The times., 1898-10-09
wANTED-MoRE COLLEGES.
Every Women. institutions in tn.

E'ery W0men's Institution I'm the
Country Is Overcrowded.
The rapidly increasing demand for the
higher education OF women is sometime
astonishing. Thirty years ago only two
colleges for women existed-EImira and
Vassar, Mount Holyoke being then only
a seminary. Elmira's first graduating
class numbered seventeen, while Vassar
could only boast four learned young
bachelors of art. Today single class
at Vassar numbers over 200 students, and
notwithstanding the erection in 1893 Of
Strong Hall. and in 1897 of Raymond
Hall, both large dormitories, also the ad-
ditional accommodations provided in the
main building by the recent going up of
Rockefeller's recitation hall, and the
presidents and several professors houses
another new dormitory must be built at
once to make room for the candidates
constantly applying for admission
And this state of affairs does not exist
at Vassar alone. All the women's COL
leges are telling the same tale Smith
College was founded twenty-three years
ago. opening with only twelve students
IL now enrolls 1000, and it is now the
largest women's college in existence. al
though its entrance requirements are Sc
we're, and it has not offered any extensive
elective inducements, having adhered
strictly TO its regular course require
ments. 1t began with one or two build
ings, ii now numbers twenty-five, with
three more about to go up. and still there
is not nearly enough dormitory room for
the army Of young collegians, and more
residence halls are to be added.
Mount Holyoke. which has passed
through various educational stages. and
now ranks among the foremost institu-
tions of learning. rose like the phoenix
from the ashes OF its disatrouS fire two
years ago. Five new and wonderfully
handsome dormitories built last season
are now occupied, but, although no new
candidates have been accepted since last
April, because of lack of space, these
buildings are full TO oyerfowing, and
two more halls could easily have been
filled by the necessarily rejected stud
ents.
Wellesley, with its immense body or
undergraduates and score of fine struc-
lures cannot house all its girls, many
of whom live in the village and walk
out 10 chapel and lectures every day.
The latest bulletins from Bryn Mawr
announce that the five halls Of residence,
Merton, Radnor. Denbigh and Pembroke,
East and West, are overcrOwded, and
| two large houses. Dolgelly and Cartreff,
| belonging TO the college, have been
| thrown open for the undergraduates
And these are only a few of the lead
| ing feminine colleges; the WOman's Col
| lege Of Baltimore. the Sophie Newcomb
| of New Orleans. Wells College, which is
Mrs Grover Cleveland's alma mater. the
| Western Reserve and a dozen others all
founded within the past twenty-five
years, are splendid proofs of the progress
and popularity of a college course Tor
girls.
II more evidence is needed, turn 70 the
AFFILIATED colleges, such as Radcliffe with
Harvard and Barnard with Columbia,
where the privileges are identical for
men and women alike: or TO the great
coeducatiouaI universities of the West,
where Ann ArbOr. the Leland Stanford.
jr., Oberlin, the University Of Chicago
and innumerable others swarm with
brainy young women. The University of
Chicago alone has three big dormatories
for its fair sex, while numbers Of its girls
have 10 room in the city.
So great is the want OF more facilities
to meet the cry for the collegiate edu-
cation of the gentler persuasion that the
College Womens Club of New York is
about TO take up as one of its objects
the reinstating of Evelyn College, the
index of Princeton University, which
closed its doors year ago from scarcity
of funds, as large endowment is neces-
sary TO run any college, the tuition fees
never being sufficient 10 cover annual ex-
penses. The three first steps taken viii
be the erection of an administration
building, then a dormitory and the pro-
viding of q permanent endowment