The herald., 1894-12-20
RADCLiFFE'S FIRST REPORT.
1t Is Moro Than Satisfactory to the Friends
of Higher Education For Women.

of Higher Education For Women.
Brief, businesslille and to the point is
the first report which Radcliffe college,
through its officers, makes to the pub
lic In four pages Mrs. Agassiz, the
president tells the now familiar story
of the Transformation of the Harvard
annex into a college last spring and an
nounces the foundation of a scholarship
by all anonymous giver il the name of
Widow Johanna Hoar' of Braintree,
contemporary of Anne Radcliffe. Mrs
Hoar was the mother of President Leon
ard Hoar of Harvard and ancestress of
the Concord Hoars and of the Adamses
and Quincys.
The report of Mr. Henry L. Higgin-
son, the treasurer, shows that on Aug.
l the college had $165, 900 in securities
and cash, while from the regents ac-
count it appears that last year the fees
for tuition alone paid for all the salaries
and current expenses and left a surplus
The Perkins bequest already amounts to
800, 900, the Sweetser bequest will be
at least $40, 900 and tho Parker bequest
more than $40, 600. Three funds of S5,-
600 each for scholarships have been CIV
en- since the incorporation, together
with other gifts. A unique gift is that
of the lawyer employed to oppose the in
corporation of the college, who presents
to it the retainer paid to him.
By far the most important portion of
the report of the regent, Mr.. Gilman, is
that showing the increase in the amount
of the instruction given to the young
women since the annex" has been
brought into closer connection with
Harvard. 1t is an effective answer to all
who have looked on the union as a mat
ter Of form merely that 166 courses of
instruction are open to women this year,
compared with Ill last year, an increase
of 80 per cent, and that 63 of these
courses are for graduates, 81 of them
being courses in Harvard university, in
which women graduates work in the
same class with men. The other courses
are all repetitions by Harvard instruct
ors to women alone of courses regularly
given in Harvard.
In Sanskrit in romance philology,
Italian, Spanish, comparative literature,
music, physics, astronomy, botany. zool-
ogy and American Archaeological that
Harvard offers to its men is offered to
the women of Radcliffe. The same is
practically true of the Semitic Ian
guages, of English, Germanic philology,
philosophy, history and mathematics,
where Radcliffe's courses very nearly
equal i'll number those of Harvard. The
divergence i'll the number Of courses is
greatest in the departments of classical
philology, German, French, economics,
chemistry and geology. In the case of
the first three the difference is more ap-
parent than real, for in them Harvard
can afford to give parallel undergradu-
ate courses Of the same degree of diff
Guilty, which Radcliffe cannot. In the
case of the others the difference is due
either to the fact that department at
Harvard is undermanned or TO the lack
of laboratory facilities at Radcliffe.
Still it is perfectly fair to say that Rad
cliffe college now offers to women sub
stantially what Harvard offers to men,
and that the day is not far off when it
can offer identically the same instrnc-
ton. To attain this object money is
needed, and the report points out how
it can be used-for laboratories, for a
fireproof library, for more scholarships,
for the means to house the students
more cheaply, for gymnasium, for
more recitation rooms.
The total number of students last year
was 255, Of whom 100 were candidates
for tho bachelor degree. Twenty-Five
bachelors and three masters of arts grad
uated last June The special students
are to a great degree really specialists
and often graduates of other women's
colleges.
The work of giving women collegi-
ate education in Cambridge has now
been carried on for 1 6 years at Won
derfully small cost, largely through tho
self devotion and personal sacrifice of
the teachers and the men and women
associated with them. The new college,
now officially under the wing of Har-
ward, is still in the same hands. Every
friend of the higher education of woman
will wish it continued success. New
York S--"