Yale Daily News

“People trooping up and down the hill would have integrated the campus vertically,” he said.

more likely horizontally,..

It's too bad they didn't merge. I was a freshman at Vassar in 1973. There were a few men there. Lousy social scene. My sister had been in the last class of all women at Vassar and she was always going off to Yale and Princeton for dates. She had a great time. But it wasn't much fun being at Vassar at the dawn of co-education.

My women friends who were in the first class at YAle, of course, had a blast.

you don't go down to Poughkeepsie from New Haven, you go up

This was a very interesting article and a little facet of Yale history that I knew nothing about.

I'm frequently quick to criticize, so in this case I wanted to compliment the author and the YDN for a good effort.

For the record, Princeton's decision to go co-ed followed, not preceded, that of Yale.

We were happy to get our own men, thank you.

explorer, you are naughty!

I think this really worked out well for Vassar.

Bad move by Vassar. President Simpson was right - by not merging with Yale, Vassar indeed embarked on a silent decline. While once one of the elite "Seven Sisters," Vassar is now a second, or even third-tier institution. Generally speaking, it's much harder on a school's culture for a female school to take on men, vis-a-vis a male school to take on women (male schools tend to have more "traditional institutions," for example a football team, which attract more "traditional" men, so schools like Vassar and Sarah Lawrence end up attracting more of a gay/artsy male crowd). Of course, hindsight is always 20-20, and I can't blame Vassar for wanting to keep its independence. No one can predict how these things play out, though it seems that President Simpson did have good foresight.

To #8: Vassar continues to be one of the most selective and prestigious schools in the country, competing with Amherst and Wesleyan at the top of the small liberal arts college chain. And may I ask what exactly you're implying by bringing up Vassar and Sarah Lawrence's attractiveness to the "gay/artsy male crowd" as a negative? Unless I've misread your statement (and I hope I have), that kind of overt homophobia is not acceptable at Yale today, especially considering how "gay/artsy" our current male crowd is. Or are you suggesting that Yale too has fallen to a second or third-tier position due to its current demographics?

To #9: Vassar is not at all in the same league as Amherst and Williams. Vassar is still a good school, sure, but not the first tier institution it used to be. In the same vein, no one would argue that, say, Washington U. in St. Louis isn't a good school, but by reputation, it's simply not in the same category as Yale. There's no use arguing over something can't be definitively proven, but the bottom line is that older Vassar alumni are well aware that their school has gone downhill since it bypassed the Yale merger, and later accepted men. This is not to say that it was wrong of Vassar not to merge with Yale - the opposition had good points, particularly about losing a beautiful campus. But it's a widely-felt and unspoken truth that Vassar is not the place it used to be.

My point regarding gay/artsy men is that a woman's school that takes on men (Vassar/Sarah Lawrence) will rarely - or at least, will take a very long time - appeal to a "traditional" cross-section of male applicants, due to the absence of "traditional male" institutions like a football team. There is nothing homophobic about pointing this out. And there's nothing wrong with gay/artsy people, either. It's just that at a smaller school like Vassar, the gay/artsy vibe becomes more dominant, and a school can be pigeon-holed, and Vassar loses out on potential qualified applicants who don't want a school with a strong gay/artsy vibe. Yale is gay/artsy as well, but it's a much larger student body where there are all kinds of people/activities/lifestyles to attract all kinds of people. I realize what I'm saying is politically incorrect, but it happens to be true.

The author missed an important behind the scenes event.
I was working part time for the New haven Redevelopment Agency and was asked to make some theoretical plan sketches for the Yale campus showing how Vassar facilities could fit in.

One night, at a drunken mixer I sat at a table with two girls, and when asked about my work, I drew the existing plan on a napkin and gave it to them.

A few days later, I had a chance to see the Vassar newspaper, and to my surprise there was the drawing I had made, and a headline to the effect - "Here's What Yale Plans for Vassar". Little did I know those two ladies were working on the Vassar paper. That was the beginning of the end.

Peter Rosen
Yale '68 MFA

I agree with "Yale Alum With Vassar Mom" (posts #8 and #10) that it is easier to bring co-education to a previously male college than a previously female school.

The evidence is right here in New Haven, as mentioned by both Yale Alum and Y'10 (post #9).

Yale is as gay/artsy as any college in America. Indeed, I would assert that Yale is in an exclusive "extremely gay/artsy" category occupied by no more than two or three other schools -- perhaps Brown is the only other clear member. Yet Yale maintains much of its centuries-old ambience which pre-dates Yale's embracing of the gay/artsy culture that began in the Seventies and accelerated in the Nineties.

I can only think of one university that developed the other way -- Florida State, which began as a women's college. How did they do it in Tallahassee? As suggested by Yale Alum, they built a top-flight football program. It might be sad but the most significant thing Vassar could do today to raise its profile nationally is start a football team.

The Vassar Encyclopedia has a long article about the proposal and ultimate decision-making, including some interesting information from the "Vassar-Yale Study" that proposed exactly how the marriage would work. http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/coeducation/the-vassar-yale-study.html

Also, a fun fact: Joe Lieberman was the legal advisor to the Vassar-Yale Study.

I'm wonder if poster #8 has been to Vassar lately. Yes there is certainly a very visible LGBTQ presence on campus, but we still have plenty of guys who are into "traditional" male things like sports and burping. I'm glad Vassar remained independent, if only because their current financial aid policy made it possible for me to go to an elite, private, expensive, liberal arts college. Yale's current financial aid policy probably wouldn't have made that possible for me. Yale and Vassar are great schools, and several of my professors spoke highly of their grad school experiences in New Haven. But they are very different. You can't really compare the two.

Vassar is still a first-tier liberal arts institution. To say it has somehow declined, and to imply that's because of the population we attract, is incredibly negative and offensive. We don't need a Greek life or a football team to attract incredibly qualified applicants. Our applicant pool increases every year, and our admissions office can choose form the cream of the crop. Going to a small, liberal arts school isn't for everyone. Some people want to go to a larger school, like Yale or UT, and that's great. And, quite frankly, if someone doesn't want to apply to Vassar because we have "gay/artsy" guys on our campus, I think they have bigger problems and shouldn't go to any school known for its arts programs.

PS- I had plenty of dates with wonderful, artsy, intelligent guys at Vassar. There are still lots of straight guys to be found. Not that it matters.

#8 I think you need to get out of your little part of New Haven for a little while.

Though these rankings shouldn't be given too much weight, they're at least worth examining. #8, you sadly have a very warped view of higher education outside of your Yale bubble.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings

It would also appear that Vassar "beat out" Brown, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth, to name a few.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/94/colleges-09_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html

I entered Vassar fall of '67 and as I recall, the prevailing sentiment among students by then was not to leave our beautiful campus and be shipped off to the then quite unattractive place that was (is?) New Haven and be second class citizens there. I also agree that Yalies drove up, not down, to Poughkeepsie.