Women rail against college's coed plans

AURORA, N.Y. -- A statue of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, stands outside the Main Building at Wells College, a 136-year-old women's college in the Finger Lakes region of New York. After trustees announced that the school would accept men next fall, a sign appeared around Minerva's neck: "I've been betrayed."

Angry students staged a sit-in and took over the administration building for a week after the October decision. The Collegiate Cabinet called for a vote of no-confidence in the school's president. A group of alumnae started a petition to protest the change. Students and parents marched in a demonstration during Parents' Weekend.

Now they're in court.

Two students, freshman Lauren Searle-Lebel and sophomore Jennifer LaBarbera, filed a lawsuit to prevent Wells from accepting men until 2008, when both women will have graduated. A hearing is set for Thursday in Syracuse, 35 miles northeast of here.

The students declined to comment. Searle-Lebel's mother, Ellen Searle-Lebel, a 1973 Wells graduate, said her daughter "chose to go to a women's college . . . and was under the understanding that it was going to remain a women's college. It's pretty simple."

Railey Savage, 19, ... // 80% Remaining