Three Students Argue for Coeducation

To THE EDITOR :

The Trustee Study Committee in its research on coeducation has prepared several models which compare the present-day Dartmouth with projections of what the College would be like with different forms of coeducation (see DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, February 1970). However, as a control, a different kind of model is necessary for a complete analysis.

This is the model of Dartmouth's future if the College chooses to remain an all-male institution. The caliber of an academic institution is determined by the quality of the members of its community and by the potential tential for educational, social, and psychological development that it offers. In projecting the model of an all-male Dartmouth, we must consider the effect of a monosexual education on these factors.

Although Dartmouth thrived as a monosexual college a generation ago, our society and its social institutions have changed, and an all-male education is no longer consistent with the concept of a liberal education. As students of Dartmouth, we are concerned that our college will be unable to continue to provide an excellent undergraduate education unless the College makes a significant commitment to coeducation in the near future.

The major component of the academic community, the students, overwhelmingly prefer coeducational colleges. According to a report prepared by Princeton University before that institution became coeducational, over 75 per cent of the males in superior secondary schools prefer coeducational colleges. "Moreover, the presence of both sexes appears to be especially important to the most able students among this already select group," the report said.

On the other hand, less than four percent of the men from these secondary schools prefer to attend all-male institutions. When these statistics are combined with the results of other studies, the picture for admissions to all-male colleges appears even more bleak.

President Kemeny's report for the Trustee Study Committee states that each year only 5,000 high school seniors who are academically able to attend Dartmouth do not require financial aid. Combining these findings with the statistics above discloses that only about 200 high school seniors academically qualified for Dartmouth want to attend an all-male school and are financially able to do so.

Although coeducation has come to other Ivy schools only recently, the effects of being the only all-male school in the Ivy League are already being felt at Dartmouth. Projected data from the Dartmouth Admissions Office indicated that the number of applications may drop as much as five percent this year.

This five percent drop would be larger if the overall decline in applications had not been compensated for by an increase in the number of black applicants recruited under the College's Equal Opportunity Program. The number of black applicants may rise as much as 90 per cent this year, from 210 to between 300 and 400. This means that had the number of black applicants remained constant, the total number of applications would have dropped eight per cent.

Three other Ivy League schools - Harvard, Cornell, and Pennsylvania - also expect the number of applications to drop this year, a fact that correlates well with the observation that both Yale and Princeton expect increases of 10 per cent in their applications, which they attribute largely to coeducation. A Cornell admissions officer said that the decline in that school's applications was caused largely by the competition that Yale and Princeton now provide as coeducational Ivy League schools.

These statistics may become even more discouraging in May, when the high school seniors get their chance to accept and reject the schools. The Princeton Report said that 60 per cent of Princeton's best applicants before the school became coed- ucational chose to go elsewhere, largely because of the absence of women at Princeton.

The problems these statistics present are intensified by the fact that the number of students in the highly qualified and financially capable pool that the Ivy League schools draw from is being restricted by increasing tuition costs which drive students to less expensive public universities. Will Dartmouth as a monosexual institution be able to maintain a high-caliber student body if the best applicants do not want to spend four years in an all-male environment?

On a personal level, we are confronted with a difficult problem when faced by seniors from our high schools who are choosing among several colleges. Students who are applying to Dartmouth (and usually also to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton) often come directly to us with questions about our experience here. We of course tell them that Dartmouth provides an excellent academic education, that students have personal contact with professors and not with graduate teaching assistants, and that the College offers many unique programs for educational development. However, the high school seniors also ask us about social life and the ability to develop informal friendships with women in an all-male atmosphere. We must answer them truthfully, and although the academic facilities and faculty are rated "good" or "excellent" by 90 per cent of the Dartmouth students, two-thirds of all students regard the social life as "poor" or "terrible."

If these students are also applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or another school with academic standing similar to Dartmouth's, Dartmouth comes out on the short end. Even though Dartmouth's academics more than balance out with these other schools, the absence of coeducation throws the balance in the other direction and Dartmouth loses more students to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton than the other three schools lose to Dartmouth.

Although the influence of College stu- dents on seniors from their high schools may not be conclusive, this same pattern applies to younger brothers. As Dr. Kemeny pointed out, a Sociology Department survey conducted last year from which the preceding statistics were taken, showed that 53 per cent of Dartmouth's undergraduates would not recommend Dartmouth to younger brothers. Students are more than satisfied with the academic education that Dartmouth offers but feel that they can probably get the same education in a coeducational atmosphere, which they view as more conducive to both learning and personal development.

The primary criterion for a high school senior in determining which school he selects is academic. We feel that the presence of women would improve the quality of education a student receives. A sizable majority of those students applying to Dartmouth already recognize the desirability of a coeducational environment. In a poll of secondary school students in superior private and public schools on the effect of coeducational classes, .64% of the men and 73% of the women responded that the presence of both men and women in class improves the quality of classroom discussions.

The opinions of these students are reinforced by those who have had the opportunity to experience coeducation here on campus. In last month's ALUMNI MAGAZINE, President Kemeny stated that many alumni feel that "one of the exciting features of Alumni College was precisely the fact that alumni and their wives participated together resulting in "a much deeper level of significance than an all-male discussion would have been able to achieve."

In a survey taken last year 95% of the Dartmouth faculty polled were in favor of coeducation. In the fall of 1968 the Committee on Educational Planning, the standing of the faculty concerned with academic matters, came out strongly in its favor. Their recommendation was based on a quarter's study of the educational implications for Dartmouth and for the women involved. Prof. James W. Fernandez, the then chairman of the committee, says, "For the humanities and the social science disciplines, where values inevitably play a role in inquiry, we felt that women would add to that expansion of perspective which is the essence of liberal education. Since women have proved highly competent as physicians and have won Nobel prizes in the sciences, no detrimental effects could be expected in that division. We were unable to identify any faculty member who felt he had nothing he could teach a woman!"

Applicants are also quite conscious of the quality of teaching. On this point Dartmouth has a very sound reputation. The primary means of maintaining an excellent faculty is through successful faculty recruitment. Although Dartmouth has no data on the relationship of coeducation to faculty recruitment, the Princeton Report reveals some interesting statistics. When the faculty was asked if coeducation would add to the attractiveness of their institution for a significant number of persons, 63% of the faculty responded affirmatively. Only 1% felt that the admission of women would reduce the appeal of Princeton for new faculty. This would indicate that each year Dartmouth remains a monosexual institution its ability to attract good professors will decrease.

We must also consider the effect that Dartmouth, as a monosexual institution, has on the psychological and social development of its students. A liberal education must provide for social as well as intellectual development and maturity.

Dr. Martin H. Bauman, a psychiatrist of the Dartmouth Mental Health Service, has stated that there are many emotional difficulties and reactions which seem to occur when the student is confined to a particular type of monosexual social structure. "Frequently students resolve their problems in ways which do not lead to growth but to a prolonged period of late adolescence."

While other colleges exist in a monosexual form, they are frequently close to another women's college, as are Brown, Columbia, and Harvard. However, Dartmouth's 3,000 undergraduates are particularly isolated. Colby Jr. College, the nearest women's school, is a 45-minute drive and has an enrollment of only 600. The larger women's colleges are all at least an hour and a half away. Consequently, the Dartmouth students have very limited opportunity during their four years of college to meet women and gradually to develop meaningful relationships with female companions in a relaxed atmosphere.

When contacts with women are limited to big weekends many men at Dartmouth come to regard women as sex objects or as companions for entertainment only, rather than as fellow human beings as sensitive and intelligent as themselves. The "Dartmouth animal" myth projects the student as a hyper-virile, rough, "north-woodsy" individual who is sexually aggressive. All too' frequently this is true. Dr. Bauman has found that many students force intimacy upon a girl prior to the time she - and he - are psychologically prepared for such a relationship. In this, situation many students are similarly led to underrate women intellectually and sexual behavior may become dehumanized and lose its meaning and value as an emotional expression. Students fail to develop a mature sense of responsibility toward women.

In coeducational colleges where contact between the sexes is more frequent, more varied, and less hectic than it is at Dartmouth, this does not seem to be as true. The recognition that intellectual activity or "the life of the mind" is not sex-linked would seem to us an extremely important result of a liberal education. It is particularly important as most of the students will marry women on an intellectual par with them. When a student comes to believe that women are categorically inferior to himself, he is effectively prevented from developing mutually beneficial and productive relations with them.

Another frequent problem is the development of an unrealistic, overly romanticized view of women. Dating a student from a distant campus and meeting only on infrequent weekends leaves a good deal of time to fantasize and develop unrealistic attitudes about the girl. There is also little chance of deepening the level of a relationship when each person is maintaining the superficial facade of the weekend date.

In such a limited social atmosphere as Dartmouth, these immature attitudes toward women are too easily developed. These attitudes interfere with the movement toward a maturity which requires a capacity to combine relationships with women with other life experiences, goals and responsibilities. While the student experiences intellectual development and achievement in his education, he is often severely stifled in his movement toward psychosocial and sexual maturation by the social structure of Dartmouth. We realize that coeducation alone will not solve these problems, but it does Drovide an opportunity for the student to have available more choices and experiences to develop toward maturity.

Many of those who favor coeducation at Dartmouth urge a slow implementation plan whereby Dartmouth would not have a significant number of women in attendance for another 10 or 15 years. We feel such a plan would hinder the College, for the problems presented by monosexual education become compounded each year. The difficulties encountered in a 40:1 male-female ratio have often proven just as undesirable as those of a 3200:0 ratio.

Dartmouth should not subject itself to the probability of ten more years of declining admissions, ten more years of reluctant freshmen who would rather attend a co-educational school, ten more years of a less desirable educational atmosphere, or ten more years of presenting students with the unnecessary psychological and social problems of an all-male atmosphere.

Competition among Ivy League schools for the top high school students is intense. Dartmouth as a coeducational school will be a strong competitor and the number of potential applicants will increase. Future classes may include alumni daughters as well as alumni sons. We believe that Dartmouth must move rapidly towards a significant commitment to coeducation. Only if Dartmouth becomes coeducational will it be able to maintain the quality of its student body which President Dickey called "the stuff" of the institution.