The record-union., 1895-11-11
Especial Correspondence oft the Record-Union.,

the Collegiate Alumnae on the evening
of October 24th-the second time
California has been represented in
these councils or had any voice in shap-
ing the general policy, save by a letter
OF advice Yet ours has been an active
branch in cooperation in work decided
on without our vote, and in local work
of our own deViSing, and we knew the
leading women in the federal body very
we'll by correspondence. Mrs. Alice
Freeman Palmer of Michigan UniTers-
ity, eX-President of Wellesley, now wife
of Professor Palmer of Harvard Marion
Talbot of Boston University and the
Institute of Technology, Trustee of
Boston University, dean and professo;
in Chicago University, founder and ill
spring spirit of the Collegiate Aulmnae
and it's Secretary from the outset till
this year, now its President-elect; Mar
tina Foot Grow of Syracuse University,
Commissioner in Europe for the United
States Bureau of Education and now
professor in Chicago University and
retiring President of the Collegiate
Alnmnae; Mrs. Bessie Bradwell Helmel
Of Michigan University, one of the half
dozen women of unqueStionable legal
learning in the United States, and
others that 1 might go on to name.
The meetings are not large general
gatherings, like National Educational
Association meetings for instance, or
WOmen'S Congresses, but rather like
the SittingS of scientific societies, small
conferences of the delegates and Off
GERS, with a considerable attendance OF
the local branch, and usually the PreSi-
dent of a neighboring university and
attachments from it's faculty-in .his
case Western Reserve University, which
acted Jointly with the Cleveland branch
as host. There could not have been
many more than hundred persons in
attendance at any time. But these
small conferences are, SO far as l know
the only organized gatherings oil
scholarly women in the world and ne
where, l suppose, has it ever been posi-
bic in history to see as many learned
ladies in one room. And perhaps there
fore, / shall be expected to say a pass
ing word as to their looks and speech
before I touch the more important mat
ter of what they did.
When l say / took my seat I do not
mean on a platform, nor yet in the
body Of an auditorium, but tucked W
on the broad window seat of a hOtel
parlOr, well barricaded in with crowded
chairs and lounges; for the sessions be-
gan with an informal conference on a
special matter, and the college chapel
with President Thwing and his faculty
present, did not come till the next dav
The association, all to itself thus, was
on the whole plain sensible set OF
women somewhere in their thirties for
the most part, with a sprinkling OF
older women from early Oberlin classes
they were neither fashionable nor I'M
fashionable in dress; and they were
very pleasingly simple and straightfor-
ward in speech and manner, without ar
atom of nervousness or pretentiousness
in rising to speak. They did not wander
from the point, nor haggle over details
and they listened considerateI to each
others suggestions, and were reason
able in discussion, and entirely free
from heat. All this was no news tc
me, because ! had seen college women
in conference dozens of times before
They do not act at all as general bodies
Of college men do, but more as I have
seen small conferences of specially
trained men-business boards, for in
stance. or educational committees Sc
far, college women taken 'by and
large" have proved more apt al organi-
cation, cooperation and orderly con-
ference, than college men taken the
same way. The half-dozen reasons
might hunt up for this, it is not my
present business to set forth
/ did not go there with any purpose OF
listening for and catching the keynote
of the meetings. / did not know that
there would be one. But there was
and it was struck at the first informal
conference. and required more and more
inpressively till the last exchange OF
| views as the delegates scattered tc
] 20 ho
of need of definite standards of collegi-
ate scholarship in America
There are three or four hundred in
stitutions in the country giving de-
greeS. Bryce reckOns about a dOzer
real universities among them, if I re-
member right. There are undoubtedly
also a fair number of high-grade col
leges among them, of narrow but
thorough scholarship There are hun
dreds that certainly cannot give de-
grees that guarantee a graduates
/ training as a college degree ought &c
guarantee it. The grievance is no new
one. 1t is more than fifteen years
since | heard President Gilman adj
dress the American Social Science AS
| ISOLATION on the need of some league
for the protection of our college degrees
by excluding the institutions that give
them too easily; and there has been q
sort of deSultory effort ever since tC
form some such league But this asso-
citation of young women is the ONLY
one of the sort that has really got into
effective existence and it was not or
ganized for any such purpose. but mere
ly ito unite alumnae Of different insti-
tutions for practical educational work.
II is not an aggressive body, and was
dismayed TO find after few years that
the question Of American cOllegiat Re
standards had come to its own door
and had to be answered.
The fifteen institutions whose alu-
ninae are now admitted to membership
are Boston, California, Cornell. Kansas
Michigan, Northwestern. Syracuse
Wesleyan and Wisconsin Universities
Bryn Mawr, Oberlin. Smith, Vassar and
Wellesley Colleges, and the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology The ma
jOrity of these were in the original mem
berShip. and several more were admit
ted without inquiry in the early DAYS OF
the association. Then it became evident
that if a line had to be drawn; colleges
were applying for admission. some OF
those on the outside better institutions
than some inside IL would not do to ad-
nit everything that gave degree, OF
the association would be swamped; but
how decide where the line came be-
tween the colleges of first rank and
these of lower standards? There exists
in America no tribunal that pretends tc
decide. The Bureau of Education tc
which the official duty would seem tc
belong, shirks it utterly, and rates as a
college anything that can get itself
chartered. The deliberations of college
Presidents on the subject had led to nc
clear results. The last two institu-
tons dmitted-California and Bryn
Mawr-came in after delay and In
quiry: and then the perplexed commits
tee on admissions came to halt.
Certain requirements-that no pre-
paratory school work must be mixed ur
with that Of the college. and that the
matriculation for the classical course
must cover certain subjects-were