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Pittsburgh's Chatham votes to admit males

PITTSBURGH — The trustees of a Pittsburgh women's university have voted to admit undergraduate men for the first time its 145-year history.

Chatham University says the Thursday vote will allow men to attend undergraduate classes in the fall of 2015.

The school in the Shadyside neighborhood was founded as the Pennsylvania Female College in 1869. Officials say the freshman class has shrunk nearly 50 percent since 2008, and a college that once had more than 700 students could have fewer than 320 within five years unless the school goes co-ed.

Opponents had asked trustees to delay the vote.

The trustees also voted to reorganize academic units and establish the $8.5 million Chatham University Women's Institute, which would combine entrepreneurship and political programs with new women's health and gender studies programs.

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