The college admitted women in 2018 for the first time since its founding in 1917. The two-year college has a total of only about 30 students. This year women make up 54 percent of the student body. Dr. Darlingtonis currently a professor of anthropology and Asian studies and dean of the School of Critical Social Inquiry at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
After a long legal battle, in April a California appeals court ruled that Deep Springs College could admit men. In June the California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. Now the board of trustees has voted to admit women into the 2018 entering class.
Throughout Deep Springs College’s 100-year history, only men have been admitted. However, in 2011 the trustees of the school voted to admit women. Some alumni of Deep Spring College initiated litigation to stop the move toward co-education. But an appeals court recently ruled the college may move forward with its co-educational plans.
In 2011, the trustees of Deep Springs College, a selective institution in the California high desert, voted to admit women for the first time. Now, a court has blocked the move toward coeducation. However, the trustees remain committed to a coeducational future for the college.
Despite a legal challenge to coeducation at Deep Springs College, the unique educational institution in the California desert, hopes that at least one half of its next entering class will be women.
