The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-23
WESLEYAN SOLVES CO-EDUCATION PROBLEM Will Build Separate College for the Fair Sex in
 Middletown. PRESIDENT RESIGNS Considers That His Life's
 Work Is Now
 Finished.
PRESIDENT RESIGNS

-"
 Middletown, Conn.,, July PA new women's college for Connecticut the first to be established in this State, is one of the plans that VIII materlaiize on the retirement next year of President Bradford P, Raymond of Wesleyan university. For the last ten years President Raymond backed by a ma jority of the board of trustees of Wes- leyan, has waged losing war in the interests of co-edueation here. The Wesleyan undergraduates and a large proportion of the alumni are strongly opposed to the "quails," as they ir- reverently call the few women who have had nerve enough to stand this opposition to their presence and study atWesleyan in the same classes with the men. This antagopism has increas- ed yearly until some two years ago th9 men, being in the great majority, voted practically to put the women members of the class out of the class day exercises of commencement week and sidetrack them entirely. For a few rounds it was war to the teeth the faculty ranging up in sympathy with the men or opposed to them, according t9 their ideas on the co-education sub iect. Finally the board of trustees vot- ed to limit the number of women stud ents each year to less than 20 per cent, of the total number of students of the preceding year. But the rule has never been needed, because the number of wimen applicants has steadily decreas- q until hardly score have been at the university the last year.
 There is a general feeling that the coed plan has been a flat failure and that with the retirement of President Raymond some new scheme will be outlined,
 The new plan, which 1t is hoped may prcpitiate both parties, is the establish ment here of a separate women's col lege, the faculty to consist of Wes- leyan professors and instructors. Un- der this plan the women would do their work entirely separate from the men, using their own recitation halls. Tn the laboratory work cerltation halls. In the laboratory work certain days could be set apart for their work in the Wesleyan laboratories. Tn the classes for advanced degree the plan followed at Yale of allowing the men and wo- men to take the same courses would mean the establishment of a college that would occupy the same relative position to Wesleyan that Radcliffe College does to Harvard University.
 Scores of alumni and practically all the undergraduates of Wesleyan are heartily in favor of this plan, the prop osition to be solved being the selection of a new president who will stand on this platform.
 Although a dozen names have been mentioned, including the presidents of several Methodist colleges of the East and Middle West, the committee select ed to look up the new president has not met as yet and no prominent can didate has appeared in the field.
 Although President Raymond has been so ardent a packer of the co-ed- ucational proposition here, he has nev- ertheless been the most successful col lege president in the history of Wes- leyan and no head of Wesleyan ever approached him in popularity both with the undergraduates and the alum nj. His retirement at the close of the present year is regretted by thousands of alumni and all those who during their college course have come to know him well and admire him sincerely.
 He came to Wesleyan in 1889 when the college was just emerging from a stormy experience under the leadership of his predecessor and he took hold of things here with firm hand. He show ed the same determination in untang- ling affairs here that he showed when, in his undergraduate days, he had the distinction of being the only college student in the country to build up a college for his own personal use.
 The story was that President Ray mond, when still in his teens entered Hamlin University, which was sltuat- ed just outside of St. Paul, Minn. When he reached his sophomore year there the college or university suspended op- eratiens because of lack of funds Inn mediately when young Raymond heard of this he called meeting of some of the undergraduates and suggested that the boys get together and establish university of their own, paying the fac ulty themselves. Through the energy and push of the ringleader this plan was carried out, the members of the faculty remaining through the year and instructing the students, the latter pay ing their salaries.
 From there President Raymond went to Lawrence University, Appleton, wis, from which he received his degree and of which he was president later, com ing from there to Middletown. Measured in dollars and cents his success here can be judged from the increased funds now at the disposal of the university. When he took hold of affairs here the funds of Wesleyan, real and personal, did not exceed $5O9.0O0 with an endow- ment of $69S,000 Up to date the real and personal property of the universi- ty exceeds $973, ,000, with an endowment of $1,572,0 ,0OO, making q total of $2,545,0OO.
 In addition about $50O000 has been spent for new university buildings since President Raymond took the chair there, with $20O000 expended for new fraternity buildings, put up by the alumni and students, and which solve the dormitory question for Wesleyan.
 In his financial relations with the students he has been unusually helpful, for it had been a great source of pride hi ,,1 5o