As anticipated
here, the "board of
imbeciles trustees" (as someone
here, put it) of Randolph-Macon Women's College voted to go co-ed in the fall of 2007. Women have one less educational option, and Hampden-Sydney men have one less option for ... well, whatever. I have a lot of fond memories of R-MWC girls, none of which I am going to relate in a place where my wife might read them.
Now administrators will have to come up with a new name. Benedict Arnold College has been suggested and right now, I can't think of a more apt name. Were I an alumnae (my sister is, class of '89), my dollars would be going elsewhere.
This is terribly sad. Stories noting this infamy are here:
Washington Post
Roanoke Times
Richmond Times-Dispatch
ASSOCIATED PRESS
News & Advance
Better they had closed the doors than diminished the educational firmament. Better dead than co-ed.
RIP.
17 comments:
Perhaps Ohio's status as one of the crappiest states is due to the numerous scandals of statewide Ohio politicians. Please see Ken Blackwell's disenfranchisement of his own race voting, Tom Noe's Coingate, or any other of the plethora of great examples that our state government sets. Coingate itself raped the workers comp fund. As a beauty queen representing Ohio, I may not represent the standard "pageant girl", but do not say I have ill informed politics.
As for your Hampden-Sydney connection, that's unfortunate. The behavior I have seen displayed by your younger colleagues is despicable and often looks like an episode of "Jackass". I have often heard disgusting words uttered from their mouths, I have watched their poor social skills make my friends skeptical of men in general, and I have laughed in the face of many an HSC guy trying to hit on me with the line "hey baby" or something equally intelligent.
Thank you for your comment.
Well, Laura, as one of the attorneys working for the Bush campaign in 2004, the only election fraud that I observed (personally) was in a predominately Democrat precinct. So please spare me the unsupported urban legends about "Ken Blackwell's disenfranchisement of his own race voting."
And perhaps, if you observed Hampden-Sydney men in other than artificial social situations, you would have a different view.
I think it is a sad thing that RMWC is going coed, but perhaps it is inevitable given its location.
This is not to disparage Lynchburg, but it is a medium sized city and I do not recall that RMWC was necessarily in one of the primo neighborhoods in town. All the other single sex schools in Va are either in rural areas (Sweet Briar, H-Syd), small towns (MBC) or are no closer to a large city than the suburbs (Hollins).
I have not followed this story too closely, and was not aware that this was a possibility for RMWC until I read an opinion piece recently in the WaPo. However, I have to wonder if, based on its location, that this was inevitable.
I still say the real tragedy was the coed move by W&L.
So will they be changing their name? There is already a Randolph-Macon College.
Interesting comment and analysis, bwana. However, I'm not sure that it's dispositive, as I thing there are quite a few of the remaining women's colleges which are similarly situated (Mills, for instance: big city, and Oakland, of all places). Never saw too much of the neighborhood when I visited.
And Washington & Leigh's decision to go co-ed was a tragedy, too, though it seems to have improved the quality and/or standing of W&L. As some put it, the "last class with balls" was a year before I graduated from H-SC.
Well, while it may be dispositive, it certainly is not definitive. However, even back in my days at BH20, I noticed that geographical aspect that set RMWC aside from the other single sex and also generally the small private colleges...almost all the ODAC schools are set in small towns, or recreate a small town feel in their location.
Mason Conserv-the announcement I saw said they would be changing the name, but no speculation on what it would be.
James-I do not have an email for you, so I am going to piggy back here. Please take a look at this link:
http://renaissanceruminations.blogspot.com/2006/09/fall-2006-virginia-blogosphere-book.html
and consider participating!
Thanks for the blog and the support (such as it is ) :). Just so you know, there were some R-MWC girls on the H-SC campus a couple of days ago raising money for the 'cause'. I hear the boys were being pretty generous, which is cool since so many R-MWC girls hang out there.
Glad you saw it, Ashley. I vividly remember those wonderful women who, a few years back, strongly supported VMI's all-male status. My wife set one foot upon Hampden-Sydney's campus, and declared that her sons would go there, years before our first son was born. I am happy to have returned the favor, however equally futile. I certainly pray that H-SC does not require similar support in the future.
While I do applaud the way some HSC students are coming forward to support our school remaining a woman’s college, I have (unfortunately) met HSC students outside of what you call “artificial” social settings. (And by that I assume you mean the two or three hours a day an HSC student is not drunk.) I have encountered them in academic settings, as well. In fact, my favorite morsel from an HSC student is from a guy speaking about poor families in Latin America: “Why don’t they just, like, get jobs?” Well, sonny, probably because their daddy didn’t hand it to them along with the keys to a Mercedes!
As for your politics, democratic election fraud ( if any) is minute compared to the BS pulled by the Republicans. How one could ever support a party that doesn’t support raising the minimum wage is beyond me, but at this point, I’d be thrilled just to have a COMPETENT president. Hopefully that’s not too much of a stretch for 2008. But perhaps we’ll just keep entering unnecessary and expensive wars, cutting healthcare benefits, and throwing mud at Democratic candidates because “Oh shit, beyond cutting taxes and stopping ‘terrorism’ I really don’t have a plan!” seems to be the order of the day for Republicans. Then again, when has logic applied? We’re talking about the pro-death penalty party (kill kill kill) and also the pro-life party (let everybody live!- well, until they become convicted felons anyways.)
And I’ve lived for two years in Jerry Falwell’s town. Don’t think I haven’t encountered smug, idiotic Hampen-Sydney guys OR republicans before. And you said “Well, Laura, as one of the attorneys working for the Bush campaign in 2004, the only election fraud that I observed (personally) was in a predominately Democrat precinct.” Well, golly gee! A Republican attorney who only saw Democratic fraud? Now there’s a surprise! And you Republicans are always so HONEST.
Sorry it took me so long to respond. I have four jobs and have been running amongst them.
Damn, we better not raise that minimum wage, should we?
And for Mason Conservative: The college has established a group to come up with a new name. The ideas I've heard, and I'm not kidding, are:
Rivermont College
The College of William Waugh Smith
Now, Laura.
Truly, you shouldn't impinge on what our Republican friends were doing at the polls in November, 2004. You know, those "challengers," whose plan it was to slow down voting dramatically in heavily Democratic precincts? (They denied this until the plan leaked...that was a bad day.) It was nice that a party that went so haphazardly and happily into battle in Iraq was willing to do such a thorough investigation when it meant slowing up lines of people who might just be voting the current theocra -- er, administration -- out of office. But, you know, these people are all on welfare, so it's not like they have jobs or anything, so they wouldn't mind standing there waiting for hours.
(Or, maybe they were hoping that, with the economy as tanked as it was after four years of GOPenomics, people would go, "I've got to get back to my job or else I'll lose it!")
Anyway, we should be grateful that Bush got reelected. He's a good Christian man. Breathe. Read "The Handmaid's Tale" -- I just finished it. It actually isn't too far off where we are now.
Laura, it's really amazing that you would reference "the two or three hours a day an HSC student is not drunk," since it's utterly clear that you're under the influence of an excessive amount of Democrat Kool-Aid. You're clearly out of your mind, something made clear by your references to your repeated references to you beauty pageant days. It's a pity that your socialist leanings tend to support the empty-headed stereotype associated with such contests. As for my politics, one can "support a party that doesn’t support raising the minimum wage" by understanding economics, something that your R-MWC education has clearly neglected (as for your own situation, I suspect you're being paid wages commensurate with your skills; perhaps even more than that). And "cutting healthcare benefits"?!? What color is the sky on YOUR planet? Great idea, but the most cogent criticism of this Administration is that it HASN'T dismantled the welfare state. And if you don't understand the difference between protecting innocent life (the unborn) and executing the guilty, then you're probably too far gone to even be in college.
As for election fraud, I know what I saw. You merely make broad assertions that even the Poodle AKA John Kerry (who's French, and kept by rich women) didn't try to sustain, and no one (successfully) challenged. The "BS pulled by the Republicans" is simply the sad, sour grapes of people who can't win elections when their radical, socialistic agenda is challenged for what it is. I guess it must be galling to consider that GWB managed to do something that no Democrat since Jimmy Carter --- even the Great Prevaricator AKA Bill Clinton --- has been able to do: garner a majority of the vote.
And those names are horrible. Besides, I have to believe that those who have suggested the "College of William Waugh Smith" have done so as a goof; the "College of William Waugh Smith" dies when the first man is admitted.
BTW, nice potty-mouth, Laura.
As for you, David, it's really too bad that you Democrats have a problem with: (a) the provisions of Ohio law; and (b) integrity at the polls. But a reference to "theocracy" demonstrates that you may be farther gone that Laura.
Well James, it no longer becomes worth speaking to/with you when you resort to shallow insults, remarking that my beauty pageant connections make me empty-headed (how original, by the way. I've NEVER heard that one.)
Just several entries ago you wrote about my college, now you write that they haven't provided me with a solid economics background. Beyond simple economics, it's reasonable to pay someone a LIVING wage. Minimum wage is not that.
The fact that a Democrat hasn't been able to garner a majority of the vote simply means much of our country isn't educated. Perhaps they are the same crowd who understands his sentences or made-up words. There's something to be proud of. And your reference to John Kerry and women? What is that, something they teach you in a Republican indoctrination? "When things get bad, point fingers at a sex life!"
What's the old adage relating to Bill Clinton? "Democrats screw interns; Republicans screw the country."
This administration hasn't dismantled the welfare state? Well they sure as hell have helped obliterate the middle class! And let's not forget that GWB could NEVER have won an election on his own; his name and political cronies speak miles before him.
Then you insult how much I am being paid? As if you would even know, as if it's your business, and as if I would share that with your overpaid mind!
I checked my most recent comment to you. There are NO references to a beauty pageant. Are you imagining those, too?
And hey, I'll support the death penalty when it is a 100% proven method. Until then, we'll just continue convicting innocent people! (Please see Ryan Matthews and the 13 before him released on DNA evidence). Ah, and an innocent life Hitler led, eh? Why not have the babies be born and raised with no money or decent education? Oops, that's what happening in this country!
And as for me being "too far gone"? That's too funny, considering YOUR undergraduate college! Sounds like a college motto to me! And how dare you insult me with numerous typos and the entire misspelling of someone's name. How you ever got "David" from "Michael" is beyond me.
Perhaps you're too far gone?
Well, doll, as for the beauty pageant references, I read your websites. "Resort to shallow insults"? Oh, I'm sorry. Were we talking about my comments, or yours? There was this: "your Hampden-Sydney connection [is] unfortunate. The behavior I have seen displayed by your younger colleagues is despicable and often looks like an episode of 'Jackass'. I have often heard disgusting words uttered from their mouths, I have watched their poor social skills make my friends skeptical of men in general, and I have laughed in the face of many an HSC guy trying to hit on me with the line 'hey baby' or something equally intelligent." Then there was this: "the two or three hours a day an HSC student is not drunk." And this "probably because their daddy didn’t hand it to them along with the keys to a Mercedes!"
Never owned a Mercedes myself, nor has anyone in my family. In fact, like many of my fellows, I attended H-SC on an academic scholarship, which ended up as a full ride because my divorced parents couldn't pay for tuition. So you can take your oh-so-contemptuous and ill-informed stereotypes and allow them the benefit of a little reality. Not that reality seems to have much to do with your ideology.
And I'm so impressed with your concern for the less fortunate, though. Were it more than lip service, you would surrender the money you're paying/being paid for a college education and turn it over to the poor and less fortunate for health insurance, or whatever. After all, the historical luxury of a college education isn't nearly as important as those things, is it? If it is, then how DARE you suggest that OTHERS parents be soaked for your priorities, rather than their own, for THEIR children. As for "reason," reason is best determined by the market, not by a group of overprivileged politicians who seek to buy the votes of the easily-bought by arbitrarily and by fiat setting a wage above what the market will bear. Of course, Democrats understand the value of the old adage, "He who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul."
And your comment that "a Democrat hasn't been able to garner a majority of the vote simply means much of our country isn't educated," is so typical of far Left arrogance that even most Democrats try to avoid such candor. Good thing we have people like you to serve as a vanguard of the proletariat and allow them to overcome their false consciousness, isn't it?
As for how much you're being paid, you were the one who raised the issue ("I have four jobs and have been running amongst them.
Damn, we better not raise that minimum wage, should we?"). Pardon me for making an inevitable surmise from your unambiguous comment. And it becomes "my business" when you make a comment about it on my website.
As for the death penalty, I know it's hard to understand, but when innocent men are exonerated before execution, you don't have a case for the system failing; that's a case for the proposition that the system WORKS. Really too bad, wasn't it, when the guy who WAS executed in Virginia was actually proven guilty AFTER his execution?
Of course, I can't argue with your assertion that babies are born and don't receive a "decent education." It's obvious that you've suffered the lack of one. Of course, if your party weren't reflexively supporting government schools, perhaps more children could hope for a "decent education." It's nice to know, though, that you are willing to be so up front and forthright in your support of eugenics. Most people rejected that philosophy after the Nazis, but at least you make yourself easy to identify.
If you're going to comment here, at least try to reflect well on the education that your getting, whether you're earning it (as I did, and as my sister did at R-MWC), or whether Mommy and/or Daddy are paying for it. You owe it to someone (mostly yourself, but at least to whomever is paying for it) actually to derive something more than a wall-hanging from it.
I refuse to respond any longer to your comments, as you have now gotten way out of line.
Watch your words.
I was disowned by my father at 17, and he has custody of my two younger sisters, both of whom have attempted suicide. I grew up with him as an abusive father, and have overcome the very venom you set forth in your last comment. I no longer wish to be part of this discussion as you have resorted to remarks out of your league. Do not claim to know anything of my personal life.
Did you miss how many scholarships I am on? I receive NO support from my parents. I drive a 1984 Chevy Cavalier that I got for free, and I am attending Reading on FULL scholarship. It was disgusting for you to even suggest that my mommy/daddy had anything to do with my education. No, my daddy is too busy abusing my siblings.
Beyond all your insults comparing to a Nazi (and damn, that's amazing, considering the volunteer work and research I've done on the Holocaust- but then, how would YOU know that? You're just assuming) I was deeply disturbed by how quickly you started making remarks about my family.
My father has amassed $4 million in debt, had our house foreclosed from under us, and has moved into a half million dollar house because of his earning potential. Meanwhile, I live with just my mother, working constantly (and with no health insurance for my numerous cervical cancer treatments) and I have no interest in the disdain you display. You know nothing of me or the things I have encountered. In two words, fuck off.
You've crossed the line.
Enjoy your arrogance and your family. It seems they have raised you well. I hope one day you learn to be more open-minded and not make such insulting comments about a personal life you know nothing of.
Laura, you are a real prize!
It occurs to me that I didn't fully respond to your prior comment that "I checked my most recent comment to you. There are NO references to a beauty pageant. Are you imagining those, too?" Re-read your first post, babe. First paragraph, ultimate sentence: "As a beauty queen representing Ohio, I may not represent the standard 'pageant girl'...."
You make broad assertions begging to be disproved, and then take offense when someone else does so, and turns your own tactics against you. Either grow a sense of humor, or grow a thicker skin, 'cause if you can't take it, don't dish it out. "Remarks out of [my] league"?!?! Oh, dear! When you're supporting someone other than yourself and your family, as I am, with confiscatory taxation going to the welfare state (enough to support another family of four at poverty level), perhaps you can comment intelligently on economics, and about appropriate "leagues." When you're responsible for someone other than yourself, either voluntarily or involuntarily, perhaps then you'll possess the authority to lecture others.
As for getting "way out of line," I hope they offer a remedial reading course in Reading, since you failed to take note of the fact that I specifically held out the possibility that "you're earning it," which is apparently what set you off, or at least, your misperception of it as some kind of slight. Of course, there was also the possibility that someone else is paying your way, but I certainly didn't assume it. Must be nice to have a free car, too. I didn't in college, incidentally. No one handed one to me. So please don't lecture me on how hard your life has been.
Unless, of course, your outrage is only feigned, an occasion to seek the pity of the casual reader and/or equate me with the man you characterize as "an abusive father" with "custody of [your] two younger sisters" (hmm, wonder where the problem here lies, since he's "abusive," and yet still has custody?).
I know you Democrats and other assorted socialists are fond of unilateral disarmament, but you might want to be just a LITTLE MORE subtle in demanding it of your opponents.
Homey don't play that here.
And once again, nice potty mouth. I can just imagine how the likes of you is received by those whom you condemn with observations like "I have often heard disgusting words uttered from their mouths." Were they simply parroting you, I wonder?
I searched for an email address just to personally contact you about a few of the hurtful things you have said. However, finding none, I'll leave you one more comment.
As I mentioned before, I will no longer be responding to your venomous insults. I am simply responding to let you know that I have read your latest missile, and I am only sorry that you possess the mindset that you do; it makes you a very hateful person and very untrusting of the honesty of others. Your arguments are also flawed. You'll notice I wrote "I checked my most recent comment to you. There are NO references to a beauty pageant. Are you imagining those, too?"
See, my first comment? Yep, has a reference. The most recent one? Nope. You're in the wrong on that one. No repeated mentions.
I only hope that one day you will stop setting forth the arrogant attitude that you are the only person contributing anything to society or assuming things about a persons life of which you know nothing.
Enjoy your life.
I am totally mystified as to where you derived the notion that I am "very untrusting of the honesty of others," but "hurtful"? Doll, only in the sense that holding a mirror up to yourself by using your own tactics against you is "hurtful." As for the e-mail address, I have no particular desire to be your pen-pal (and am even more doubtful that you want to be mine), but it is now shown on my profile. I had heretofore thought it was (and frequently said I'm easy to find, and there ARE other sources), but in clicking on it, discovered that it was not. For that, I apologize.
And once more, you throw out that Democrat talking point. Nothing I said is "hateful," sweetie. Hateful would be your apparent assumption that all Hampden-Sydney lack social skills based upon your limited experience. It is no more valid than the assumption that all Hampden-Sydney men are musically talented because Papa John Philips was a student once (and I really am old if you don't know who that is), or that all Hampden-Sydney men are funny because Steve Colbert was a classmate of mine (though he didn't graduate), or that all R-MWC grads write well because Pearl S. Buck graduated from there.
No, my attitude toward the ill-informed and those who spew talking points is contemptuous, certainly. I would refer you to Peggy Noonan's comment on the Great Prevaricator: "We don't hate Bill Clinton; we hold him in contempt. There's a difference."
Just like there's a difference between confidence and arrogance. The former is knowing your abilities AND limitations, and lacking false humility about the former; the latter, of course, is having an undue regard for your abilities. The accusation of "arrogance" is, of course, typically rendered from those who lack abilities, and have to belittle those whose abilities exceed their own. Though I have no doubt that you're prettier than I am. Sadly, I am at the point in my life where a "freshman 15" has slowly and surely expanded to a middle-aged spread.
Hence the lack of a photograph on my website.
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