Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990 TAG: 9005290208
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: MARY CLAIRE CHILDRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I have not always been an advocate of single-sex colleges. In my application to R-MWC, I even mentioned that I thought women's colleges were a thing of the past. I only applied there to surprise my mother, who is also a R-MWC alumna. As a high-school senior, I believed that women's colleges were an anachronism.
My four years at R-MWC disproved this belief. I landed at this nationally acclaimed women's college because my first- and second-choice schools placed me on waiting lists; I had to choose between R-MWC or the university in my hometown. I opted to go away to Lynchburg, and have never regretted that decision.
What's so special about a woman's experience at a single-sex school that it changed my opinion?
First, there are the opportunities for women. Every student-leadership position is held by a woman. During my four-year stint at R-MWC, I saw many women bloom; women who would not have taken the initiative and gone after leadership positions at coeducational schools, because there would have been fewer opportunities.
Attending a woman's college fosters a belief among students that they can be anything they want to be or do anything they want to do. Women are given all the opportunities to excel throughout their college years, and this benefits them as they enter the working world. My four years at R-MWC gave me and my classmates an aura of confidence in our abilities that I don't think we would possess had we attended coed schools.
One argument I harbored against women's colleges is that they are a far cry from the real world where men and women interact everyday.
However, my education and experience at a women's college better equipped me to interact with my male counterparts, because I had gained confidence in myself and had seen the many roles that women are capable of handling.
Another reason I value my undergraduate education is the size of R-MWC. A smaller institution affords students more attention from professors; students are taught by professors, not graduate assistants.
I went on to pursue a graduate degree from a large university and saw for myself how different is an undergraduate's experience at a larger school. AT R-MWC, one professor called his students when they skipped his grueling economics classes. At a large university, how many professors would even care?
Both large and small schools of higher education have needs to meet in our society. But I am thankful I'm a graduate of a small women's college in the City of Seven Hills which, as you wrote, "give[s] women opportunities for achievement that may be harder to come by elsewhere" and that really does "move us closer to equality."
by CNB