University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-02-24
College Has Grown Wonder
fully Since 1t Started so
Years Ago.
SOCIOLOGY IS POPULAR
But Students Have Amuse-
ments, Too-There Are
Picnics and Frolics.

lVassar of Poughkeepsie founded tn,
female college" which was to bear hi.
name. Six years later the word "fe
male was eliminated from the till
of the institution, but in every Othel
respect save one it has grown aston
ishingly.
At that one point, which was boot
|js cks, there has been complete afro
Iphy. The initial endowment bestowed
by Matthew Vassar was about $40O,
100 and incidentally bootjacks in the
proportion of one to a thousand dol
lars of that sum. This is literally
true. The founder provided accommo
dations for 400 students and for every
one he caused to be made, from wal
nut trees on his estate, boOtjack.
This boosjack endowment proved
embarrassingly generous and never
was legitimately exhausted. But along
the line of money the college endow.
ment has progressed until it is 1z
million dollars; the number of pro.
fessors and instructors has jumped
from thirty to more than a hundred !;
the buildings have increased from two
to twenty and the students from 800
to 1,O5s.
The college at first owned 200 acres
about a mile east of Poughkeepsie.
Now it owns 400 acres and leases 500
more which it conducts as farm for
the supply of milk, vegetables and
other products. The water supply,
from springs on the college tract, is
exceptionally pure. In fact the place
is a little world by itself, with its
own heating plants, its own fire pro-
ftection and its own postoffice.
To this little world come annually a
thousand girls. They represent almost
every state in the Union. There
would be many more than a thousand
if the college would receive all who
desire to come, but the trustees have
voted to limit the students to that
number.
+ When it comes to sending a girl or
boy to college the item of cost in
individual cases climbs to unexpected
heights or plunges incredibly near to
bedrock. But at Vassar every girl
pays precisely tie same sums to the
college-$150 year for tuition and
$3.50 a year for board, room and a
limited amount Of laundry"
: There yo are. It's $500 apiece
and everybody takes the same chance.
Money won't buy girl the best room
in college. Some of the richest girls
have had the least desirable rooms,
and the other way about.
President twenty-five Years.
JaTes Monroe Taylor has been at
the head of vassar College twenty
five years. and as Prexys he is affec-
tiOnately known to several thousand |
ax-Vassar girls. He has had his
0eals for them. Seriously-as seri- |
,usly at least as is consistent with |
The humorous twinkle that turks in his
nse:-he has tried to coordinate the
girls and the ideals.
Teaching girl to cook or how to
AXE care of the baby does not appeal
o the president of Vassar as either
necessary or desirable in, a college
course. A mind trained by so-called
higher education is quite as able to II
master the science of cooking as if 1t
lad been fed only on cookbooks, and
has the broader and higher educa-
ion to boot. Here are President Tay-
prs words:
II would so saturate a girls mind Fl
nth poetry, economics, history and
terature that she will have the
ision' when she gets up against pots
nd pans" II
The practical nature Of the courses
onomicsSand sociology is shown
y the subjects; as for instance, mod
m industrial organization, labor prob
ms and socialism, charities and cor
sction, finance, the tariff question and
and social problems of city
fe. Both men and women are onl
le vassar faculty, the professorships +
eing about evenly divided between
lem. Almost without exception the
'sistant instructors are women.
But the girls have their amuse-
ents. too. There are many athletic
tents. there are walks. picnics and
olics. One Of the features of the
hool life is the annual weaving of |
e daisy chain, which. every year.
e girls strive to make longer than
er before. On the many acres which
assar owns and leases are millions
daisies. As soon as they are in
Dom the girls pick them and the
saying begins. 1t only ends when