Vassar Woos Williams

It is a woman's right to be fickle about whom she will embrace. Last week, Vassar College, which for several years has been in search of a masculine mate, opened her arms to the men of Williams.

Several other suitors were considered by Vassar. The selective all-girls school (enrollment 1,600) rebuffed a discreet pass from Princeton,* then flirted with a proposal to move to New Haven. Ultimately, the school decided not to give up its wooded 950-acre campus in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Next Vassar's trustees decided on creating a separate but coordinate mens college on the campus. When that kind of union seemed too slow and expensive Vassar changed its mind, decided to open an exchange program this winter with Williams, the little Ivy League all-male college (enrollment 1,230) in Williamstown, Mass. About 20 Vassar women will attend Williams, while a corresponding number of Williams men will move to Poughkeepsie. The exchange with Williams may be towed by similar ties with other men's colleges in order to see what adjustments Vassar must make to handle men. Eventually, the school expects to lose its identity as a women's college by enrolling a high proportion of men as regular students on its home campus.

* Which, after a trustee-ordered study is considering a proposal to admit about 1,001 women students.

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