Goyke, who graduated from the School of Arts & Sciences this spring. “I would say most students were in favor, but some were very sad about it.”
Goyke said many students had come to College of New Rochelle because it was a women”™s college and fear a tradition at the school that empowered women”™s voices could be lost.
“There”™s still gender inequality, whether in the workforce or in the classroom,” Goyke said. “You”™re taught at CNR that this is not the way it”™s supposed to be. You have a strong voice, you have a bright mind. So vocalize it and use it.”
After the announcement, a Facebook post on a page for alumni had a mix of positive and negative comments.
Lisa Cesare, an attorney who graduated from the School of the Arts & Sciences in 1981, launched a Facebook page called CNR: Fact or Fiction to discuss the change and advocate for women”™s colleges. She said the group has members both for and against the decision to go coed.
Cesare said the school could have further engaged alumni before making the decision. Being a women”™s college provided clear advantages to the learning environment, she said, which she believes the college could have better advertised to help enrollment.
“There”™s a camaraderie, there”™s a focus on women,” Cesare said. “The way the teachers interact with students and the fact that all the resources are dedicated to women and all the leadership roles go to women.”
Preparing for the new year
Cavanagh said the school has heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from students, but added that CNR expected there to be some concerns for such a large change.
The school plans to launch an Institute for Women”™s Leadership and Social Justice. He said the institute is designed to help “speak to the power of an all-women”™s education and the opportunities young ladies have in that kind of environment.”
Amy Bass, a history professor and director of the honors program at the school, is part of a committee to help launch the institute. She said that while nothing will change for the courses she offers in the fall, a coed classroom is a different space and that needs to be acknowledged.
“You want to make sure that young women in college have every single door open to them, regardless of who is sitting next to them,” Bass said.
Bass envisions the institute as a space to discuss and provide expertise on issues related to women”™s equality.
“Being a coed college doesn”™t mean that we have achieved equity,” she said. “We know that we still have a wage gap, an achievement gap and a wide array of inequities that are gender based.”
The school will be introducing three new men”™s soccer, basketball and swimming programs and is considering adding other programs for men and women. Beyond that, changes were made to residence halls to prepare for men to live there.
Cavanagh said the school will continue to seek feedback on the move this fall. The school”™s goal was to attract 138 new students for the fall, so he points to the 204 expected to attend as a clear positive early sign for the switch.
While Goyke may not be on campus for the change in the fall, she said she is confident it will be positive for the school.
“We can use our strong beliefs to now not only educate women on these topics and issues, but men as well” Goyke said. “And make them more aware of these constraints in society that often go unaddressed.”
The decision to go coed is a deep disappointment. CNR has failed to preserve its mission to educate women. Despite Mr. Cavanagh’s statements, women’s colleges are still relevant and thriving. And, young women still want the benefits of a single sex education. One need only look to Simmons, St. Joseph’s (in West Hartford, CT), or Trinity University (DC) for examples of women’s colleges that have adapted, changed, and grown while maintaining a single sex environment. Or to Sweet Briar– which was saved from closure by its alumnae. CNR did not consult the alumnae. We were notified of the decision 30 days before the board voted.
Mr. Cavanagh’s use of the words “young ladies”– a term loaded with sexism– is revealing. And the stunningly high enrollment figure of 50 men demonstrates the school started recruiting men long before the board of trustees voted in December 2015.