One of the things that we alumni are furious about is that many of us have been offering to help with recruiting for years and have been consistently blown off. We weren’t asking for much either, just materials to take to our local college fairs.

The women’s college problem is unfortunately acute for Mary Baldwin (and others you mentioned here—Sweet Briar and Randolph, plus Hollins) because they are also all located in more or less the same place. Four women’s colleges within a 2-hour drive on the interstate were bound to cannibalize each other. Even some…