President Cornelius William Prettyman argues in a letter to the Board of Trustees that Dickinson College should become "a coeducational college in the true sense of the term." He points out that 163 of the 253 students at the college were women and that, in the future, this number would only continue to grow. He adds that women "are entering college in ever greater numbers." Thus, he recommends that Dickinson College educate both male and female students in equal numbers and wishes to enforce a 50-50 ratio of female to male students. Prettyman believes that this policy would allow the college to select male students based on higher standards and also insists that the enrollment of female students saved the college financially. He finishes, "It [coeducation] has proved itself to be good at Dickinson."