The names of the two colleges -- Sweet Briar and Deep Springs -- are redolent of bucolic campuses. One is in rural Virginia, in the foothills near Lynchburg, and the other is in California's high desert ranch lands east of Bishop. But the names of the schools are now linked by something else: the struggles of the dwindling number of single-sex colleges to survive or possibly become co-ed. While the circumstances and finances of the two schools are quite different, the debates about their futures raise questions about how important single-sex education has been for women at Sweet Briar and men at Deep Springs – and to what lengths alumni and others will go to sustain or end those traditions.

May 5, 2015 ・ From Los Angeles Times