Evening star., 1895-09-14
CO-EDJC.ATTON.
What 1t Costs Woman Students to At
tend Western Uniyersities

tend Western Universities.
From Harper's Weekly.
In a discussion of the subject in the Chi
cago Tribune l read that girls at Ann Ar
Dor live as cheapiy as the men; with the
help OF sewing ana household occupat tons
more cheap!y than most men. Board is as
low as $3.50 a week, and averages S. or
$l20 for the college year. Rooms fetch from
sl.5o to s. a week. A good room for two
together at 81 for the two is the commonest
arrangement. Lodging, therefore. costs $50
The college fees are SO for Michigan stu
dents. So for others; books and washing
average So also: 50 that the average total
expense of attending the university is $500.
These figures are said 10 apply equally fair
ly to the student life at the universities of
Wisconsin and Illinois.
Iii many talks with President and Mrs
Angel, with several professors, and with
many students-ail giris-at Ann Arbor, l
obtained the facts which follow. Co-eiuca-
ton has obtained there since 1870 There
We're some women applicants as early as
1S55-5S. but they were not admitted. The
regents We're then opposed to the admission
of women, but the gentle pressure of pub
lie opinion gradually diluted the oppos ton,
and at last, at meeting, one regent OBJ
served that there was no law against
education, ana there was no further dis
cussion. The women We're admitted. At
first the girl students We're plcked-that is
to say, the girls who came We're SUcn
were felt to be able to live inde9endent
lives Those tirst-comers were let severely
alone, and must have had a cheerlesS time.
They were not wanted or welcomed by
either the faculty or the students.
Now all this is changed. The girls are of
all sorts, and come quite matter of
course, as the boys do, from the high schools
of Michigan and of nearly all the middle
and western states. There was a time
when thH S..rls wanted to be noticed by the
boys, because at first the boys LET them
aione, and afterward noticed only the
brighter or the pretty ones; but today, when
the girls number 500, the girls hold the
whip hand, and it is the boys "'iiio SEEK at
tention, while the girls bestow 1t sparingly.
be called the strictly college classes and 100
more are taking the technical or special
courses Among them are always some
dentists great many doctors. from two to
half dozen lawyers, and so on. Those who
study law may not wish to practice. They
are more apt to want to work in lawyers
offices, to assist their ia theirs, or, as is the
case Of wealthy lady now taking that
course, they want to understand how to
manage their properties
The average age of the boys and girls Is
twenty-one. Both the boys and girls enter
at the average of nineteen and half years.
There never has been case of scandal
about the relations between the boys and
girls at this university. 1t Is believed that
this is partly due to the fact that such re-
have been schooled with the other sex else
where. 1t is largely due to the fact that
the girls are not penned up in dormtories.
At Arm Arbor there is general belief that
mischief comes of housing the sexes apart.
It Is fatty said that In nearly all the CO.
practice has obtained for aLy great length
of time there have been scandals.