From a military reader:
Although its regrettable that another school will abandon single gender education, at least this one was the result of a freely made decision, which is reported to have been based on market conditions in the culture (i.e., dwindling demand). I much prefer this demise to the bitter experience of my alma mater, the Citadel, which was forced to admit women by Justice Ginsburg and the federal government in her opinion United States v. Virginia. As Justice Scalia said in his dissent,
“And all the federal military colleges — West Point, the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and even the Air Force Academy, which was not established until 1954 — admitted only males for most of their history. Their admission of women in 1976 came not by court decree, but because the people, through their elected representatives, decreed a change . . . Today, however, change is forced upon Virginia, and reversion to single-sex education [by publicly funded colleges] is prohibited nationwide, not by democratic processes but by order of this Court.” See United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515, 567-70 (1996).
I am glad that the SCOTUS showed mercy and left privately funded colleges to their own choices and market forces despite some private colleges for women receiving up to 19% of their budget from public sources. How magnanimous of Justice Ginsberg and the federal government to have allowed private colleges to continue as they desire. At least Wells has the freedom to run their school as they wish.