Converse bucks national trend

By Cindy Landrum  

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 2:36 p.m. (0)

The 195 freshmen and 18 transfers from other colleges and universities represent the most first-year students the women’s college has had in 14 years.

Converse’s experience is at odds with that of the nation. During the past 40 years, more than three-quarters of women’s colleges have closed, merged or gone co-educational.

There were 230 women’s colleges in 1970. Now, there are 52. And one of those – Peace College in Raleigh, N.C. – has said it will rename itself William Peace University and go co-educational next year.

“Some single-gender colleges are thriving,” said Betsy Fleming, Converse’s president. “Some are on the edge.”

Fleming said Converse is thriving because it has adapted to what today’s college-age women want in higher education while maintaining its liberal arts tradition to help students cultivate their talents.

“We are willing to see challenges as opportunities, to take risks we believe will benefit the entire community,” Fleming said.

And one of the college’s biggest challenges came when the economy tanked in 2008.

The recession took a huge bite out of the school’s endowment and resulted in a nearly $2 million budget shortfall. Departments and academic programs were consolidated, a new College of the Arts formed and staff cut.

“As difficult as it was, it made us so much stronger,” Fleming said.

The school’s net assets are up $11 million from last year and gifts to the college are increasing.

The school has expanded its athletic program, one of two women’s colleges to play at the NCAA Division II level. Juniors and seniors are moving into a new $12.3 million campus apartment housing facility and money is being raised from alumnae to renovate Pell and Dexter Halls, two of the most beloved residence halls on campus.

The halls will be gutted and Pell should be completed next fall, while Dexter’s facelift should be finished in 2013.

Converse is also stressing interdisciplinary collaboration and research.

The school has produced two Fulbright Scholars in the past three years and 70 percent of its graduates have jobs or know which graduate school they’ll attend when they walk across the stage at commencement.

This year’s incoming class had an average grade point average of 3.8 and included four high school valedictorians.

“We’re strong and we’re hoping to get stronger,” Fleming said.

That’s something that some women’s colleges can’t say.

Susan Lennon, executive director of the Women’s College Coalition, said survival for any college – women’s or coeducational – is understanding who students are today.

“There’s a world of difference between the students of today and when I went to school in the 1960s, or even five or 10 years ago,” Lennon said. “It’s not just women’s colleges and it’s not every women’s college. If a school hasn’t kept pace with looking at who students are and what they need to do to meet their needs, it makes a very difficult world for them.”

A College Board survey found just 2- to 4-percent of women will consider attending a women’s college.

While Lennon finds fault with the data, she does admit there’s probably not a large number of women specifically looking for a women’s college.

“They’re looking for a college that is the right fit for them,” she said.

Senior Michelle Fleming, who grew up in Boiling Springs, said being a women’s college wasn’t initially what drew her to Converse.

“When the faculty talked about it, they’d talk about all the opportunities at the school. The fact that it was a women’s college wasn’t really mentioned. It was way down the list,” said Michelle Fleming, who is double majoring in creative professional writing and Spanish and double minoring in theater and English literature.

Fleming’s younger sister, Hillary, is a freshman at Converse.

“I liked that the classes are small. I liked the environment,” said Hillary Fleming, who didn’t apply to any other schools. “I liked the closeness of the campus. I wasn’t deterred by it being a women’s college.”

Alexandria Whicker, a freshman art therapy major from Galloway, N.J., said she was searching the Web for a special pair of Converse shoes when she came across Converse College’s Web page.

She saw one of the school’s colors was purple, her favorite.

Then she saw it offered art therapy, a field she has wanted to study since she was in the seventh grade.

“I wasn’t looking for a women’s college, but Converse is a women’s college which happened to have the program I wanted,” she said. “It was small and I felt a sense of community and bonding.”

Nia Mosby is a freshman art history major from Atlanta. She felt the closeness of the college community during her campus visit as well.

“There’s a lot of sisterhood here,” she said.

Her mother, Valarie Brown, attended Spelman College, an all-women’s school.

“I think your focus is better,” she said. “It’s on education.”

Women’s colleges were initially founded to promote and expand educational opportunities for women during a time when women were not admitted to most institutions of higher education.

They also provide leadership opportunities for students.

“We don’t try to be all things to all people,” Betsy Fleming said. “Our program draws women who want to go places.”

Lennon said there’s still a place for women’s colleges in today’s landscape.

“I think there’s a contemporary interpretation of their founding mission,” she said. “They are preparing the next generation of women leaders.”

Converse’s president said the school wants to expand incoming class sizes by about 10 students per year until it hits 250, probably in 2015.

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