I have hopeful news. The Superior Court judge who presided over our trial last spring has ruled that women may attend Deep Springs. Specifically, he ruled that “promising young men” in the Deed of Trust should be modified to read “promising young people.”
To clarify the legal situation, let me return to an analogy that I shared two years ago: “Solving legal problems is like climbing a mountain. If one path to the top is blocked, you seek another. You must obey the law, but you can always try a new strategy if the first one doesn’t work or is too slow.” Remember that our first legal path was blocked, so in this trial we made four different legal arguments about why women should now be allowed to attend Deep Springs. This was a strong ruling because the judge agreed with three of our four arguments. Any single one would have been sufficient. I invite you to read the judge’s ruling.
We don’t yet know what this means, practically. As I said in my last update: “We might be done in a year. Or there could be more appeals, by either side, possibly even to the California Supreme Court. That would take many years.” We do know that the upcoming class, starting in summer of 2015, will definitely be all-male. We are deep into the college application season so it’s too late to admit women for next year in any case. Beyond that, I would describe TDS as “cautiously optimistic”. We’re reassured by the strength of this ruling and hope it will help us resolve the uncertainty on coeducation soon, but it’s too early to tell.
Happy holidays, everyone!
Dave Hitz DS’80
Chair, Trustees of Deep Springs