Mar 07, 2014 03:20 PM EST By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

The president of Chatham University, one of the oldest women's undergraduate colleges in the United States, said the school must go coed to survive, CBS News reported.

At a meeting held Wednesday night to discuss the school's future, University President Esther Barazzone told students and alumnae that admitting men into their undergraduate programs for the first time in the school's history is vital, as increasing costs and declining enrollment plague the 145-year-old institution.

"It was a sad day for me to realize that Chatham College for Women needs to change in order to preserve our mission to women," Barazzone said, according to WTAE.com.

Barazzone also said there have been fewer contributions to the school's annual fund, which fell $1.3 million in 2007 to about $600,000 this year.

The University's freshman class has shrunk by nearly 50 percent since 2008. The old institution that had more than 700 students at one point could have fewer than 320 within five years.

Sarah Ford, a 2008 Chatham graduate, disapproves of the coed move and is urging school officials to reconsider.

"Going coed is the equivalent of selling your body. It will relieve the immediate financial pressure, but how will you look at yourself in the mirror?" she said to applause from the crowd, according to WTAE.com.

At the event, Ford also questioned whether school officials had done enough to help recruit women into their college.

The University will listen to feedback from students, faculty, staff and alumni before the trustees meet again in June. If approved, the school could enroll its first male undergraduate students by fall 2015.

Barrazzone said although the decision is an unfavorable one, it is necessary for the Chatham University.

"I will not ... let this whole institution go down because of insisting on sticking to one root for the overarching goal, which believes in women," Barrazzone said.

The university first discussed the idea of going co-ed In 1990.  A few years later, they decided to let men into the graduate programs.

Chatham University, like many women's colleges, has coeducational graduate programs, but its undergraduate programs have remained single-sex, Inside Higher Ed reported. 

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit