Page 16 - To Dragma May 1930

MAY, 1930 13

their success effectually overcame the doubts and hesitation of those
who had reluctantly consented to the experiment.

I t was soon recognized that a system which eliminated college life,
and failed to bring the student within the sphere of those influences
that make a college course something more than a period of acquisition
of so much book-learning, was radically defective and pitifully inade-
quate. The prejudice against co-education was, however, insurmountable,
and the adjustment of the difficulty by opening Columbia's doors to
women on equal terms with men was not, indeed, desired by many of
those most interested in a satisfactory solution of the problem. A plan,
which recognized this deep-rooted prejudice and eliminated co-education
as a cure for the evil, was embodied in a memorial presented to the
trustees of Columbia College in 1888, asking for "official sanction to a
Society for the Instruction of Women by the Professors and Other In-
structors of Columbia College under a management entirely satisfactory
to your honorable Board." This memorial was approved by the trustees
in February, 1889; in July the proposed society was incorporated as
Barnard College (so named in honor of the late President Barnard, of
Columbia) and in October eight students were enrolled as members of
the Freshman class and the institution was an accomplished fact.
No story of this period would be complete without some mention of
Mrs. Annie Nathan Meyer, to whose efforts perhaps more than to those
of any other one person was due the establishment of Barnard College.

From the first, Barnard set for herself high ideals and unflinchingly
followed them. Rather than admit improperly qualified students, she
shut her doors even to those desiring to pursue special courses, unless
the full requirements for entrance to the Freshman class were satis-
fied. This attitude is the more to be commended and admired when
one considers that the college was absolutely without endowment, that
it depended entirely upon tuition fees and private subscriptions for its
support, and that those who successfully passed the entrance examina-
tions were for several years very few in number.

The entrance requirements were identical with those of Columbia,
Greek and Latin (including the history and geography of Greece and
Rome), English, Mathematics, and either French or German being pre-
scribed. The entrance examinations, duplicates of those given at Co-
lumbia, were conducted by Columbia proctors. The Barnard classes
were, from an academic point of view, practically sections of those at
Columbia. They were instructed usually by the men who taught the
corresponding classes at Columbia. The midyear and final examina-
tions in all courses were identical with those given to the men, the ex-
aminations being set and the papers passed upon by the instructor con-
ducting the course at Columbia. The same courses and the same amount
0 1 work were required of Barnard and Columbia students, and prac-
tically the same electives were offered, although the number of so-called
"university" courses open to women was limited by the regulations of
some of the departments. Finally, the degree of bachelor of arts given