Last Catholic women's college in Massachusetts to admit men

Published: 2006-11-16

WESTON, Mass. (CNS) -- Regis College is currently the only Catholic women's college in Massachusetts, but that is going to change. In a move that some are calling regrettable but necessary, the Regis College board of trustees has voted to admit men to the undergraduate program beginning in the fall of 2007. The decision comes after years of declining enrollment and financial troubles. According to Mary Jane England, president of Regis College, the goal is to expand enrollment of the undergraduate program to 1,000 students by the year 2010. Currently only 640 undergraduate women attend Regis. "We want to grow," she said. "We want to get to over 1,000 undergraduate students." But many young women today are just not interested in attending an all-women's school, England told The Pilot, newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese. She cited a study conducted by the American Council on Education, which concluded that although more females attend college than males less than 3 percent of females are interested in attending a single-gender school.

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