Supplement on Expansion, Coeducation, Cooperation with Bryn Mawr.

The issue on whether or not to expand the college began with the previous administration and carried into the Coleman presidency. Coleman faced financial challenges for which an increased student body was one solution. The question then arose whether there was a sufficient pool of qualified men to support the increase. In that context, Coleman began exploring the admission of women. The discussion eventually came to conclude that a male-only college was discriminatory.

Controversy centered less on retaining the all-male college than the harm coeducation might do to Bryn Mawr College, with the Bryn Mawr community aggressively campaigning against it. From 1971 to 1976 Haverford's announced intention was to slowly expand and pursue coeducation through increased efforts toward cooperation with Bryn Mawr, with the efforts toward cooperation (cross registrations and shared courses, as well as other strategies) meeting with mixed success. Although Haverford faculty was initially divided, by 1976 it fully supported coeducation, as did the administration.

Nevertheless the Haverford Board of Managers, in a controversial December 10, 1976, decision, determined to admit women as transfers only and to not include them in the freshman class, and it called for greater cooperative efforts with Bryn Mawr. Coleman, resigned, saying that he was "not the one to give the College the leadership it needs in carrying out the decisions of the Board of Managers."

A Haverford-Bryn Mawr Cooperation Committee was formed and issued a report in 1977. During the interim presidency sentiment for complete coeducation grew, and within the first year of Robert Stevens' presidency the Board authorized the admission of freshmen women in May 1979.