The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1922-02-22
GOUCHEP WOMEN WANT
NON-SECTAnlAN RULE
MARYLAND Girls From Outside OF
Baltimore Represent Fifteen
Different Denominations.
TRYING TO GET NEW CHARTER

Baltimore - Efforts by. the gradu-
ates and officials of GOucher College
to secure a new charter from the
Maryland legislature which will make
elections to the board of trustees in
dependent of church CONTROL were Civ
en- new impetus by the analysis, just
completed, of the religious affiliations
of the Seventy-eight GOucher students
now attending the college from fifty
three Maryland towns and cities out
side of Baltimore. The analysis shows
that the girls are members of fifteen
different churches or denominations,
and that only twenty-five are men,
bers of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, certain members of which are
fighting the new charter in an attempt
to gain control of the college.
From Nineteen Counties
teen Maryland counties: Allegheny,
Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Caroline,
Carroll, Dorchester Frederick, Gar
rett, Hartford, Howard, Kent, Mont
gomery, Prince Georges. Queen Annes,
Somerset, Talbot, Washington, Wico-
mico and Worcester. The undenomi
national character Of the undergradu-
ates is shown by the fact that the
girls who attend the college from these
counties represent the following
churches: Protestant Episcopal, Meth
odist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Jew
ish, Lutheran. Methodist Protestant,
Friends. Roman Catholic, Baptist
Christian Science. United Brethren,
Church of Jesus Christ. Disciples of
Christ. CongregHtionalist and Reform
ed
Rights of Graduates
''Sectarian control has its place"
said Mrs. William V. Hayes, president
If the GOuchcr Aumnae Council, in
commenting on the survey, "particu-
iarly when the students of college
re all of the same faith But when
fifteen different faiths are represent
ID, as is tie case at GOucl.er then the
students and alumnae have a right to
Independent control. without regard
to creed or denomination"
GOucher College, founded in 1885,
is one of the six colleges for women
placed in Glass by the United States
Bureau of Education. Of the five
rthers. Rrvn Mawr, Mount Holyoke,
smith Wellesley and Vassar, the
records show that not one is, or
ever has been, under sectarian or de-
n0minationaI control. Such control,
in the judgment of the secretary of
Princeton University. as expressed in
IA recent statement, tends "tO throttle
administrative independence"
Statements indorsing GOucher's eff
fort to retain its nOn-Sectarian, char
aeter said President William w. Guth,
himself Methodist minister, have
been received from dozens Of college
presidents and educators of national
repute.
New York Leads Opposition
Objection to Goucher's position in
the controversy was inspired not by
the MARYLAND Conference of the Meth
odist Church, but by the Board of
Education, in New York, according t.
Judge Morris A. Soper, one of the
trustees The stand taken by this
Board of Education, after many long
Ayears of Indifference toward the col
lege, is proving very embarrassing,
said Mr.. SOper. in view of the fact
that many thousands of dollars have
been given the college on the ground
that it is independent of any church
control.
Though Goucher was incorporated
strictly as a nOn-sectarian institution,
the amended charter in 1914 gave GER
tain conferences of the Methodist Epfs-
copal Church the right to nominate
trustees, in exchange for certain
pledges of financial support.
Old Arrangement Failed
That this arrangement failed in both
respects, say the college officials, is
shown by the fact that the confer
ences have neither exercised their
rights of nomination nor fulfilled their
pledges of support. The Baltimore
Conference paid GO per cert of its
pledge, one of the Pennsylvania Con.
ferences 40 per cent, two conferences
paid about - per cent, and one con-
ference nothing at all. None of the
conferences nominated trustees be-
tween 1914 and 1921, until the New
York body made its effort to put the
college under church discipline. It is
this narrowing outside control, says
Judge Soper, that the trustees wish
to deny, aiming to preserve, as in the
past, the most cordial relations with