THE ELON COLLEGE WEEKLY.
January 25, 1911.
s
THE ELON COLLEliE UEEKL\.
Published every Wednesday during the
College year by
The Weekly Publishing Company.
W. P. Lawrence, Editor.
E. T. Hines, R. A. Campbell, Affie Griffin,
Associate Editors.
W. C. Wicker, Circulation Manager.
T. C. Amick, Business Manager.
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT.
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All matter pertaining to subscriptions
should be addressed to W. C. Wicker,
Elon College, N.C.
IMPORTANT.
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College, N. C., where all communica
tions relative to the editorial work of
the Weekly should be sent. Matter
relating to the mailing of the Weekly
should be sent to the Greensboro office.
Entered as second-class matter at the
post-office at Greensboro, N. C.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARW 18, 1911.
WHAT IS THESIS?
Students coming up for graduation, year
after year, fail to grasj) correctly the
idea in the word “thesis.” A thesis
is not a narrative, a story, neither is it
a debate, an argument nor an essay. A
tliesis is the orderly setting forth of
information or conclusions, and perhaps
both, arrived at by personal investiga
tion. Now any senior who is carrying his
full fifteen Iicmi’s cannot do tliat work
and gather material an.l write, what in
reality is a thesis. It appears that Elon
is not going to be able to teach emphat
ically what a thesis is until some debate,
essay, or najrative offered as a thesis is
refused by the Thesis Committee and the
student offering it barred from gradua
tion iintil such time as he shall present
f. thesis. The thesis subject should be
definitely decided upon by the end of the
Junior year and investigation begun at
once.
The teaching of a young mind how’ to
do original investigation is not the least of
the useful truths that a college course
ought to teach. The original investiga
tors liave proven the greatest benefactors
of the race. The inventors come in this
class, so do the great scientists and the
great' historians.
A pertinent question was raised recent
ly by a valued patron of the College. It
was whether the College acts fair witli the
y.atrons, or with the students either so
long as poor deportment is the only bar
to membership in the College. It is a
question that students as well as parents
should consider. The patron above allu
ded to believes that there should be a
regulation debarring students who fail on
their examinations and their term work
from further membership in the College.
This regulation, he believes, would raise
the percentage of studiousness.
Many institutions have such a ruling.
One college in this state, we understand
dropped sixty students at Christmas be
cause they failed to pass on the required
percentage of their work. Shall Elon have
such a regulation?
THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF
WOMEN.
By Thomas C. Amick.
(Continued from last week.)'
The next step made in England towards
the higher education of women was taken
in 1871 when Professor Henry Sidgwick
of Cambridge took the lead in founding
Newnham College. This college also found
abundant support materially and morally,
and hence it flourishes. The ever increas
ing number of students has occasioned
its enlargement from time to time until
it is one of the best of the colleges of the
country.
These colleges had many difficulties to
meet before they gained the recognition
of the other colleges of England, and be
fore they succeeded in proving to the
world that they were doing that same class
of work that the male colleges were doing.
As yet their graduates had not been ad
mitted to the universities. It was the cus
tom in the English Universities that the
graduates had a right to vote in their af
fairs, and for this reason the prejudices
of the men were aroused against the ad
mission of women. But in 1881 a motion
was made to admit the women of 'Girton
and Newnham Colleges to the Tripos Ex
aminations of Cambridge University. The
vote of the University Senate was to be
taken on February 24th of the same year.
Several of the formost professors second
ed the movement. I will quote from a re
port from Newnham College Commemora
tion Day an account of the events that
made that day famous as a red letter day
in the annals of Girton and Newnham Col
leges :
“The 24th came at last, and never be
fore were seen so many old fashioned
gowns, that seemed to have lain away un-
nsed for years, and whose wearerS had
hastened from all parts of England to
take part in the memorable Senate ses
sion. An unusual number of voters was
present. Outside, mounted messengers of
Girton and Newnham waited in breathless
expectation to take the first news to their
colleges. To the friends of our cause in
the senate the question seemed dubious
until the vote was taken and the solemn
and ceremonious ‘placet’ or ‘non placet'
was pronounced by each voter.
Even to the most sanguine the result
was a great and joyful surprise, for our
cause had won with 398 against 32 votes;
and thus the day was ours. Little was
done at Newnham that daj-, and the groups
of expectant students in the halls received
the bringer of glad tidings with an enthus
iasm that will never be forgotten by those
present. ’ ’
This was the final goal to which Girton
and Newnham Colleges aimed. Yet the
women did not gain all, although they
gained much. Since admission to a de
gree allows participation in the affairs
of the university, women have not j-et been
admitted to the degrees. They have gain
ed all in reality, yet not all in name. Prob
ably the time is not far distant when
women will be admitted to the degiees in
Cambridge University.
The result of the admission of momen
to Cambridge was that in Oxford,^ Lady
Margaret Hall and Sommerville Hall were
opened for women. These institutions have
practically the same kind of management
as the crresponding colleges in Cambridge.
The next forward movement made in
England for the higher education of wo
men was in 1878 when London Universi
ty opened its doors to women for all the
degree courses except in medicirre. For
the accommodation of these women stu
dents College Hall was built. Later, W est
field College was built to meet the press
ing need for quarters.
It might be of interest in passing to
note that when the vote was taken on the
admission of women to the different de
partments of the University of London, it
stood as follows: in Arts, the vote was 80
for admission, and 20 against; in science,
the vote stood 89 for, and 11 against; but
in medicine, the vote was 21 for, and 79
against. Thus women were admitted to
degrees in arts and science, but refused
admittance to the degree in medicine.
Among the other English female colleg
es, there is one that deserves special men
tion on account of its princely buildings.
This is Royal Holloway College opened i»
1880. The buildings alone cost over three
million dollars. Its picture gallel'y is
worth four hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. The college has every modern
equipment and appliance. This college was
founded and has since been largely en
dowed by Thomas Holloway in accordance
with the wishes of his wife. It shows the
large hearted interest the movement for
woman’s higher education has awakened
in England.
The next struggle that women had in
England was for admission to tlie colleges
of medicine. In this, our own country
took the lead, for by the vote of the stu
dents of Geneva Medical Colleges of New
York, Miss Elizabeth Blackwell was ad
mitted in 1844. Ever since that time diff
erent medical colleges in America have
been o])ening their doors to women.
But the struggle was harder in England.
When in 1809 Miss Jex Blake and a few
companions were admitted to the medical
school of the University of Edinbuig, the
“scenes” enacted were such as to cause
them to leave. The result was that Doc
tor Anstie espoused the cause of the w'o-
men and founded an independent medical
college for women in 1874. Since that time
London University has opened its medical
department to women and others of the
universities have followed her lead.
So today practically all the colleges and
universities of England have opened their
doors and have espoused the cause of the
higher education of women. As a result,
trained women fill many of the most hon
orable positions in England, man hospi
tals, run the schools, go as medical mis-
si(maries to India and all parts of the
heathen world, and she wields an influence
every where commensurate with her power
of mind and grasp of the problems of the
day. And we have a right to expect that
a country tliat has given the world such
women as Elizabeth. Anne, and Victoiia,
will yet do mudi more than she has al
ready done for the ennoblement and ele
vation of God's last act of creative
genius.
We will nuw take a brief glance at what
the other countries of Europe are doing
for the higher education of women. In
Germany, w'e have the opposite of what we
find in England. If a German girl as
pires to a college or university education,
she must leave her native land to get it.
True, Germany admits girls to her ele
mentary schools and her normal schools,
but unto the present all the German uni
versities and institutions of higher learn
ing are closed against the knock of woman.
And woman is not considered capable of
teaching in the high schools of Germany!
Only in the lower grades are women admit
ted as teachers. Some German women go
to France or England and take University
work, but the number is comparatively
small. Surely the land of Goethe and
Schiller will soon wake up and begin to
pay the debt of a higher education that it
owes to the women of the land.
France began to open the doors of her
colleges and universities to women in 1866.
From 1866 to 1882 one hundred and nine
academic degrees were conferred on wo
men. Steps were speedily tak’en favorable
to women after the downfall of the Second
Empire in 1871. The government became
convinced of the fact that the elevation of
the whole ])eople is only possible by means
of an elevation of its women. The expres
sion of Camille See is worth quoting: “Our
law is a mcn-al as well as a social and pol
itical law; it concerns the futui’e security
of France, for upon the women depends
the greatness or decay of nations.” Since
this time France has expended millions of
dollars for the intellectual uplift of wo
man .
Switzerland early opened her universi
ties to women; Zurich in 1868, and Geneva,
Berne, and others followed in quick suc
cession. In the universities of Switzer
land women have the same duties, and
they also have the same rights and priv
ileges thai men have. This country set
an example that is worthy of the liberty
loving Swiss.
The year 1870 was a red letter year
with the women of Sweden, for in that
year the. Swedish Univei-sities opened
their doors to women. Since 1873, women
can acquire the same degrees that men
can acquire in arts and in medicine. It
is to be noted here that the young men in
Sv. odish Universities are very exemplary
in their conduct to the young women.
It was five years later, in 1875, that
the universities of Denmark were opened
to women. Here women receive every ad
vantage and opportunity that men re
ceive and compete for all the degrees ex-
cejit the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
These rigid follow’crs of Luther would
have no women preaching fron.
pits.
The better educated class of Italians
has never stoutly opposed the higher edu
cation of women. The opposition has
generally arisen among the ignorant and
supei’stitious class of people. However,
the Minister of Public Instruction, Bon-
ghi, opened the University of Italy to
it’s good Work that Counts
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