CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – Four men who moved into a Lesley College dormitory over the weekend have broken a nearly century-old tradition at what once was an all-female school.

The four male students who unpacked belongings on Sunday in Mackenzie Hall are among 21 male students out of a freshman class of 152 at the college.

Lesley College is the last of five schools that make up Lesley University to go coed. The university announced the change last year, saying it had decided to begin accepting men to its college because fewer women are interested in all-women’s education. The school also hopes to increase the size and academic caliber of its applicant pool.

Carol Streit, Lesley’s vice president for enrollment management, said studies indicate only 1 percent of female college applicants consider attending an all-women’s college.

“We were closing our doors to 99 percent of the population,” Streit told The Boston Globe.

Lesley College’s switch leaves only seven all-women colleges in Massachusetts: Simmons, Smith, Wellesley, Regis, Pine Manor, Mount Holyoke and Bay Path.

Established in 1909 as a teacher’s college, Lesley became a four-year college in 1943, and added a coed graduate school in the 1950s, which now has about 8,500 graduate students.

AP-ES-09-05-05 1420EDT