PEC Update, August 14, 2007

Yesterday a Petition for Rehearing in the student contract case was filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia. This Petition will be considered by the full Court (all seven current Justices) without oral argument. The text of the Petition can be found in the "Legal Pleadings" section of the website.

We also received notice yesterday of the hearing date for oral argument on the Petition for Appeal in the charitable trust case. The hearing is scheduled before a three-justice panel on August 29 at 4 p.m.

We will continue to keep you informed of any further action in the contract case and the progress of the charitable trust appeal.

On the college front, you may recall that it was one year ago today that Interim President Ginger Worden issued a "Letter to Alumnae on the Strategic Planning Process." That letter stated "I have read the internal study of the colleges who have gone co-ed and am heartened to learn that in every case their enrollment has increased" and "each of them also found that they were educating more women as a co-ed institution than they had before making the change." So how is Randolph College delivering on these assertions one year later? The question is rhetorical and the plain answer is "poorly."

Last week, the Lynchburg News & Advance ran a story entitled "Local colleges expect largest freshman class yet." The article stated that "Liberty University and Lynchburg College both expect to have their largest freshman classes ever, while Sweet Briar College will have its largest class in more than 20 years." It went on to describe Sweet Briar's success at securing 226 new students, the largest first-year class since 1983. The article explained that last year Sweet Briar had an incoming class of 209 students and how they have been increasing their class size for the past several years. Sweet Briar attributes its success to a new marketing effort that it rolled out four years ago and the article quoted the Sweet Briar Director of Admissions as saying "Quite honestly, we are full - we don't have a single space. That's a nice challenge to have."

In contrast, the same article described Randolph College's incoming class size: "185 first-year students, 61 of them men, as of Monday. That's one fewer than last year's incoming class." The article also provided overall enrollment for the college "Randolph College: About 670 total; 185 first-years."

Has the college experienced "increased enrollment?" No, the entering class is smaller and the overall enrollment is 8 percent less than last year and 12 percent less than in 2002, just five years ago -- around the time Sweet Briar embarked on their renewed commitment to marketing and single-sex education.

Is the college "educating more women" as a coed institution? Clearly not. The incoming class of 124 women represents 33 percent fewer women first-year students than last year. As an overall population, the college is educating 17 percent fewer women than it educated just last year – 21 percent fewer than it educated in 2002.

These outcomes are not unexpected. In "20 Reasons" PEC clearly outlined why the college would not be educating more women by educating men (using the college's own research tables) and questioned if Art & Science really promised more "matriculants" or simply "more applications."

We also pointed out that alumnae participation would fall precipitously. A letter from July 2007 to Annual Fund donors stated that alumnae participation in the Annual Fund dropped by 50 percent this year (from 36 percent to 18 percent) and the fund ended the year close to $1 million short - 30 percent shy of the already-reduced goal.

We believe that it is time that the Board of Trustees and the college's administrators realize that they were mistaken; that coeducation and the strategic plan simply are not working as they assured us it would. We are continually frustrated that the college's administration spins a tale of success in the face of facts which illustrate failure.

We continue to believe that the preservation of Randolph-Macon Woman's College is the best chance of success for the college. In view of the accuracy of our other forecasts and warnings, shouldn't the trustees reevaluate our arguments for the college staying single-sex? Look at Sweet Briar's documented success in increasing enrollment, improving entering student GPAs and SAT scores, and decreasing tuition discounting over the past four years, a success Sweet Briar attributes to better marketing. Given that marketing success, shouldn't the trustees reevaluate their claims that "we can't market our way out of this problem" and "we can't remain a woman's college and grow enrollment without compromising excellence?"

To paraphrase how Interim President Ginger Worden ended her letter of only one year ago, we ask that you continue to work with us "on behalf of our alma mater to whom we owe so much of our own Vita Abundantior." Keep writing letters to the editor, letters to the trustees, letters to the new president, and letters to faculty - keep up the pressure. Let the trustees know that you still care about Randolph-Macon Woman's College and it isn't too late, even now, for them to reevaluate their decision and secure a better future for the college we all hold so dear. We all make mistakes - let's not let this one spell the death of our alma mater.

Vita Abundantior,

PEC Board

Gail Ballou (R-MWC '64)
Carol Curcio Lang (R-MWC '68)
Diane U. Montgomery (R-MWC '85)
Chantel Sheaks (R-MWC '91)
Anne Yastremski (R-MWC '05)

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