Wells College to go Co-ed.

NOTE: This is a guest column by Jazz's wife.

�At Wells, women are first in the classroom and on the athletic field. Women are the leaders. This is very different from the world many of us have experienced outside of Wells. This is very different from what you might have been told the world should be. You will discover the power of women and what the world can be if women's voices are heard and their talents appreciated.

As our mission states, it is the responsibility of each of us "to share the privileges of education with others." Like the generations before you, it will eventually become your responsibility to take the knowledge and vision you have gained here and use it to change the world. This is our tradition. And it is our future.�

Those words were spoken by Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of Wells College at the Convocation address in September 2001. She also speaks of the enduring mission of Wells and its mission of educating women only here . Further, she endorses as Chair of the Coalition of Women�s Colleges the legacy and need for single-sex education here. As a graduate of Wells herself (1981), she should fully understand the benefits of a single-sex education. At this moment, Wells College is the only women-only college in the state of NY, and one of less than 100 still left in the country. Wells also has the distinction of being the first college in America founded with the ability and intention of granting bachelors� degrees to women.

Why am I pointing out these important statements? Because everything said by Lisa Marsh Ryerson has just become horribly hypocritical. By looking in the local newspapers, (1, 2, 3, 4) I found out that my alma mater has thrown aside its 136-year tradition and has decided to admit men in the Fall of 2005.

To say that I am furious about the situation is putting it mildly. I have already written the college and informed them that I will no longer be sending any more donations or speaking of them in glowing terms about them to perspective students, and that I am urging all I know to do the same. You are also welcome to write Ms. Ryerson and tell her your opinions on this matter as well.

I do not claim to feel as the male alums of Harvard or other all male institutions felt as their doors were forced open to admit women. In those days, there were no other options for quality education. Women didn�t have a choice but to try to get in. Now, there are still great educational opportunities for males other than a tiny college in upstate NY. There are already options for male students at Wells- I have had male students sit in on a few of my classes at Wells when I was a student there; granted, they were the sons of professors or other locals. Nothing currently bars Wells from handing out a bachelor�s degree to a man. But everything is set up for women only. There are perhaps 3 bathrooms and no locker-rooms in the entire campus designated for men only, for instance.

18 years ago, when I was looking at colleges initially, I was feminist enough to think that single-sex education was not needed in this modern and open age. I believe otherwise now. I learned so much about how to look at our society and question what is written there, and the drive to change it for the better. The need is there more than ever- women are still making less than $0.75 for every dollar a man earns on the average.

To watch Wells go coed is very much a tragedy in my eyes.

Georg, class of 1991.

Edit: Updates to this story here.