The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-12-11

wonder. Certainly IL could not nave been
for the protection of the students, either
male or female. for under the existing
regulations not a single danger OF CO.
education. IL there be any danger con-
nected with II. Is guarded against. I am
not In any way meaning TO call In ques-
ton the motives OF the honorable gentle
men who made the regulations. / only
wish TO emphasize that by them every
advantage OF co-education Is most effect
uaily prevented, and none Of its dangers
guarded against / think / am not going
too FAR when / say that the universal tes-
timony Of men and women who have
studied I'm co-educational institutions Is
that from the associations of male and
female students in the classroom only
good has come. What harm could come
10 either sex from sitting a few hours
each day in the same classroom under
the eye OF an honorable professor? Do
men and women not habitually sit In the
same public lecture and concert-halls?
The chairman OF the Faculty says: THE
condition of public sentiment in Virginia
would not. We think. permit the frank
adoption OF coeducation." But the chair
man is losing sight of the fact that the
University has already granted every fea-
ture OF the fullest coeducation except
the most important and most harmless
OHt-lndl Oh association III the CLASS TOOtl
the very feature which Is cheerfully re-
ceived by the people Of every city, town
and county in the State where a public
high school is established. Surely the
people Of Virginia cannot approve OF i'm
mature young men and women being
taught in the same class and at the same
time think II improper for mature men
and women TO sit at the same time under
the lecture Of a University professor.
II Is conceded by all thoughtful persons
that out of the unrestrained social inter-
course of large numbers Of young men
and young women in the same community
some harm may arise, but as | said be-
fore, the riLht Of a young woman to re-
side at the University of Virginia for pur-
poses Of study is already granted. Around
her social life no restraints whatever are
thrown so far as the regulations are con-
cerned. If she has a brother or friend
amongst the male students, she may
board in the same family with him, she
may study with him. she may walk with
him TO the University, she may even enter
the halls with him, but at the door Of the
classroom they must separate, he TO gain
Inspiration from the professor she to
wait patiently somewhere until the past
graduate student or assistant can give
her the substance of the lecture and
for this privilege she is to Fay nearly
five times what her brother pays for his
full privileges.
To-day, there Is one woman at the Uni
versity. Seven women In my limited
circle Of acquaintance intended to apply
for full admission. Several OF these did
apply and were refused. All these women
are mature and all are possessed Of in
tellectual gifts above the common. All
are teachers or wish TO become such. All
%
and / doubt not many others like them,
should be forced to leave the State to
gain anything like a liberal education is
a cruelty against which the good people
of the State ought TO revolt far more than
against their sitting in a classroom with
Virginia gentlemen. The matter Is grow
ing serious. Virginia women are going In
rapidly increasing numbers 10 Northern
and Western institutions because they
cannot get what they want in their own.
Others, who cannot do this are having
their lives dwarfed, and the State is losing
most efficient service. What is to be done?
l am not undertaking the female schools
now In the State. Some Of them have
done and will yet do a good work, but
very few of them claim TO give anything
more than secondary education None or
them are in any sense colleges Inc
Womans College soon to be opened In
Lynchburg will, we hope, be a potent
remedy for the evil inasmuch as 1t to be
a real college, with the very same curri-
culum as Randolph-Macon College. AS
far as It goes, we believe 1t will be suf-
ficient and noble supply for existing wants
not only in Virginia, but in the far South,
but it's founders have declared that 1t
Is always TO be a College and not Uni
versitv. Are Virginia women 20 be denied
a University training at home? III pubic
sentiment is against the admission or
women TO the University, then the Vlr-
ginia public has only 10 look at our pubic
high schools TO see that co-educatlon Is
already established among us and that'
too at the very age for harm TO come,
II harm could come. superintendent and
PRINCIPALS as well as parents all over the
State will testify that good and not evil
has come out Of the experiment. All over
the State are women who want the train
ing which can be gotten only az great
University. They need this training In
order that they may reach that complete
ness Of being, which IS their inalenaole
right, but they need IT too TO nj them
better for the practical obligations OF NE
There are a few who will have IL unuer
any circumstances, but unless IL is gwen
to them, where they have most reason
TO look for IT, they will be compelled 10
seek il i'm uncongenial surroundings, in an
atmosphere very different from that III
which they were raised. and In many
cases, the evils which Virginia men are
trying by mistaken measures 10 avert
from US will be precipitated ana muIu-
piled. The women for whom SPEAK 40
not want 10 vote, to preach or 70 practlce
law. They do want 10 be educated IKE
rational human beings, and not IKE
fancifu kind of half being" l appeal 10
the men who are the leaders OF educa-
tional thought and methods in Virginia.
What are the women to do? Shall they
leave the State in order TO be educated
shall they resign themselves 20 hait-euu-
cation or no education, and become the
unframed undisclplined, unskllled mothers
Of the next generation, or snail they De
given. as can so easily be done, the euu-
cational advantages their brotheIs aIe