The average adventures of Allison

I have been on the phone for the last hour with various Macon people. I first called the alumnae office to threaten the withdrawel of my support. They said that there would be an update to the strategic planning page tomorrow. That the college is trying to find a way to survive, etc. They pissed me off. But they told me the Trustees would be voting on Sept. 9th.

I then called college relations. They said simaler things, except the women told me Trustees are voting Tomorrow. I told her what Alumnae told me and she said they were right. Today, all staff met with Ginger Worden, the interim president about going co-ed. They were given talking points to discuss with anybody who called. So, she spent 10 minutes trying to convince me that this was a good thing. By the end of the conversation I was in tears.

So I called Dean Wallace. She spent 20 minutes talking soothingly to me. She said that its okay to grieve and cry about this. But stomping my feet and threatening to withhold money won’t do any good. They just finished raising 100 million dollars, they know alumnae are dried up. Then she asked me to look at the facts. It is getting harder and harder to convince women to go to a woman’s college. They don’t think they need it. She hates the fact that Macon needs to go co-ed, but they are having increasing trouble getting students. She said when they started talking about this 3 YEARS ago, she cried and mourned and grieved and stomped her feet. She considered early retirement, etc. But then she started looking at the facts. The college feels that they are in a strong place right now, but they have started having to discount tuition, cut adjuncts and programs, and hold off on renovations. The library has lost funding, and they are at the point where they may have to start dipping into the endowment. They feel the way they can survive is by becoming a co-ed global honors college. They can find their niche market catering to men who respect women and who will abide to the same honor code and strong education. And that the professors wont call on the men anyways. She said that every change to Macon during her 30 years has been met with resistence from Alums, they protested the axing of sororitys, the change of the dining hall,etc. They expect the Alumnae to protest this to.

Despite, the posts we have made on livejournal, I was her first phone call about this situation. She asked me to look at the facts. She know that many alum would rather be dead then coed, and she has started to feel that Macon will die if they don’t change. Dean Wallace said that for the last year she has pictured an imaginary male sitting in the chair in her office and wondered how she could help him. And for most of the year she didnt think she could. But recently she decided that she could, that Macon could help both men and women. She is still troubled by the name change, but she recently learned that Randolph and Macon were both ardent Pro-Slavery advocates so maybe it is time that we lost that legacy. She said that if I decided to just stomp my feet and cry and threaten the school she wouldn’t love me any less, but she wants me to look at the facts.

I am still crying and stomping my feet. I still don’t know what to think. But I wan’t to beg people to act. Call the school and let them know what you are feeling. Think deeply about the situation and instead of just purely grieving, do what your heart tells you to do.

I am going to write the Trustees and ask them for time. To not jump into this discission right away, to give Alumnae time to think and plan. They are voting on this on September 9th, if you choose to dissent, do this now. If you are sad, angry, mad, happy, whatever let the school, but most importantly the trustees know now.

Call the school:
Alumnae- 434-947-8102
College Relations- 8142
DOS- 8119
Presidents office- 8140
DOC- 8126
Development- 8127

You can email the trustees at board@rmwc.edu