The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-12
O-EDUCATION AT WESLEYAN.
A Womans Plea for Its Continu-
 ance.

A Woman's Plea for Its Continu- TTp to this time no word has been spoken by the women of Wesleyan uni
 versity in regard to their attitude to-
 ward the problem of co-education in
 that institution. There have been sev-
 eral reasons for this silence on their part, perhaps the most pertinent being that there was no organ for the expres-
 sion of their opinion open to them. A
 free and open discussion through the
 college and church periodicals would have put the matter in clearer and fairer light before the friends of the
 college and the general public. Now
 that the young alumni have reported it | is certainly only just that a word should
 be said for the alumnae. Residence or
 a diploma being nine points in their fa-
 vor, they would like to ask "Why?" be-
 fore losing even the tenth. No general vote has been taken on the question of. co-education among the girls, but it Is
 safe to say that majority would vote
 in favor of the system as 1t now stands.
 This must not be mistaken for an argu-
 ment For co-education in general; time
 would fail me to tell of Michigan, of Ohio Wesleyan or of Cornell. But for
 co-education at Wesleyan there are ar
 guments good and fair and true.
 Important among these is the ac-
 knowledged superiority of the standard
 of Wesleyan. Not the standard in ath-
 letics, but in scholarship, which has
 kept pace with and often led the best
 colleges in America. The women who
 enter Wesleyan do so, not with the idea
 that the adoption of masculine tradi- i tions Is essential to female emancipa-
 tion''--few of them know the traditions, | and none of them care for the enamel
 pation-but with the knowledge that l they can get at Wesleyan courses that 1 no woman's college offers them, If it is cruelty wrong for girl to want to make
 the most of her life and education, Wesleyan is at fault, for the girls are too much in earnest to prefer courses 1 in art and music to a solid foundation l III UlSliy anu IltEIdlQIE. All llldl t
 woman needs for useful life she can
 get at Wesleyan. Those who choose a profession before leaving college study
 with that end in view; and will any one pretend that the others are not better daughters, better sisters and better church workers than those who attend- ed woman's college?
 Closely allied to- the argument based on the breadth of courses is that of the position our faculty holds in the college world. Here and there a womnn's name is recognized as connected honorably with certain college. No region, on the contrary, is so remote as not to associ- ate Wesleyan with one or the other of her famous professors.
 The idea that college life among the girls at Wesleyan is at low ebb or ex- tinct is so false that one would almost supect the young men of one-sided in- vestigations. The girls first of all stu dents. but they are the happiest and healthiest of students, Exercise of the | best kind, long walks over the hills and fields, make them equal to any tasks, 1 and even to the demands of society. | The social side of Wesleyan among the girls is anything but the sadly isolated | life that some kind friends imagine. l Every girl Is friend of every other girl, every class entertains every other | class, and the government by and for | themselves is a model for other colleges. | There are two fraternities and one local | society. The life in these societies Is, perhaps, more ideal and far richer in ! content than that of those who find ex- pression in badly harmonzed minors in the stilly night. In addition to their own life, invitations from town and the Fraternity houses oftener than not find the girls nonplused for time and extra | work. Co-education in New England ! may not be a success, but co-education in Middletown is popular if we leave out of the account the undergraduates who, like the crows in the fable, mis- take their own voices for the general sentiment. Among the stanchest friends of the cause are the residents of that old town.
 One class of girls who prefer Wesley an has been entirely disregarded by the advocates of the coordinate system That is the large class of those who se- feet Wesleyan because of it's inexpen- siveness. Careful comparisons have shown that life at Wesleyan is cheaper than at any college for women of the first rank Taking this in connection with the high standard, and what man or woman would not choose Wesleyan? The annex would not only increase the expense for the college, it would in- crease the expense for the individual girl. Another faculty equal to the pres- ent one would be impossible. Fewer girls desirous of an education would come, the standard would go down, and Wesleyan would be left with an empty building, a huge debt and no friends but the younger ment.-Mary Grace l. Thompson in the New York Christian Advocate.
 Announcement.