University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1909-10-05
WOMEN IN GERMAN UNIVERSITY,
Heidelberg Students Favor FOREIGN
More Than Native Goods,

More Than Native Goods.
Miss Reba Hurn of Spokane, Wash,
who has spent a year at the German
University of Heidelberg, is thus quot
ed in local newspaper. after you
have registered at the University of
Heidelberg and have decided upon the
lectures you wish to attend, it is nee
essary to call upon each of the pro-
fessors to inquire whether it is agree
able to them to have you join their
classes. | have never heard of any
professor in Heidelberg refusing to
receive student but friend of mine
who was studying in Leipsic when |
was at Heidelberg told ME that there
was one professor who CURLY declined
to receive any woman student, be-
cause he didn't believe in the higher
education of women. There were
| about sixty women at Heidelberg
when | was there, mostly Germans
and the majority OF them were study
ing medicine
Il wish you could see the German
coed. She doesn't look young, and
she is invariably specialized and al
ways solemn. There is one woman's
society at Heidelberg that resembles
little one of our sororities here,
only the members never seem to have
any fun when they get together. |
was invited to attend one of the meet
inSs which was held, of course, in a
restaurant. No society ever thinks
of meeting anywhere but in a restau-
rant in Germany. Only four people
attended this meeting and it was
dreary affair, for only the most seri-
Gus subjects were discussed.
While the men students seem not
to object to the presence OF foreign
women at Heidelberg, they 90 resent
the presence OF German girls, for the
professions are so overcrowGed in
that country that they fear the
threatened competition of the other
sex. Perhaps that's one reason why
the German coed seems so strong
mlnded-even masculine. | suppose
it is only that type that, so far, has
dared enter the universities. You
may be sure that none of them ever
thinks of INDUCING in college 'larks.'
Student life at Heidelberg is the
most leisurely in the world. The
professors seldom are on time for the
lectures, and hours are wasted wait
ing for them to put in an appearance.
Then there are long vacations in both
winter and summer and so many holt
dents spend most of their leisure time
studying. You see if they pass the
oral and written examinations at the
end OF the course the government is
pledged to find them positions. | pre-
sumo that's why those examinations
are so difficult. If more students
passed them there wouldn't be posi-
tons enough to so around.
of course there are few annoy
ing determinations against the for
elgn woman student. Unless she is
willing to take the time to go through
tlresome red tape preliminaries she
is not permitted access to the iibrar-
les, but can only be what is known as
a 'hearer'-an attendant of the lee
lures. Men students, upon registra.
ton, are admitted to all the privileges
of the university. | have a degree of
B. A. from the Northwestern Univer-
sity but was merely 'hearer,' while
boys who had merely a high school
education in this country had the use
of the libraries.
THE charm about student life at
Heidelberg, especially for an Ameri-
can girl, is that tits different from
any form of student life to which she
has been accustomed. And it is some
thing for her to be able to say that
she has attended a university that
was founded a century before her own
country was discovered"