The Portland daily press., 1894-06-12
WOMEN COLLEGE PRESIDENTS.
The Heads of Wellesley, Barnard. Bryn
Mawr, and Radcliffe.
From The Philadelphia Press)


When colleges for women were first Or
gained, men We're placed at their heads as
Presidents. This is still the case with Vas
sar, of which Dr. James M. Taylor is the
head, and of Smith College, which has
had for its President from it's foundation
DR.. Clark Seelye, Wellesley has followed
a different course, and Miss Alice Freeman,
now Mrs. Palmer demonstrated to the world
of education both that woman could dis
charge the duties of a college President
with ability and that she could leave them
to become wife with as much alacrity as
if she were not directing large college.
Wellesley was fora number of years almost
alone among the institutions offering wom-
en- a higher education in putting its direc-
tion and management in the hands of a
woman, but within the past year the ex-
ample has been followed in, three important
institutions. Miss Carey Thomas is about to
become President of Bryn Mawr, Mrs.
James Smith has been called to the head of
Barnard College, in New York, and Rad
cliffe College the Harvard Annex as it
has been peculiarly known, has come to
Philadelphia for it's head and chosen as Its
President, Miss Agnes Irwin. While no one
of these colleges has as many students as
NAAA~~-' ~
endowment as one, if not two, of these in
situations, they represent more advanced
studies, more rigorous examinations. and in
their entrance requirements, their currlcu-
lum, and the attachments required for de-
gree, these institutions equal any colleges
in the country, and surpass all but those in
| the front rank.
1t is not too much to say that the action
IL. A. hraa nnI1
| ing the past few months has placed in the
| hands of women the three most important
| institutions in the higher education of wom-
| en- in the country. Radcliffe is associated
with Harvard as Barnard is with Columbia,
| though neither has any organic connection
with the older institution. Both, however,
are able to offer their students degrees ap-
proved by the university with which they
are associated, and their studies and ex-
aminations are adjusted to the standard of
| Harvard and Columbia, respectively.
| Bryn Mawr stands alone, and its remark
able success under the direction of Miss
| Thomas as Dean has done more for the adj
vanced education of women than any other
one institution in the country. Dean
Thomas has shown that woman's college
| can insist upon the highest stand
|
! advanced requirements, arrange both Its
| instruction and it's examinations with ref
| erence to graduate work, and still command
a constantly-increasing number of students.
| In Miss Emily James Smith, or Miss James
Smith, as she prefers to be known, Barnard
College will have as its new head woman
| to whom studies are the first business OF
life and scholarship it's solitary aim. A fell
low in Greek at Chicago University, Miss
Smith has studied both at home and
| abroad, her original work is of high order
and she represents the strenuous scholastic
ideal which is steadily improving the char
acter, advancing the attachments, and dan
gerously increasing the strain of female
education.
The Trustees of Radcliffe College, in Sc.
lecting a new President, have chosen WON
an who is not a graduate of any college, ano
who in her work as a teacher represents the
old rather than the new ideal. Miss Agnes
Irwin has for over fifteen years in this city
played part in the education of young
women which has shown high appreciation
of the value of combining scholarship ano
refinement, an advance in intellectual life
with development and training in what Ii
quite as much needed in both men anc
women as mere proficiency in studies. Her
success in this work has been familiar
household word in Philadelphia, and her adj
vice and influence have been felt in every
reform in eduction in this city. Miss irwin
will enter on her new duties equipped b!
experience and familiar with the problem
before her.