The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-07-08
An Innovation that Opens
Education to Them.
ALL HONORs TO BE EASY
Male Students VIII Have No Advap.
tage Over the Gentler Sex
In English Colleges.

ward a change which has long since
been certain. Congregation has passed
without opposition the preamble of a
statute which will admit women TO
compete for honoIs in the final classi-
cal examination. Female candidates
will not be presented in the same room
in which male candidates assemble
They will have the same questions set
them and the same time to answer
them in. According to their work they
will be arranged in classes exactly cor
responding to the classes of their male
contemporaries. Though, as at Cam
bridge, the proposal is, it seems, to
keep up the appearance of a sepa. ate
list for the first, second, third and
fourth class women, as for female
Wranglers, senior and junior optimes
the honors for the two sexes will hence.
forth be virtually identical, if the
measure be sanctioned in its latter
stages by Congregation, and eventually
by Convocation.
1haE i an IMPORTANT qualification,
especially the latter branch of it. Con-
gregation consists of resident menlbeYs
OF the University, fellows, tutors and
professors for the most part, who gen
| orally are liberal in educational mat
ters, though divided IN politics. Con.
vocation has a strong conservative bias.
The reacti0nary element, If aroused
can usually be excited to veto any con-
siderable alteration of the existing
system. The doubt is whether the
habltual leaders OF resistance to inno-
vatlons will think it worth while to STOP
the present movement forward. AdyC-
Gates OF tho change find it necessary in
Congregation to meet objections chiefly
troGl the side of the alleged interests of
| he sex to which the privilege is 10 be
extended.
The provost of Queens College in
whose charge the measure is, devoted
his efforts to the disproof of the sup
posed objection that the final classical
examination fer honors would tempt
female students to overwork. Any
reluctance in Convocation is more likely
to be founded substantially, though
perhaps not altogether openly, on the
rights of nsen. Among large humber
of men, and particularly in the ranks
which Intellectually compose the mass
OF university graduates, there is q
rooted belief in the existence of a
masculine right to monopoly of
especial departments of learning and of
the distinctions marking them.
Ihey have no prejudice against the
indulgence OF thirst in woman for
knowledge outside certain sacred pre-
serves. Modern languages, geography,
history on this side The decadence of
she Roman Empire, arithmetic and art
they thlnk very proper feminine &C
| compartments. They can reconcile
themselves to sanction woman study
OF philosophy. perhaps even of mathe.
matlcs' DEAD languages are not thus
to os s3mpered with. There they
hitherto have sternly drawn the line.
1t remains to be seen whether old
antagonisms have not been Sc sanned
by the universal progress of thonGht,
and by concessions they themselves have
made, as to BE- no longer capable of
revival Tor the repulse OF the fresh en-
croachment. at Cambridge women
aaPs Tor many years been examined in
5 al the same papers as msa without any
! dangerous consequences.
! H recent movement against the
/ system was easily defeated, ana is not
J1iEely to be renewed. The only. chance
4 Which can be introduced will be the
abolition of The troublesome custom of
icmltttng the names of successful female
OcandIdatss for honors from the places
in the regular lists 1Thich are felt to he
theirs by right. Oxford, after waIcom.
ing as cordially as Cemtridye female
| students to us precincts, could not with
| consistency have foreEergra6used their
repeated reguest to be permitted to test
| their proficiency in the academicaj
course by the recognized academicaI
tests GA
For seVeral years past the university
mas ladeea granted the boon, though
WIZ restrictions which TIE proposed
LEGISLATION would remove. Examiners
appointed by its authority weigh Their
acquaintance with subjects as difficnit
as those which form the,ourricnlnm fnr
Its Qnder graduate students. vet MT
precisely the same. They are awarded
distinctions analogous to the ordinary
acaoean1csI distinctions, yet with an in
com measurable difference.
Iney nave to study as hard. Their
teachers, who commonly DISCHARGE
otnef aoFe or 5ess onerous UNIVERSITY
auues' ere additionally burdened nv
having to prepare themselves for euid,
Ing the minds of two sets of nnniIs
male and eemale, along parallel routes
A needless waste OF labor and ednca
tlonal machinery is the consequences
Female winners Of honors who desire
70 follow the scholastic profession dis
cover, moreover, IS the provost of
Queens practically argued on TuesdaV
that their prizes are not as usefnI a.
hey, ought to be in the Scholastic
market. ''io
People probably understand very
'aguely the significance of first or =
econd class IN Liter@ Eumaniores
IN the whole, that may be good thine
or the possessors. At any rate the
Ublic imagines it comprehends the
.eanlng, and has agreed to accept the
istlnction as emitting its bearer to
ame amount of educational condolences
knows 1t does not know the Intrinsic
sue OF a Somerville or q Lady Mar.
,fet students first class in philosonhv
ID, Notwithstanding the alleged mag
heence of the unknown, therefore de-
'eciates it. The Oxford classical ex
ninatlon has no abstract perfection
has no sort CT scientific harmony
q R1ust to a foreign critic appear
otesQue.-London Times.