FOR MOST university students today, single-sex colleges seem like a remnant of their grandparents' time -- an era when men wore coats and ties to class, women were referred to as "ladies" and Detroit actually made quality cars. A small number of single-sex colleges, almost all of them women's, still survive, but their ranks continue to decline. Last week, the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon Woman's College voted to open the school to male applicants next year. The decision has sparked a backlash from supporters of single-sex education. While it may be sad to witness the disappearance of an old tradition, the decision to adopt coeducation benefits students of both sexes.

The decisive factor in RMWC's decision to admit men was a simple one: The college needed to increase enrollment if it was to remain financially sound. A Washington Post article reported that the college's steering committee concluded unanimously that no option remained but to go co-ed. This has been the typical scenario for most colleges that were once exclusively female. After men's schools began to admit women in the 1960s, there just weren't enough female students for all the women's colleges. By and large, the few women's colleges that continue to thrive are ones that have managed to carve out a distinct niche, such as the traditional Southern image of RMWC, Hollins or Sweet Briar.

Perhaps that is why the move to coeducation of RMWC, one of the better-known Southern women's colleges, has received so much publicity. The problem faced by RWMC is that, in the words of the University's Dean of Admissions John Blackburn, "There is a very small population of high school girls who apply to women's colleges." The key question raised by this debate, though, is not how women's colleges can continue to stay financially viable. The real question is whether there is a place for women's colleges in modern America.

The typical justifications for modern women's colleges are long on emotion and short on logic. A Sept. 5 article in The Virginian-Pilot interviewed several RMWC students opposed to admitting men. Their opposition to coeducation boiled down to one reason: They felt more comfortable at a university without men. For example, Samantha Henderson said that she was "not afraid to be a leader, not afraid to be bold," and that "you can be comfortable…looking like a bum, because there are no guys around to impress." The aforementioned Washington Post article found similar sentiments.

These reasons are all understandable, but they ignore one of higher education's central purposes, which is to help students prepare for their postgraduate life. Students need to get used to learning and working alongside the opposite gender, and co-ed universities are an important means for that development. It may be easier for Henderson to be a leader without men around, but that leadership experience will do her little good if she is still uncomfortable around men when she begins a career in the real world. It is foolish to spend four years and thousands of dollars at a university that doesn't offer any real-world experience.

This criticism of women's colleges may sound very one-sided, but that is only because there are even fewer all-men's colleges left in America. The University's College of Arts & Sciences began accepting women in 1970, and this came later than many other schools in the country. Blackburn said on this development, "It was a good time for the University to make that move, because as a public university it shouldn't be limited to just one sex. By 1977 the University was admitting almost as many women as men."

Women's colleges hold sentimental value for many older Americans, but they are no longer suited for the modern world. With the gender gap narrowed or even eliminated in most industries, higher education needs to prepare students to work with the other gender. Randolph-Macon Woman's College may have chosen to go co-ed kicking and screaming, but in the long run this development will lead to a better education for its students -- male and female alike.

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