The Salemite

Issue date: 10/31/06 Section: News

Media Credit: MCT Campus Chestnut Hill College Seniors, Amy Simpson, from Medford, New Jersey, and Steve Tamburo of Devnille, New Jersey, goof around at lunch in the college dining hall. Chestnut Hill will graduate its first coed class next May in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 27, 2006.

It was the sort of thing the Sisters of St. Joseph never had to worry about before Chestnut Hill College went coed in 2003: excessive student gyration.

The way students tell it, the gyrators _ members of a newly formed dance team, were guilty of nothing more than a few pelvic thrusts during a halftime performance at a basketball game.

But that wasn't how the sisters saw it. Some were deeply offended, and the all-female squad was disbanded.

"Everyone was cheering when we were done except the sisters," said Jennifer Melendez, a Chestnut Hill junior and one of the dancers. "Their faces looked like they were going to send us to church tomorrow."

That decision, made in February, is just one way in which Chestnut Hill, along with Immaculata University in Chester County and other religious-affiliated colleges elsewhere, is adjusting to life with male students on campus. Some of the changes are merely structural: higher food bills for the cafeteria, and "sturdier" furniture.

Others, including a stronger emphasis on athletics and more attention to clothes, makeup and behavior, are creating what many call a livelier feeling in classrooms, lunchrooms and dorms, particularly on weekends.

"It's the energy. It's intangible, but it's here, and it's wonderful," said Sister Patricia Fadden, president of Immaculata, which went coed last year.

The schools are two of about 250 women's institutions nationwide to have made the coed jump since the 1960s, when women's colleges were at their peak. Many are faith-based and, like Chestnut Hill and Immaculata, opened their doors to men somewhat reluctantly after years of weak enrollment left them with little choice.

"There was great sadness. There were many tears shed. We were very, very committed to the education of women. I still believe in it," said Sister Carol Jean Vale, president of Chestnut Hill. "But when we made the decision, we knew it was right."

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