The US has a long history of same-sex colleges, but in the last 100 years, that number has shrunk to about 30 women’s institutions, and just a handful of men’s universities.
A few of those schools are still operating in Virginia.
We were curious about the pitch they make to prospective students, and what these colleges do to remain relevant.
Just before spring break in March, Hollins University recognized National Women’s Colleges and Universities Day, an initiative passed by Congress a year earlier.
Students get a moment to celebrate what they’ve accomplished, and can visit with a couple potential employers.
“The student to teacher ratio is really small (at Hollins), so you really get to know your professors,” said Amanda Cash, a senior biology major from nearby North Carolina who plays on the Hollins’ soccer team. “Whether it be sports, or clubs, or whatever, you’re going to find your people. You’re never going to feel out of place.”
“Honestly, at an all-women’s college, I’ve never felt so safe and secure, not only in myself, but in the friends and the community that I’ve had around me,” said Haley DeYoung, a sophomore communications major from Russell County.
“I did not have a women’s college on my radar,” said Izzy Workman, a junior from southern West Virginia and double major in psychology and communications studies, and on a pre-law studies track. “I wanted to go the big schools, like WVU or Marshall, but I ended up touring here, and fell in love with the atmosphere. I actually realized that I do so much better in a small-school setting.”
Same-sex colleges tend to be pretty small. Hollins has about 800 students.
“Any chance we have to just take a moment and kind of acknowledge the importance of our work – we’re here for that,” said Ashley Browning, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Hollins. She cited a challenge all colleges are facing-- the anticipated ‘enrollment cliff’ across the US - driven by declining birth rates around the 2007 recession.
“You can kind of live in the doom and the gloom of the data a little bit – and so I think that makes a day like today even more important- celebrate all the important parts of our work.”
The California-based Women’s College Coalition says while fewer than five-percent of women in the U.S. attend women’s colleges, there’s a benefit in helping them find their voice. Ann McElaney -Johnson chairs the WCC’s Board of Directors.
“Once women have these experiences, they’re in internships, they’re doing research projects at other universities in collaboration with other scientists and students, they’re traveling, they’re doing study abroad," she said. "They’re out in the world They’re not sheltered in some space where only women exist.”
McEleney-Johnson is also president of a women’s school in Los Angeles, Mount-Saint Mary’s University. She's also a former administrator at yet another women’s colleges-Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Salem College. She contends these institutions are now more relevant than ever.
“We outperform, I would say, our sizes, and I think that’s because of this very personalized learning environment, where we’re able to help her thrive, and do some very interesting things with her life,” she said.
The Women’s College Coalition tracks thirty-two schools. By contrast, there are just three non- religious, men’s colleges in the whole country.
Larry Stimpert is President of Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County. With a focus on leadership roles – by their senior year, he says eighty percent of students have held one.
“The character piece – I think getting young men to take responsibility, assume responsibility, to be accountable for their actions – it’s all a big part of that forming good men and good citizens that we take very seriously,” he said.
Stimpert said there’s a friendly competition among Hampden-Syndey’s 900-plus students that brings out their best in one another. The school was founded in 1775.
“That year, the first president put an advertisement in the Virginia Gazette – the paper in Williamsburg- and said we’re starting a new college here, and the mission is to form good men and good citizens,” he explained. “That simple, but profound phrase, has been our mission now for 249 years. And we take it very seriously.”
Back at Hollins University last month, Logan Lynxwiler, a sophomore history major, offered a similar message of hope about her college experience.
“I’m able to have really personal connections with classmates, my profs, even the master’s students who are here- it just feels everybody’s rooting for everybody else to succeed,” she said.
Hollins does offer co-ed graduate programs. They include education, creative writing, and screenwriting and film studies.
The president of Sweet Briar College, the other women’s college in Virginia, which survived its own near-disastrous financial crisis a few years ago, did not want to participate in this story.
