Troy

Confronting a need to consolidate operations and simplify recruitment, Russell Sage College, founded as a women's school in 1916, may be going co-ed.

“We’ll become a single co-educational institution,” Sage Colleges President Christopher Ames said in a recent phone interview. “I’m excited about it.”

The co-ed proposal was approved by board members in late October and it includes a reorganization of the multiple schools and names that are now operating under The Sage Colleges heading, which includes Russell Sage College and Sage College of Albany.

Planners are now formalizing the reorganization outline which should be done in early 2019. The changes could take effect in the fall of 2020.

The schools are technically set up as the women's Russell Sage College in Troy and the co-ed Sage College of Albany. Students apply to the schools separately but, once enrolled, can take classes at either campus, which can be confusing. There is one board of directors both schools.

The overall female-to-male ratio is 73 percent to 27 percent, but that has been changing. Among new students in 2018, for instance, it's 68 percent female to 32 percent male.

Currently, 24 percent of Sage College of Albany students pursue majors on the Troy campus, while 6 percent of Russell Sage College students take majors in Albany.

There also are graduate schools in nursing and allied health sciences like physical therapy as well as in education and business.

The plans come as Sage struggles with a junk bond rating and steep competition for students.

Moody’s Investor Services, which gave the school a Caa1 bond rating in May, cited increased competition for students and the school’s unwieldy administrative structure as one of its challenges.

Both the Troy and Albany campuses have dormitories. But the change would mean opening the Troy dorms to men. (Currently, a handful of male students in Troy who attend the school’s theater program live in the dorms there).

Ames conceded that the move will likely be controversial with some Russell Sage alumnae who are proud of the school’s heritage as a women’s institution.

But in addition to confusion, Ames said Russell Sage College has in recent years suffered from what, with some exceptions, has been the long-term national decline in demand for exclusively women’s colleges.

“Women’s colleges have been incredibly valuable but the market for them has diminished,” Ames said.

At the same time, planners are also looking at the creation of an as-yet-unnamed women’s institute at the school that would allow exploration of topics like the #MeToo movement and related gender issues, and which could contain a women’s residence hall.

Russell Sage dates to 1916 when a noted Troy philanthropist and suffragist, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, created the school for women. The first class graduated four years later. The school enrolled men during World War II in order to support the war effort, however. By 1949, the school opened a co-ed division in Albany. Then in 1957, the co-ed Junior College of Albany opened. It became a four-year school in 2001 operating as Sage College of Albany.

Overall, The Sage Colleges this year saw an enrollment increase of about 200 students, including transfers and first-year students, bringing the total incoming class to 570. Total undergraduate enrollment is 1,350, with 1,200 graduate students, including part-timers.

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Ames attributed the growth to a refocusing of recruitment efforts on in-state students. He said some 70 percent of college students nationally attend school within three hours of their home towns.

Sage changes its name, it would not be the first Capital Region school to re-brand itself.

Schenectady County Community College recently began marketing itself as SUNY Schenectady.

While the official name remains the same, one reason for the change is that the old acronym, SCCC was similar to two other community colleges, Sullivan County Community College and and Suffolk County Community College, said marketing director David White.

Overall, he said the school went through a two-year review of its branding and identity.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU