Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-09
SOME WOMEN At YALE.
RESULTS OF FIVE YEARS OF THE
EXPERIMENT SATISFACTORY.
Spectacle of Women at the Recita.
lions Has Ceased to BE a Novel.
ty-They Are There to Work
and They Do Not Flirt.

ATE department of Yale TO women tnero
has been a disposition to regard the exc
pertinent doubtfully. After the first two
years there was a general decrease in fem
mime attendance at lectures. and at the
last commencement exercises a solitary
woman appeared upon the platform as a
candidate for the doctors degree. in place
of the seven who presented satisfactory
theses the year before. In the recent uni
versity catalogue. however, the women
students appear in greater numbers than
ever before. and their position at Yale
may be regarded as secure. There are now
thirty-seven enrolled, against twenty-eighe
last year. and twenty-five the year before.
1t Is now five years since the corporation
opened the gradute department. of Yale
lors of art as candidates for the doctors
degree. The interest then aroused has
the graduate and undergraduate recitations
has ceased to be a novelty. Yale men are
beginning to learn that the change Is not
so radical as they first supposed; that the
great boSie of coeducation Is not to be
feared. and that the cherished spirit OF the
institution is not threatened by an occa-
Sional feminine figure fitting through the
library or the reference room. The few
young women who have quietly pursued
have had no perceptibie influence U the
social life of the university. They have
attended to their classroom duties simply.
and their interest in the university has
been apparently confined to its intellectual
advantages. They have unquestionabiy
been conscious of the somewhat hostile
and derisive attitude of the great student
body; but as a rule they have been women
with q purpose. which they have pursued
unremittingly. They are nearly all COLI
iese graduates Of several years stlnIIng,
and have come to Yale simply to fit them.
selves more creditably for their work, chief
ly as teachers.
Women are frequently admitted to the
undergraduate recitatiohs by special ar
rangement with the instructor. The larger
number remain at the university only a
short m generally not more than a
year: but. unlike the men, they receiye 10
aegree Tor this single years work. The
N. A. Is given by the undergraduate, not
by the graduate faculty. and this fact
rules the women out. They engage seri-
ously In the original research, which Is the
after a minimum Of three years work and
an acceptable thesis they may receive the
degree of Ph.D. Yale is becoming more
stringent every year in it's requirements
for this highest degree. and only the most
promising students are encouraged to re-
main There is little in this state of things
poration had no idea five years ago Of
transforming Yale into a coeducationaI in
stitution. The graduate department was at
the corporation merely recognized the fact
that a favorable opportunity was offered
to take a step which it had had under con-
sloeration for some time. American wom-
en- then had little chance for advanced
study on this side of the Atlantic.
Up to the present time 10 ave awaited
there were %; in 1ss SGpif there d1a'es we're re a 81: in
q; in 1851 there were Is. and at present
have taken the doctors degree. Up to 1888
the women did not formally appear at the
commencement exercises and receive their
SheepSkinS from the president.
A comparison of the work accomplished
by women during these five years with
that accomplished by the men is not to the
Ol:rrpdtf If IN r~1a n
ic and successful workers have thus far
been found in the English department, UNI
der the direction of Professor A. S. Cook.
Professor Cook devotes a large share of his
attention to the women students, and UNI
der his direction they have done SCHOLARLY
work. The English Club meets here every
other Monday evening to read and discuss
original papers. The other Monday even
inSs are devoted to the seminary work. this
year in the Jacobean drama Professor
Cooks aim is to devote the major part Of
his attention to the graduate department.
and the superintendent of theses.
Since the corporation voted an appro-
priation for the publication of unusually
meritorious theses produced at the uni
versity. one of the two volumes represent
ea is that Of a woman student. Miss Laura
ton of English Criticism" has been pub
hshed with fattering success: has been
E EersitS works Jsed in III iiisr connection ion with With uni,
one of the Textbooks in Professor Cooks
course on The Theories. of Poetry" Miss
Wyglie obtained her doctors degree in
lssi. and is now the head of the English
department at Vassar college. Miss Eliza
beth Deering Hanscom's Vision of Piers
has been published by the
Gem also assisted Professor Cook in pre-
pairing the vocabulary to his First Book
In Old English and was elected a fellow
OF the American Association of Collegiate
Alumnae: On receiving her doctors de-
gree In 1894 she was at once chosen in
structor at Smith. Miss Mary Augusta
scott did the largest part Of her work
q photography of Shakespearean transla-
tions from the Italian. which has been
rublished by the Modern Language Assoc
cation. Miss Laura A. lockwood. who
will receive her degree of Phi. D. in June.
has prepared as a thesis for the doctrate
"A Lexicon to the Poetical Works of Mill
ton Some two years ago she sent speci-
approval of Macmillan & Co.. who i'm
mediately accepted the work, agreeing to
assume the expenses of its publication and
TO pay the author a ROYALTY; The volume
published In a few months. Miss Alice A.
Sawtelle's Sources dispensers Classical
mythology" on the strength of which she
received her doctors degree last June. has
been published. 1t has been highly praised
by such journals as the london Saturday
Review. the London Academy and the
London Educational Review.
The men students during this same no.
Rod have not been so productive. Barring
DE-. Charles Davidson's monograph on the
Mysterious Plays and DIR. Charles wag-
which has been pronounced the finest
piece Of middle English work ever put
forth from an American university. none
or their theses has found its way into
print. Nearly all Of the women students
secure excellent places on their gradua-
ton. and the doctors are generally called
at once to the faculty Of some female
college.