wesleyan was founded as an all-male methodist college in 1831. in 1872 it became one of the first american colleges to let female students attend. some of wesleyan's male alumni did not think that letting women go to the school was a good thing. they believed that it made wesleyan look bad. wesleyan stopped letting women got there and from 1912 to 1970 wesleyan operated as an all-male college. wesleyan began letting women attend again in 1970. at that time many females had went to the all-female connecticut college in nearby new london, connecticut.