| This study isolates some of the factors that led to the change from single-sex to coeducation at Princeton and Yale. It examines the feasibility of using models to analyze changes in colleges and universities. It provides an historical overview of women's education and coeducation in the United States. It catalogues the events that led to the decisions to coeducation and it examines the role of the university presidents, trustees, alumni, faculty and students at both schools.;The factors that influenced changes at both schools included the promise of reward, a change agent, a climate of change, the power of delegated or assigned authority, the power of the purse, control of information, competition for students and dollars and a changing student body.;In addition to the characteristics offered by the models, the events must also be examined in the context of the mass education movement which took place after World War II. The study finds a change in accountability from the traditional trustee/alumni pattern to the new trustee/government relationship. It also notes a shift in the role of the president from that of scholar and fundraiser to that of bureaucrat and accountant.;This study concludes that the sole use of models to examine this kind of change is inadequate. It posits that models may focus attention on some characteristics of change, but a complete analysis needs an historical approach as well. |
