Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1917-06-29
Association of Women Object to CO.
Ordination of Women's College at
University of Virginia.

One of the most interesting bills
proposed in the Virginia state leg
! is]ature in recent years was the pro.
posal for the coordination of wo-
mems college with the University of
Virginia at Charlottesville. This
measure, which was laid aside for
the time being, is to- be raised in the
near future. Needless to say, many
people in the state frUwn upon the
project, ard a firm stand is being
! taken against it by some of the most
prominent women in the state who
Z style themselves the Association of
Women Opposed to the Coordinate
College Bill" The Gazette has re-
Gently received data from them which
{ outlines some of their definite objec-
lions to the plan
Stated briefly, the main object is
the cost, as by coordination an en-
tirely separate set Of buildings would
have to be erected for the use Of
the fair collegians and operating
expenses would be cut but about bare
twenty-five per cent by the repeating
of such lectures as were possible on
the part of the professors. With this
twenty-five per cent the saving
would end, however. Then it is right
ly estimated that such q college as
the one proposed would be too ex-
pensive for girls of moderate means
and that the small salaries Virginia
pays her school teachers will not JUS
tify an expenditure on their part of
from S1,500 to $4,000 to obtain col
lege education and degree. Besides
this, a third objection is put forth,
that in such college as is planned,
the vital necessity for economy on
the part of the state would result in
the embracing of certain co-educa-
tional features, as this has been the
result of practically every State
university attempting coordination
alone, with the exception of the.
small Delaware college, supported
largely by Federal appropriation.
If a coordinate college were. 20
be established at the University of
Virginia, the, state would lose the
chance for all time of ever building
large women's college to rank with
Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Wellesley, and
others, which is and should be its
proud aim. Therefore, provision
should be made for the children in
the state public schools first, as for
a small part of the money expended
for a coordinate women's college
the state could, better its edu-
cational system in every way,
and in the meantime could
be laying by money to erect large
women's college, to correspond with
but be separate and distinct from
the mans university.
The addition of one other argu-
ment for the side of the opponents
of coordination should be made. The
University of Virginia, as mans
college. has made a name for itself
of which the state and any university
shbdld be proud, and their opposition
to' coordination, which .tksy, sthink
should break down what the school
has accomplished as a vital training
school for men Of worth, is loud-voiced
and strenuous, the most earnest OPP
ponents of its coordination being its
distinguished alumni, A great loss
would result in the number of male
students, and thus by coordination the
state would not only fail to accom-
plish its desideratum Of large and
successful university for its wo-
men, but destroy the unique standing
that the University of Virginia, as
a mans college, has he Id since 1879.