The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1857-03-17
From the Detroit Tribune.
The State University Free 20 Woman as well
Mam.

y ~
this city relative to Female College to be
situated at Ann Arbor and to be under the
control of the Regents Of the University,
tuition free.
The following report from President Fair
field of Hillsdale College, the Senator from
the Hillsdale District, was made on petition
OF VIM. Wiley, Il. B. Farnsworth and n
other citizens of Detroit, praying that tho
Michigan University, may be opened TO all
without distinction of sex:
"The adoption of this plan would make am
pie provision for higher female education-at
least so far as any one Institution can thus
provide. And it would do SO with but little
additional expense. The same Board Of In
struction, with the exception of one or two
female teachers to whom would be intrusted
the particular charge OF that Department,
would equally meet the demands of both
sexes. The classes at tho University are not
SO crowded, nor will they be probably for
many years to come that the addition of ten
or twenty young ladies TO either of them,
would render them inconvcnienty large or
make division of them necessary. And the
studies required for vigorous and complete in
tcllectual development, are substantially the
same for both male and female.
That the highest advantage should be Sc
cured for the education of woman, is pro-
position that at this day and batore this Sen.
ate, it would be quite superfuous TO defend
by argument. Experience has abundantlv
shown that in almost all the studies Of the
college course-languagcs- -rhetoric-compo-
stion-hstory-natural sciences-moral phi
hu IL f,li ha
equal of the sterner scx In mathematics
and mental philosophy she may have slightly
the disadvantages; but even in these depart
ments her success has been honorable in q
high degree. We have few ladies even in
Michigan whose scholarship in most of these
departments would fit them to adorn pro-
fessorship in our University itself The old
doctrine Of the inferiority Of woman's intellect
is rapidly finding its place among the explo-
dcd dog,nas the middle ages. 1t were only
necessary TO mark the trial of the experiment
for successive years through all the cours of
college study, to be fully dispossessed Of the
last remnant Of so groundless an assumption.
And your committee believe that the plan
of educating the sexes jointly, which is con
templated in the petition before us, would
scholarly training than is likely to be furnish
cd upon any other system. Fomalc semi
raries-thosc which are so exclusircly--arc too
often-not TO say generally-much less rigid
in their system of mental discipline and much
less extended in their course of study, than
Colleges which are established upon the ordi-
nary basis.
And besides, the joint education of the
sexes has various other advantages which can
not be SO well secured by separate institutions
exclusively for either. There is social cdu-
cation as well as intellectual. And this,
though Of inferior importance, is not to be
neglected.
1t is some times objected, by such as have
not observed the practical working of the
system, and who have not well studied the
intricacies Of human nature, that such joint
education would be adverse to the cultivation
Of the best manners; and especially to the
highest refinement Of the female character.
But no objection could be more entirely un-
founded. In the daily meeting and ming
ling of the sexes in the recitation room and
elsewhere, under the judicious regulations
which the wisdom of a college faculty would
impose, the habit Of good behavior which
ordinarily characterizes man in the presence
of woman, becomes fixed and permanent;
while in College halls away from her pres
ence and influence, n roughness and coarse
ness of behavior is frequently induced, that
never would appear-and never does appear
in Literary society where both sexes are found.
Such is the genial and refining influence which
is naturally exerted upon the young men con
nectcd with those higher Institutions to which
ladies are admitted.
But is not this gain to the young men,
at the expense of that refinement and dclica-
cy which is the charm of the female charac
ter? Far otherwise. Affectation is not re-
fnement. A dignified case and naturalncss
of manners is the highest attainment in the
social circle. And more than this We give
to woman her full credit for the softening and
humanizing influence which her presence ox-
erts. But the influence in truth is reciprocal.
And not unfrequently there is rudeness in
female seminaries, or in those circles where
young ladies gather alone that disappears en-
tirely in the presence of well-bred men. The
influence of the association is, in this respect,
equally happy upon both.
Every observer has noted the fact-out of
SIOWu uH icpCoNNd
that it is misfortune to any family of broth
ers to be without a sisters influence; and
equally that it is misfortune to family of
sisters, in which there is not brother. But
according to the theory of some upon this
subject Of education, it were a manifest mis-
take of the author of human society, that all
families were not arranged upon the judicious
plan Of separating entirely the different sexes.
But is not the moral effect of the proposed
arrangement ground of objection TO it?-
Exactly the opposite. The daily meeting of
noble and pure minded young ladies, engag-
ed in the the elevated and elevating pursuits
of science-just such as will, with very rare
exceptions be found within college wGlls-is
stronger defense to any young man against
the seductions Of vice, and the temptations to
immortality, than all the didatic treatises on
moral reform that were ever pcnned. That
the separation Of the sexes is not conducive