Emily Garrett | Men need a college education, too

Women's Week has come to a close. We've stopped shrieking "VAGINA" at the top of our lungs and the Valentine's Day chocolate binge is over. It's time to jump back to reality.

Don't get me wrong, women are great! I happen to be one. However, there is another sex wandering around among those of us who are blessed to be of the feminine persuasion.

Men exist. I see them and usually interact with them on a daily basis. This seems pretty obvious, but at some colleges this isn't the case.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, there are fewer than 60 all-female colleges in the U.S. and the number is dropping.

Regis College in Weston, Mass. will begin admitting men into their undergraduate school starting in fall 2007. Randolph-Macon Women's College has undergone a name change. Now their home page reads, "Now accepting applications from women and men."

For many women's colleges there is little choice in the matter of changing their policy. As the number of students interested in all-female schools continues to plummet, the alternative to admitting men is often to close entirely.

But old customs die hard and many schools that have made the switch have been criticized for their lack of respect for tradition.

Last fall, after the trustee's decided to admit men, protesters lined up outside the newly dubbed Randolph College. They lay in chalk outlines outside the school and held signs declaring, "Coed is a four letter word."

This statement is obviously literally correct (I've managed to learn to count at my coed institution). But for ages, women have been striving to be successful in a male-driven society and so to now protest our absorption in it is irrational.

Most women's colleges were founded when many institutions would not admit them. Although Penn began admitting a few women as "special students" in the 1800s, women weren't fully equal here until 1976. Before Penn and other schools came to their senses, women's colleges were the best option for a girl who wanted to compete with the boys in the real world.

The real world . Cue the bloodcurdling scream. That phrase strikes fear in the heart of undergraduates everywhere. No parents, no professors, no advisors . I think I'm having a panic attack. And guess what, women: there are men in the real world too!

Fortunately for us, Penn has acquainted its female students to that last fact already. However, students at women's colleges get to gleefully avoid much of the coed interaction we endure . oops, I mean enjoy . until after graduation.

At times the opportunity to rid my life of all gentlemanly annoyances would be almost irresistible. But I know college is meant to prepare me for the daunting, male-inclusive real world that looms in my future.

Female colleges are obsolete. They are no longer the best option because today the possibility of learning alongside men provides smoother entry into the work force.

Arguments have been made that the environment of many coed institutions, especially academically demanding ones, are not friendly to women. Female students are often self-conscious and worry about being bold in class. Impressing men becomes a distraction that interferes with studies.

These arguments miss the point. Young women should be striving to be confident in the presence of men, not avoiding them altogether.

The fact that some coed college experiences my not be female-friendly is not necessarily a bad thing. The world is not always female-friendly and sending out young women ill-equipped to deal with it is silly and irresponsible.

We owe it to the women who have come before us, the women who will come after - and ourselves - to continue advancing our equality. No one said it would be pleasant or easy to deal with an often-tiresome opposite sex, but for female success it is unavoidable.

To run with the big dogs, you have to actually run with them; and besides, it's not so bad because big dogs are usually just puppies at heart anyway.

Emily Garrett is a College sophomore from Waukon, Iowa. Her e-mail address is garrett@dailypennsylvanian.com . Carpe Di-Em appears on Tuesdays.

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