BRYN MAWR, PENNSYLVANIA — When Sandy Doran became president of Salem College, a women’s college in North Carolina, she inherited a daunting task.   “When I arrived, we were in a bit of a financial pickle,” Doran told VOA.   Doran faced a decline in enrollment seen across higher education. According to figures by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, enrollment in higher education began declining in 2011. One possible reason for the decline is that after the economy recovered from the stock market crash in 2008, young people felt more secure jumping into jobs or putting off college for a few years after high school.   But like many colleges and universities, Salem hadn't seen the decline coming, and took on debt to build new facilities. Doran and the school turned to alumni for support.     “Through relentless communication, transparency about what was needed, we were really able to unify the campus, unify the students, faculty, staff, and the wider alumni community and the wider community of Winston-Salem,” Doran said, referring to the city that is home to the campus.   Salem College was founded in 1722, Doran said. “It predates the U.S. Constitution!”     And like many other women’s colleges in the United States, Salem has seen significant positive change in the past four years.   “Our applications have increased by 100%,” Doran said.   Notable women’s colleges, including Barnard College in New York, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College in Massachusetts, Agnes Scott College in Georgia, and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, have all noted increased applications and enrollment since 2016 and the #MeToo movement, which was created in reaction to sexual harassment and assaults.   “After the 2016 election, we definitely saw an uptick in young women looking for these spaces where women are empowered, and they're empowered to use their voice,” Marissa Turchi, director of undergraduate admissions at Bryn Mawr College, told VOA.   “Years ago, students were selecting Bryn Mawr despite the fact that it was a women's college. I think more and more now are choosing Bryn Mawr because it’s a women's college,” Turchi said.   For some students, the choice to study at a women’s college has always been an easy one.   “Women's colleges actually run in my family,” Katarina Karris-Flores, a student at Bryn Mawr told VOA.   “Both my aunts went to Wellesley and my cousin went to Wellesley and my mom went to a woman's college in California,” she explained.   But her classmate, Liz Marchini, said she had never planned to attend a ...