Elite, All-Male University of the Wild West To Go Coed

[struggle4progress]

Source: NY Times

By REBECCA R. RUIZ

Deep Springs College, the historically all-male two-year institution located on a cattle ranch in California, voted on Saturday that it would admit women.

The school’s philosophy is unique, blending manual labor — scrubbing pots, slaughtering cows, bailing hay — with one or two 90-minute classes a day. Its 26 students attend tuition-free and most go on to complete four-year degrees at highly competitive universities like Oxford and Yale. The college’s formula has changed little since its founding in 1917 — until now ...

Deep Springs’s acceptance rate hovers around 8 percent. Significantly expanding the potential applicant pool — to include both men and women — while keeping constant the supply of seats at the college will assuredly make fierce competition for admission even fiercer ...

Read more: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/deep-springs/

[enki23]

1. At first, I thought the NYT editors had let "bailing hay" through

Before I realized it was a blog entry. It brings to mind somebody on a flatbed trailer throwing hay bales off the sides as fast as they could. Bail! Bail! She's goin' down!

[ChandlerJr]

2. Sounds like a good idea that blending of manual labor with a college degree

give the graduates some skills for the infrastructure CCC type jobs we're going to need.

[tortoise1956]

3. You might want to read a little about this place...

Many of the students go on to places like Yale, Harvard, Brown and University of Chicago (43% of the students in the last 10 years). Also, in the past 5 years the student body has won the following scholarships:

•The Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship (2)
•The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (1)
•The Rhodes Scholarship (1)
•The Harry S. Truman Scholarship (5)
•The Morris Udall Scholarship (1)

And that's with a total student body of 26-28 at any one time.

Add to that the fact that all decision are made by the students. That means that the student body voted to change the rules, NOT the faculty.

Basically, what you have is a school that stresses hard work, self-reliance, and group dynamics. I think what you have here is a college that graduates leaders, not followers.

[blank space]

9. No -

no chance, the students don't make those kinds of decisions. More about b=pet policies etc, there are 4 specific committees they sit on.

This decision was made purely by the board, trustees - as the blog says.

The place would not be here today if the students decided everything. That simple.

[struggle4progress]

4. Several colleges do stuff like that: another example is Warren Wilson. The point isn't

usually to develop manual labor skills as career options but to broaden students' background and understanding of the larger world

[tortoise1956]

5. Exactly!

This college is more likely to graduate the people who will run any new CCC programs!

I just wish there were more schools like this...

[david_vincent]

14. That's correct -- there are a number of colleges with service-learning components

Possibly the best example is Berea College in Kentucky, which is among the top five colleges in the country in terms of actual graduation rate compared to expected graduation rate, far outperforming what the data predict. Warren Wilson, sadly, is at the opposited end of this metric, finishing among the bottom five in the country.

On the subject of Berea College, I think I read somewhere that they don't admit any applicants whose families make above a certain modest level -- they literally tell the students from well-off families that they can go somewhere else.

[Selatius]

6. These students are good enough to run the CCC or the WPA, not just work the jobs therein.

The only problem is finding enough politicians to support such endeavors. They seem all against jobs programs and taxing the wealthy, probably because they're mostly millionaires themselves.

[ChandlerJr]

8. The world needs far more ditch diggers than "supervisors"

We're already too top heavy with managers.

[AngryAmish]

13. I agree

[Foolacious]

7. I was invited to apply there

by the vice dean or the dean or somebody... I don't remember for sure (it was mumbledy-mumble years ago). My dad was very keen on the idea -- free tuition! -- but I wasn't so keen -- no girls! And there was no guarantee I'd be accepted. Now I think I could have survived two years without them but at the time I didn't care to find out.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. It was hard enough for me to spend two weeks in an all-male environment

There's no way I would have wanted to do that for two years :crazy:

[provis99]

10. sounds like a weird cowboy cult for repressed homosexuals.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

12. "All-Male University of the Wild West" does sound like the title of

a gay porn video. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)