Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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1 985 KALEIDOSCOPE The Faculty and Staff ...,,. fr- gf Peter L. Wyeth Vibe-President for Development Lawrence H. Martin, Jr. Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of English Josiah Bunting 111 Daniel P. Poteet ll Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lewis H. Drew Dean of Smdcnm EE President of the College

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besides, wouldn't it be nice to send your daughters to Hampden-Sydney? lt is rather sad for a father to describe how wonderful his college experience was but then tell his daughter that it cannot be for her. As compelling as the argument for coeducation is in its own right, the bottom line for convincing alumni and trustees to accept the change is survival, a less plea- sant but more critical matter. At a recent football game students paraded about with a banner proclaiming Better Dead Than Coed! Most observers chuckled at a sign of youthful exuberance, but if, indeed, the slogan repres- ented a deeply felt opinion that Hampden-Sydney's essence is its all-maleness, we have failed in our purpose. If this institution means little more than drinking beer with the boys, then the Col- lege deserves to die, a relic of an older day. If, however, Hampden- Sydney is stately old buildings and revolutionary era oaks, the excitement of discovery in the classroom or victory on the athletic fields, the joy of friendships with professors and fellow students, then that is an experience which must endure. The College is not in danger of closing. I am refer- ring to surviving with quality. Cut size and reliance on tui- tion revenue makes getting a good class every year imperative. A small dip in numbers is threatening. We 1985 KALEIDOSCOPE are running very hard now just to stay in place, but we are losing better students to UVA and William and Mary, among others, because of costs. This is why we must improve our retention rate as well as expand our applicant pool. Coeducation more than doubles that pool. It adds the women and those large numbers of men who never consider us or reject us because we are all-male fvery few of our students select us for this reason, meaning the decline in our present consti- tuency would be slightj. In the very competitive world of admissions, the demographics are clear. There will be one million fewer college age stu- dents available in the next decade, it is estimated that perhaps one hundred small colleges will not survive because of this. We must reduce our liabilities-the reasons why students reject us-single sex, isolation, nar- row curriculum, rapidly escalating costs. Coeducation is not the great panacea, but it would certainly eradicate one of these deficiencies and likely ameliorate the others. ln addi- tion, it would also have the advantage of improving the quality of those accepted for admission. This change will not be easy. New problems will arise. Costs will be entailed. And so we must prepare well for this eventuality, but the preparation must now. We should be striving to make Hampden-Sydney the best that it can be, while avoiding a slide into the ranks of second rate institutions. We cannot afford to wait. The worst possible time for such a move is during declin- ing enrollments and financial exigency. A time of strength, of confidence, with emphasis on the positive nature of the change, is the appropriate moment. We must look to the future now more than the past. The all-male institution has outlived its usefulness, it is anachronisticg it is time to change. l

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Paul S. Baker Direaor of Student Aid and Records 985' KA 1 tra' L1 .V H is M nf : , . I 7 .F as 43 . f X J. Sheppard Haw III Assistant to the President Robert H. jones IDt'1 I'l of Admlsslkms L mst- john A. Tim1nons,Jr. Vice Presxdent for Finance