Page 15 - To Dragma May 1930

12 To DRAGMA

Better than that, however, are the increasing strength of the nu-
cleus and the right which these chapters have to feel themselves a firm
foundation for the future of Alpha Omicron Pi to be built upon.

Barnard College, the Home of Alpha Chapter.

There has been so much misconception as to the relation of Barnard
College to Columbia University that it may not be amiss briefly to sum-
marize the situation even at the risk of reiterating much that is familiar
to many of our readers. I n the first place, Barnard is not part of a
co-education institution, in the narrower and more usual sense of that
term; neither is it a separate college for women, as that designation is
generally applied. Indeed it is difficult to label the college in any simple
and comprehensive way, for its position is unique and any categorical
designation, therefore, demands definition. Perhaps the phrase that has
frequently been used, "affiliated college," is the most satisfactory: it
has, at least, the merit of not having been applied to anything that
Barnard has not been, though it is theoretically an inaccurate descrip-
tion of what Barnard is now. To define our phrase so that it may serve
to describe Barnard College in the two stages of its development, we may
say that an affiliated college for women is one which furnishes to those
matriculated as its own students' instruction qualifying them for the re-
ceipt of a degree from the university with which it is affiliated. This
definition is adopted for the sake of convenience, though it is framed to
fit the college to which the phrase is applied rather than the scope of
the term in its ideal sense. I t will, moreover, be noticed that the defini-
tion excludes from the class of "affiliated colleges" those institutions com-
monly known as "annexes" which confer their own degrees upon gradu-
ates, though furnishing their students, through association with other
institutions, the advantages of tuition by instructors employed in the
corresponding college for men.

The relations of Barnard and Columbia may be better understood
if something is known of the story of the foundation of the former. The
first definite step to give women equal educational opportunities with
men in the city of New York was taken in the year 1885. I n that year
the earnest and unremitting efforts of those who had been working to
this end, aided by the approval and co-operation of the more progressive
element in the faculty of Columbia College, overcame the doubts of the
conservative authorities of that institution so far as to bring about the
offer of the Columbia degree to any woman who should for four con-
secutive years pass the required undergraduate examinations. No
preparation for these examinations was given by Columbia, and in some
instances the entire scope of the class work was changed without the
formality of notice to those who were working (beyond the college
walls) to obtain the coveted degree. To the untiring labors and pa-
tient endeavors of those who pursued their studies under such great dis-
advantages, Barnard College owes an inestimable debt of gratitude, for