The Dickenson County herald. [volume] (Clintwood, Va.) 1927-1930, 1930-01-16
MIR. A. Aldo Charles Is Opp sed To A
Separate Liberal Arts College
For Women
GrundY, Va, Jan. 10, 1890,

More has been said about Virgin.
las progress in the past two year:
than about any other state in the I'M
ION. Much of it was based on real &C
complis hments, and much has beer
based on ballyhoo. Her next step il
what she IS pleased to call progress
IS the establishment of Liberia
Arts college for women. Virginia has
| made some progress in her second.
airy schools, but in her higher edu
| cation the whole scheme stands as {
monument to retrogression. A more
wanton waste of the tax payers mon
ey cannot be found in any state uf
dertaking. Not only is there no at.
tempt to improve the situation bu'
the plan recommended for the Liber-
al Arts college indicates that the leg
stature is determined to continue il
! the same rut, making the same er.
rors for which the state supported
colleges of the 18th century are no.
| ted.
AT present we have the University
of Virginia, the Virginia Military In
stitute and the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute almost exclusively for boys
At two of them there is a semblanca
of co-education, but only sem
blance We have then the State
Teachers College at Fredericksburg
the Harrisonburg Normal, the Rad
ford State Teachers College, and
William and Mary College, all state
supported colleges for teacher train
ing. The three former colleges are
almost exclusively for women, witt
William and Mary about equally di
vided l am informed. There may be
others that l do not call to mind a.
present.
These colleges require seven pre-
sidents, seven deans, and at leasF
four times more teachers than SHOULD
be required were they combined un
der one or two administrative heads
Not only this, but duplication of Ii
braries, class rooms. offices, admin
istrative buildings, campuses, and
many other expenses too numerou
to mention. 1t seems to me that pro
gress demands not that we increas
the number. of these institutions bui
that they be materially decrease :
by consolidation. This at once raise
the ballyhoo of co-education. Opposi
ton to co-education is a relic of h
18th century. Yet it seems that eieN
cut of a commission of nine are sti'
-arboring the delusion that co-edu
alton is detrim entail to our horde O.
College students. If the same rat
holds among the rank and file of the
~itizens of the Commonwealth, the
Virginia still stands as one of tn
most unprogressive states of the I'M
ion.
All of the State Normal schools
are small. This necessarily means
that many professors will have small
claeeee ;f +hara &c anv va~'o+v IN +hn
courses offered. I am informed that
many classes do not have 4ec e
i've students. Some of course hav
heir full quota. Where wide choic.
of subjects is allowed, large classe
n small college are rare. The av
erage number of students for each
recitation should be thirty five. With
this as basis let us illustrate TIL
enormous waste under the present
system. Q am confident actual sta
tistics would be startling). If thu
four state supported colleges, Rad
ford, Harrisonburg, Fredericksburg
and William and Mary had the state
appropriation withdrawn, and merge
them with the University of Virgin.
ia, the students would not only re-
ceive the same training but better
training because of better facilities,
and the taxpayers would be rid Of
the burden of the salary of four col
lege presidents, four deans, and two
thirds of the professors of the four
colleges, and all the other necessary
expenses incident to operating col
lege. The class rooms at the Univer-
sity would absorb most of the stu
dents. Only a small increase in the
teaching staff of the University would
be necessary. For instance, if one
professor at Radford had only ten
pupils in American History in his
class, and some of the classes in
American History at the University
had only twenty-five students, the
average being thirty-five, the two
would merge without any increase