The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-07-30
SHOULD THE A. AND M. COLLEGE BE
OPEN TO WOMEN?

the College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts, resolution was adopted opening
the institution to women. There had
been no public discussion of the new
departure and no time for serious con
sideration by the trustees. The an
nouncement that the college would open
its doors to women came as complete
SURPRISE to the people of the State, and
there was a general feeling that mis-
take had been made.
This paper is a firm believer i'll CO.
education in literary institutions, from
the primary public school to the Uni
versity. Whenever men and women, or
boys and girls, go to school to learn the
same things we believe it is best that
they should go together. For that rea-
son, it is well that the doors of Elon,
Trinity and the University should be
open to women just as they are open to
men.
With industrial education, the matter
is entirely different. A man goes to the
Agricultural and Mechanical College to
become skilled farmer or mechanic
occupations unsuited to women. The
literary branches taught at that college
are incidental and secondary to the in
dustrial education. No boy who merely
desires to get an education has any bust
ness at the Agricultural and Mechanical
College. 1t was not established for him
and it's curriculum is not adapted to his
preparation for life work. 1t teaches
men the use of tools and the tillage of
the soil, and as incident thereto gives
them an education in order to make
them better farmers and better me-
chanics.
The State also provides industrial
training for girls at the State Normal
and Industrial College at Greensboro.
Its mission is primarily to teach young
women how to teach, how to sew, how
to make butter, and other things that
a woman should know as Il breadwinner
or wife and mother. 1t would be
absurd to teach these branches without
at the same time imparting a good edu-
cation to the young women. But the
education is secondary to pedagogics and
industrial instruction.
The industrial education therefore
that is needed for a young man and
young woman is very different-in fact
radically different--while it is identical
for those who are studying Latin Greek
and English. This difference is the OBJ
lection to opening the Agricultural and
Mechanical College to women, or the
State Normal and Industrial College to
men. Ii the objection is not valid, |
then the. two colleges should be COM
bined under one management at one
place. The expense of two separate in
stitutions is ii waste of money, il the
industrial training for girls and boys is
the same.
We hope that when the trustees of the
Agricultural and Mechanical College
meet in Raleigh this week they will re-
consider their action in opening the
college to women. If the board is not
willing to rescind its action, it ought, at
least for the present, to postpone the
time when women will be admitted.
Even if the college is to be opened to
women without the sanction of the Cen
eral Assembly, the trustees ought not
to invite them to enter until preparations
have been made for their reception The
present buildings are hardly adequate for
the boys. The college authorities have
no money to build dormitories for girls,
much less for putting i'll machinery TO
teach women the industries peculiar to
their sex. To open the doors to the wo-
men this fall is equivalent to saying:
Come to our college young ladies. 1t
is true we have no accommodations for
you and inadequate preparations for
your instruction. but we will give you Il
welcome" The only way, at this late
hour. to make room for the girls will be
to drive the boys out. Is the State ready
to shut the doors of a strictly military,
archaeological and agricultural school to
boys to whose instruction it is adapted,
and open them to girls to whose instruc-
ton it is not adapted!
The proposition to open the Agricul-
tural and Mechanical College to women
is too important to be decided in Il day
or in a month. With all due Difference
to the board of trustees, we think that
before it is done they ought to give the
matter long and serious consideration,
and il then they believe the institution
ought to be made co-educational, Il recon
mendation to that effect, with the real
sons. should be made to the General As
sembly. That body should then finally
determine the matter, and if it decides
to admit women it should make an APP
preparation sufficiently large to provide
all necessary accommodations for them.
Until that is done, the college ought to