Boston Town Hall Meeting
11-08-06
Report by Eileen Kelly, '58

Up until I attended that meeting, I had some hope that the administration/trustees would consider turning back the clock.  Unfortunately that is appears to be a hopeless dream. The college has been terribly mismanaged, as those of us who have been reading this listserv might guess. Now, those in charge are grasping at straws and seem to feel the only way out is to admit men and hope they will save the day. If they have read any of the evidence to the contrary, there's no way of knowing. Certainly the visionary presidents of Stephens College and Chatham College and Bennett College, who have saved their respective institutions, are the type of leader Randolph-Macon Woman's College desperately needs now.....not these naysayers who are leading us.

At the Boston meeting for quite some period, Ginger spoke. Finally, one of the younger alumnae interrupted her (for which, I believe most of us were thankful) and said that we really wanted to have some questions answered. By that time, it was nearly the scheduled time to end the meeting. (Luckily, the meeting continued for a couple hours beyond that period.) That young woman was quite adamant that the school did a terrible job of marketing itself and she said that she could help in that regard.

At some point in the marketing discussion I added my two cents worth, that is, that RM did not recruit in my area, where there are several private girls' schools and private coed schools and the tuition for those schools is $17,000, and I thought it would be reasonable to recruit there...as well as in St. Louis, which had been mentioned on the listserv. Heather Ayres, representing the College, took issue with my statement and was quite defensive, saying that they can't get young girls to come to R-M. My point stands, however. The school does not recruit in prime areas where people have interest and money to send their daughters ... and there is no need for that tuition discounting for every student. It has more than jeopardized the health of the College. 

When one of the persons came into the meeting, she was greeting by a college representative with the statement that she (the rep) knew that the alumna was negative toward the changes because she had seen her comments on the listserv. I think most of us are negative toward these changes, because we understand what a major loss it will be. What is surprising is not to recognize the loss.

One person asked what financial projections the college used for an estimate of the extra costs that will be entailed with male students (more security, more maintenance, more counseling, more drug and alcohol and sexual assault education and services, more coaches and trainers, more food, etc. Ginger's response was that in 6 years they will have 1000 students and that should cover the extra costs.

I believe there was only one person there who spoke in favor of the change, and she was a faculty member at a college in the suburbs of Boston; my best guess is that she teaches at Regis College which also is going coed.

One of the women at the Boston meeting was a sister of someone in my class;  the sister went on to medical school, as did at least two others in our class...maybe more. That was a lot for a class of maybe 130 or so in 1958...and we have at least 3 currently practicing attorneys. Would we have those if Ginger and Jolley have their way? We really need someone with vision, someone who believes in the institution.

I think we have some good leaders among our alumnae.... but not on the Board. We need a clean sweep.