Thank you for your thoughtful posts. I too am a women's college graduate -- in fact, a graduate of one of the colleges mentioned in THE NY TIMES article. I read the letters from my Alumnae Quarterly from the two women quoted, and I too was concerned. Your description of access "to the experience of being a woman" is the first rationale I've heard that helps me think logically about this.

After all, this isn't the first time the issue has arisen. Dr. Renee Richards became the first person to suit up for tennis on -both- sides of Yale's locker rooms: she was an undergraduate at Yale while male, and went back to her now-coed university to play as well.

I see the issue of people sharing a room as a non-starter. There -are- singles on campus, and a student with strong individual needs (or just a damn good number in the room lottery) can get one. Certainly, a student in the process of trans surgery could claim medical need.

As I try to think this one out, I'm not seeing it as de facto coeducation. My college's current president caused some concern by -being- concerned about my college's remaining single sex and has since changed her mind. I don't see this as de facto coeducation. As you say, there have been men on campus on exchange programs (THEY are the coeds) since the late 1960s.

I think that students who apply to a women's college under the expectation of undergoing the female-to-male surgery should probably be guaranteed a transfer to other schools in the various consortia: the Five Colleges; the Ten Colleges. Students thinking it over -after- they're admitted can benefit from the environment to do some thinking in an environment set up to be maximally supportive to women.

The question of young men thinking of undergoing male-to-female gender reassignment...that's trickier to me. Certainly, a person who is male at the time cannot apply. A person considering male-to-female reassignment might want to take a year on campus as a way of finding out if this is really what that student wants. That person would not be a degree candidate and would be part of the process. Similarly, a person in the process of the reassignment might find help and healing as well as a fine education there. And certainly, someone who's completed her reassignment should be welcome as a returning student.

We've always been in the forefront of gender issues: our relatively small sizes, fairly solid financial positions, facilities and intellectual dialogue might enable us to be of service, provided that the emphasis remains on offering gifted women (however they were born) a first-class education and ongoing community opportunities.

Thank you for helping me organize my thoughts.

You're talking about Mary Lyon, aren't you?

Another alumna heard from.

Mount Holyoke has had an extraordinary record of helping its students earn acceptance into advanced degree programs. In the days when the Ivies were shut to females, if you saw a woman of any public accomplishment, she was often a graduate of a women's college -- including the current President of Harvard.

The founder of my college also said that when you educate a woman, you educate a family. We're covered on all bases.

Now, the question is: what do we do about people who wish to -become- women or people who wish to cease to be women?

If we're to maintain the sort of intellectual honesty on which we've built our reputation since 1837, we -are- going to have to deal with this issue with thought, integrity, and compassion.

My undergraduate college has a fully coeducated faculty at all levels of professorial rank. This is not as easy to get as you might think.

I did some hunting around. There are still three, but only three that I found, all-male institutions: Wabash (very small), Morehouse, and Hampton-Sydney.

I knew one graduate of Wabash. It was a good choice for him. It strikes me, however, that this choice is very much a road not taken for many men because, seeing as they're still earning $1.00 for our 73 cents (Fundfire, 03/17/08, for the mutual funds industry, in case you want my source), the world is still 25% more their financial apple than it is women's.

It would be interesting to see if transgendered students would be welcome at those institutions as well.

"Fully Coeducated Faculty."

Sheesh. Well, I was not educated as a typist. Back in the day when I went to Mount Holyoke, this was quite an innovation.