The following recommendation was made by the president and administrative staff of Grove College, a private institution, to the college's governing committee."We recommend that Grove College preserve its century-old tradition of all-female education rathe

While it may be true that preserving the tradition of all-female education will improve morale among students and ensure financial support from alumnae, this author’s argument fails to make a cogent case for validating this recommendation. The argument rests on questionable assumptions, suffers from a lack of quantification and makes unwarranted claims of causality.

Primarily, the argument cites the results of a survey among students according to which eighty percent of students want the school to remain all female. However, the author does not provide any information concerning the reliability of this survey and the representativeness of the sample. It could be that the students who took part in the survey represent a small part of the total population of currently enrolled students. Likewise it may be true that the majority of the total population would like the Grove College to admit men into its programs but their opinion was underrepresented in this survey. Thus, the author’s assumption that survey results are reliable and the sample is representative could prove to be wrong. In this case both faculty members and current students want the school to abandon its tradition of all-female education.

The author goes on to provide the data of another survey conducted among alumnae, over half of which opposed coeducation. In addition to providing no evidence supporting the reliability and representativeness of the latter survey, the author uses vague definitions. Over half could mean fifty one percent as well as ninety nine percent. So, even if there were evidence bolstering representativeness of the survey, we would not be able to evaluate this premise. In case fifty one percent of alumnae oppose coeducation, there are still forty nine percent of graduates who do not in which case the numbers of those who are against and for the change are almost equal. The author gives us no reasons to prefer the opinion of the opposing alumnae. Thus, the recommendation cannot be validated unless the author provides additional information about this survey.

Along with citing questionable results of the surveys, the argument states that keeping the college all female will convince alumnae to keep supporting the college financially. The author assumes that Grove College is highly dependable on the donations of its former students, which of course would explain why their opinion is so important. However, we have no information concerning this financial dependence. And even if we had, the author would have to further prove that those alumnae who are currently financially supporting their alma mater would stop doing that if the college started admitting men in its programs. It could be true that current financial support is provided by alumnae who actually want the college to abandon its old traditions. Thus, the author’s assumption could prove wrong and that would weaken the argument.

Finally, the argument tends to ignore the opinion of the majority of the faculty members who voted in favor of coeducation, arguing that it would encourage more students to apply to Grove. We can conclude that the teaching staff is not happy with the current number of students which is a negative indicator of Grove’s efficiency. Moreover, the author asserts that keeping the college all-female will improve morale among students, which allows us to infer that the current morale needs improvement. Thus, the college has at least two serious problems both of which could result from the current form of education. It may be that the number of college-age girls has been decreasing in recently years, which means that the college should consider this factor seriously when making its decision. The fact that girls are deprived of the experience of communication with boys throughout their college years could explain that morale is in decline at present.

The author’s contention that Grove College should preserve its century-old tradition of all-female education to ensure financial support from its alumnae and improved morale is sadly misguided. The argument would have been stronger had it provided some evidence to bolster the reliability and representativeness of the sited surveys. The argument would also benefit from using more definite and clear language. Finally, the author should provide some support for the assumed causality.