Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-04-28
THE WoMAN's COLLEGE At tn!
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA


UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
There has been no little discussion
aroused In the State over proposition
to place college for the higher educa-
ton of women at Charlottesville as q
coordinate institution with the Uni
versity of Virginia. Most of those
who have taken part in the discussion
seem to have false impression Of
what the projected plan really is; they
seem to think that it means co-educa-
ton, the admission of women to the
same classes with the men with FRO
fessor teaching both sexes at the same
time, but this is not at all what is in
tended. The plan is to have a woman's
college, coordinate, but not identical,
with the University, in which courses
of instruction will be given that Will
be of equal scope and thoroughness
with those given the male students;
delivered by the University professor,
but at different lecture hours and
probably in different lecture halls.
This is not co-education; it is but CIV
ing to such female students as may de-
sire them, equal facilities to acquire a
higher education that are now afforded
to male students
That some such plan be adopted is
only simple justice to the studious
young women of the State. The Uni
versity of Virginia declares itself the
cap-stone of the public school system
and it is on this ground that it is sup
ported out of public funds. The State
says to young men who graduate from
the public high schools that they may
continue their pursuit of the higher
learning, as they did at school, at pub
lie expense, deeming the money well
spent in getting in return numbers of
highly qualified and cultured men, but
to the young women who have gradu-
ated from the public high schools, the
State says nothing. If they desire to
carry on their studies beyond the in
troductory stages given by the high
schools, they must do SO at their own
ex pense-which in most cases means
that is cannot be done at all. If
classical education be of Talue to our
young men, it will equally throw an
atmosphere of culture and refinement
about our women, though this will
only follow when the education is rich
and full. A mass of misunderstood,
ill-digested, and badly arranged learn
ing, large part of which is incorrect,
simply makes a pedaEtic, dogmatlc
and prejudiced mind, and it is the lack
of the broadening, liberalizing effect
Of true university training that has
given rise to much of the prejudice
against higher education for women.
To get this real culture it has been
been necessary for our Virginia; or we
may say our Southern, girls to 90
north or abroad to reach the institu-
lions that would supply it to them.
The Southern schools whose graduates
have made, in large measure, the his
tory of our land, were closed to them,
and Finishing school" marked the
limit of their opportunities. At the
present time, Randolph Macon Wo-
mans College enlarges the scope for
Southern girl, but it affords merely a
collegiate course and serves but as an
introduction to true university Elm
struction. Is it not time that our
women be enabled to study amongst
their own people? Is it not a reproach
to Virginia and the South that they
cannot do so?
Having at hand great university
of wide fame, it seems that common
sense would dictate that it be used to
the fullest extent. By establishing in
Charlottesville separate, coordinate
institution for women, if need be I'M
der a different name, such as the JEFF
ferson College for Women, the useful
ness of the present establishment
would be doubled. Columbia Univer-
sity in New York has such an adjunct
in Barnard College; Harvard, Cornell,
and even staid old Oxford, have CO.
ordinate-not co-educational depart
ments for women, and so far the writer
is aware No dire results have followed.
There seems no valid objection to the
proposed plan, while there are many
advantages that will spriis lg5.n it.