The president of Grove College has recommended that the college abandon its century-old tradition of all-female education and begin admitting men. Pointing to other all-female colleges that experienced an increase in applications after adopting coeducation, the president argues that coeducation would lead to a significant increase in applications and enrollment. However, the director of the alumnae association opposes the plan. Arguing that all-female education is essential to the very identity of the college, the director cites annual surveys of incoming students in which these students say that the school's all-female status was the primary reason they selected Grove. The director also points to a survey of Grove alumnae in which a majority of respondents strongly favored keeping the college all female.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The director is opposed to admitting men into Grove College and supports his argument by citing surveys of incoming students and alumni which seem to suggest that others are against it as well. Whilst his argument may eem plausible closer inspection reveals that key elements of the discussion have been left out and as a result there are many questions that remain unanswered.
Firstly, the director assumes that the school’s identity will be jeopardized if it does not retain its all female status. How do we know that this is true? Do other people believe that this is so? What do the students identify with? Schools contain individuals of all walks of life, and as such many people may value different things about their institutions and as such identify with different things. If the student body does not identify with their all girl status then who is to say that being all-female is important to Grove’s identity. To strengthen his argument the director must show that this is in fact the case.
Secondly, the argument suffers from a lack of quantification as there is nothing to suggest that the majority of incoming students prefer Grove’s all female status. Of the participants of the survey, what percent of students selected Grove because of its all-female status? If the majority of students want to attend grove for other reasons (such as its ranking or extra curricular activities) then admitting men to the school most likely will not have a major impact on the attitude of the incoming class. Thus to strengthen his argument the director must provide evidence to show that the majority of incoming students chose Grove because it was all female.
Lastly, the author assumes that the alumni survey is an accurate reflection of the student body. How old are those alumni? How many years ago did they graduate? Are they from the same time period as current Grove students? If those alumni are from a different cohort (time period) than current students they may most likely have a different set of values and beliefs and as such do not accurately represent the beliefs of current students. Alumni may be more conservative whereas current students may be more open to new ideas and change and as such may be very accepting of the proposal to accept men into the program. Thus the author must provide evidence to show that these alumni are from a similar time period to that of currnt students.
In conclusion there are many questions that must be addressed in order to evaluate the director’s argument. one must have knowledge of all aspects of a situation before conclusions can be made. Unless these key issues are resolved the argument resembles a mere speculation as opposed to one that can be taken seriously.
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