The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-29
CITY COLLEGE FOR
 YOUNG WOMEN For Benefit of the Girls Who Cannot Leave Home ARE BROADENING SCOPE The Example of One SeIf-made Col Iege-Libraries and Laboratories Attract Attention of Women
 Students.
ARE BROADENING SCOPE

Providence. June 2S.-(Specia1 )-Urban colleges for women became necessity of city life a few years ago. Osuaiiy they started as "annexes'' of the larger universities which have grown up in the industrial centres and gave young women living in the immediate vicinity d chance to get the benefit of instruction offered by world-famous teachers. The gradual transformation of these colleges into ha- tionaI institutions has proved the Wlsdom of locating them near the libraries ana laboratories of leading universities ana among the activities of busy commercial communities.
 There are In general, without reference to the co-educational institutions, two types of colleges for women. The oiuer ones were usually placed at some dis tance from a large city, for when college education for women was first lnangura- ted a generation ago the training was conceived primarily to be for the penenl of daughters of well to do families At tractiveness of location was made hfst consideration Tn creating the college home, so that for obvious reasons the colleges were founded in rural or semi rural communities.
 
 facilities for the higher education or young women who for one reason or an- other could not leave home, led to the foundation of such institutions as Bar nard college, connected with Colunpla university; Radcliffe, now under the proteetorate of Harvard and the Wom- en's college of Brown university in froV- idence. These are primarily city colleges. They all began with meagre equipment
 ..;o tn fba IT, tunities afforded by the apparatus ot scholarship that heretofore was aecessl- b1e only to men students. Although s1t- uated in cities where land is valuable, they have, while growing In numbers ana influence, developed an attraetiVeness or their own, the result of beautiful libra ries gymnasums and dormitorles, well arranged campuses and facilities for so- cial life.
 Each type of womens college has Its advantages. With the older institutions, with their social festivities, their float days and mountain climbing parties, the public has become very familiar through pictures and descriptions It is probably not generally appreciated, however, 10 what an extent the urban schools for the higher education of girls have been de- veloped and made an essential part or city life.
 
 The women's college in a village or in the open country Is necessarily some what apart from the great world. There is an idea In 1t of Arcadian simplicity and academic seclusion. The young women lodged in dormitories which LOOK out over a pleasant prospect or Woods and hills, go through period Of study and fun making in which their life is little different from that in most Ameri- can families. Poetry art, pure science and the other subjects of the course they study, oftentimes perhaps with a feeling that they have reached a plane of ac- tiyities somewhat above the sordid pur- suits at home. where father comes in tired and cross from wrangling with a labor union leader as to who shall dom mate his factory, and where mother regularly gets nervous prostration dur ing spring house cleaning. A course at many of the women's colleges In the country means a season of preparation for the tasks of everyday life through indulgence in the dreams and romantic aspirations which to a considerable ex- tent are the natural right of youth.
 The city college for women, In practi- cally every instance, came into existence because of the conviction that the accu- mulated treasures of great eastern uni- versity ought not to be permanently in- accessible to women, and that a stair or renowned teachers ought not to live and die without delivering some message to the womanhood around them. For many reasons many girls cannot desert their home duties during the period of college education. These girls if they go to col lege at all, must be able to live at home. To make a place for their training was, therefore, the prime idea in creating the colleges now affiliated with several of the eastern universities. As Miss Lida Shaw King dean of the Womens college at Brown. wrote in a recent magazine ar tiele: ",oo much emphasis cannot, l think. be laid upon this function. proba- bly the prime function, of the college sit- uated in the populous district-to give college education to these young men and young women who for one cause or an- other must get their education at home or go without. It becomes especially im- 4portant If the college be a women's col lege. Girls can leave home less easily than boys. Parents are less apt to see the necessity of a college education for their girls than their boys, and are un- willing to incur the greater expense of sending them away to college. For many girls there are home cares from which the boys are exempt, and from many is demanded a contribution to the life of the household from which the boys are readily excused"
 In the women's colleges founded to fulfill this purpose it has been discov- cred that the advantages of the location tend more and more to cause the insti- tutions very shortly to cease being mere ly local.
 As one source of attendance from out side there are many country girls io whom the chance of getting college ed ucation in the city is as valuable as are facilities for college education in the country to the city girls whose means permit For the young woman from the farm or the village four years at'an urban school for the higher education not only means learning the subjects which an ed heated person ought to know and which make both for general culture and for usefulness as a wage-earner or as wife and mother but at the same time 1t sig