Mary Baldwin’s announcement last week to begin allowing men to live on its undergraduate campus caused a swift and sudden uproar among alumnae and students. The residential college has been women-only for 175 years.
Mary Baldwin has been admitting men to its graduate, adult, and online courses for decades. Those efforts have intensified in recent years amid dwindling enrollment. Because men are already a presence on campus, University Vice President Crista Cabe says allowing them to live there won’t look and feel much different.
“I have confidence we will be able to preserve that wonderful empowering education that women already get.”
But Shae Rosa, class of ’09, strongly disagrees.
“That is going to dramatically change the structure of this place. I feel this is a first step before becoming a fully co-educational institution.”
Many alumnae and students slammed the announcement on the University’s Facebook page. Rosa was one of a handful who gathered on campus this weekend to protest the decision.