The fight for Douglass

Douglass College is a unique place. It is the nation's only all-women state-supported college. It offers courses for women that promote leadership and in math and the sciences where women are under-represented. But it will get the ax under Rutgers University's plan to overhaul undergraduate education at its New Brunswick/Piscataway campus.

New Jersey has something really special, yet the state university is deciding to dilute its special status by merging it into something called the Rutgers College of Arts and Sciences. It's being done for the sake of uniform admissions standards, academic requirements and honors programs. The Douglass campus would still exist and would be a place for women to live, but its classes would be coed.

Legislators are jumping in, calling for the Board of Governors to preserve Douglass as we know it. That's all they can do, given the well-placed prohibition on legislators interfering with Rutgers' internal affairs. Legions of Douglass alumna oppose the plan. For the role Douglass can play in inspiring women to become significant contributors in the world of business, government and the sciences, among others, it is a fight worth waging.