Chairman of the Academic Board.
It may be added as a commentary that the Sargent prize for 1890–91 was won by a student of the “Annex.” This prize is offered to “Undergraduates of Harvard College and students pursuing courses of instruction in Cambridge, under the direction of The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women,” and was awarded for, “The best metrical version of the ninth ode of the fourth Book of Horace.”—Ed.
[5]. The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, being duly incorporated, could also be authorized to confer degrees. But it wisely prefers to await the time when Harvard College will bestow the University degree; meanwhile doing what lies in its power to establish the identity of the work done in the two colleges. In the same way as Evelyn, Barnard College is duly incorporated and is authorized by the Regents of New York State to confer upon its graduates a degree of its own. But Barnard prefers to waive its right and to accept the degree from the parent University, Columbia College.
There is too much pluming of one’s self in this country, on the right to confer a college degree, a right granted by State Legislatures in a lamentably superficial manner. I have received many communications gravely announcing that the degrees conferred by certain colleges are every way equal to those of the greatest and oldest institutions of learning in the country—as the State Legislature—by a special act—“has made them so”(!) I have always failed to see the connection between acts of legislative bodies, and the true greatness of universities.
The trustees of Evelyn College decided to give a separate degree not because Princeton College refused to officially recognize the work of the students of Evelyn, but because thus far (December, 1890) no candidate has been received for a college course answering in every way to that for which the Princeton degree is given. The trustees of Evelyn College gives its graduates a degree which is granted for less work than is demanded by Princeton: (Music and Art are made regular electives, and Greek is not demanded even for entrance examinations).
Even at the risk of repetition, I will here state the relative standing of the three American affiliated colleges. I include the following colleges in the term Affiliated College, because each seeks in some way to extend to women the advantages that are offered to men by another (neighboring) college. Some one has given the raison d’être of the affiliated college to be “the economy which applies to a new purpose resources already organized and tested.”
Harvard Annex, founded in 1879, instruction received from Faculty of Harvard College, admits special students in all departments, gives no degree to its own graduates, prefers to await official recognition from Harvard College.
Evelyn College, founded in 1888, instructions received from Faculty of Princeton College, admits special students, gives its own degree, has never asked for the Princeton degree.
Barnard College, founded in 1889, instruction received from Faculty of Columbia College, no special students admitted except in Laboratory work and Graduate department, degrees conferred by Columbia College. The only affiliated college in the world, so far as I can learn, that has received full official sanction and recognition from the University with which it is affiliated.—Ed.
[6]. Although this remark was made by the late President Barnard, it did not voice the sentiment of those who inaugurated the movement to establish Barnard College. The affiliated college is not always a mere “step toward co-education”; there are many that believe that institutions such as the affiliated colleges, Girton and Newnham (were their graduates entitled to the University degree), best solve the problem of the collegiate education of women to-day. Instruction in undergraduate work is given at the women’s colleges, and is obtained not only from university professors, but also from some able women instructors. But in graduate work, which is the real work of the University, men and women are most properly allowed to attend the lectures together at the University. The vexed problem of co-education becomes a different question as it deals with the undergraduate work of young men and women, or with the university and professional studies of men and women of mature age.—Ed.