The president and administrative staff of Grove College are correct that a majority of the faculty voted in favor of coeducation, and that a majority of students, alumnae, and alumni have also voiced their opposition to coeducation. This evidence firmly suggests that the college should preserve its all-female status rather than initiate coeducation.

The assertion that the majority of the students, alumnae, and alumni want Grove College to remain all female is debatable, and may be the result of faulty data gathering or insufficient polling. (C) This is not enough evidence to demonstrate that the majority of faculty and students want the school to remain all female.

In this argument, Grove College has made several assertions that, if true, would indicate that the college should maintain its current gender-specific operation. First, the president and administrative staff assert that a majority of the faculty members voted in favor of coeducation, which ostensibly would indicate that the college should change its course. However, this statistic may be misleading. Faculty members may have simply been asked to vote on the idea, but were not given any guarantees that the proposition would be approved. It is more likely that a majority of faculty members opposed coeducation, and the college’s administration is correctly interpreting this as an endorsement of the status quo. Second, the administration asserts that more than half of the alumnae who answered a separate survey also oppose coeducation. Again, this may be misleading. The alumnae may have been asked to respond to a single question, but not necessarily to the question of coeducation itself. Instead, the alumnae may have answered the question, ‘Should Grove College admit men?’ In that case, the answer may have been resoundingly yes. The alumnae may have answered ‘yes’ because the idea of coeducation would have caused them great distress. In other words, the administration’s assertion that more than half of the alumnae oppose coeducation may be misleading. Third, the administration asserts that more than half of the students responding to a survey also oppose coeducation. In this instance, however, the assertion is probably valid. Since the students have been polled on the subject, their answer may be assumed to be based on their actual feelings, rather than on the mere fact that their responses have been collected. Fourth, the administration asserts that a majority of the students, alumnae, and alumni also oppose coeducation. The inclusion of this last assertion may not actually indicate that there is support for coeducation. Instead, it may indicate simply that the administration is eager to convince everyone that it wants to coeducate. The institution’s administrators may not be willing to admit that the majority of students and faculty disagree with them on this issue, so they may simply state that the majority opposes coeducation, regardless of the actual level of support for the idea.

The president, college administrators, and faculty of Grove College are correct that a majority of the faculty members voted in favor of coeducation. However, since the majority of the faculty members opposed coeducation, the college’s current policy of gender-specific education remains the best alternative. Furthermore, the majority of the alumnae and alumni also oppose coeducation, so there is additional evidence that Grove College should preserve its gender-specific operation. If the administration were to admit that the majority of students and faculty disagree with them on this matter, it would risk alienating those constituencies essential to the college’s continued viability.