Page 18 - To Dragma May 1930

ICAY, 1930 IS

to Barnard graduates was conferred by Columbia. So far was Barnard
regarded merely as machinery for giving women the Columbia courses
that for several years no separate catalogue was published for Barnard.

The working organization of the college in these early days was
largely the result of the efficient efforts of Ella Weed, Vassar, 73, who
for several years acted as executive head of the institution. After Miss
Weed's death, in 1894, it was decided to appoint a dean, and with the
opening of the fall term in that year, Emily James Smith (now Mrs.
George Haven Putnam), a graduate of Bryn Mawr, undertook the re-
sponsibilities of that position. The record of Miss Smith's administra-
tion, extending over a period of about six years, reads like a fairy tale.
When she came to Barnard, the college was still without endowment,
and housed in a converted dwelling totally inadequate for its needs. At
the opening of the college, in 1897, two of three handsome new build-
ings were completed and ready for occupancy, and the third was pro-
vided for and in process of construction. In three years the college
had become possessed of property representing an investment of over
a million dollars; it had acquired a considerable endowment with which
to meet current expenses, and it was able permanently to support three
full professorships in Columbia University. Those who had entered as
Freshmen at the beginning of Miss Smith's administration were able to
spend their Senior year in the new buildings on Morningside Heights, a
stone's throw from the magnificent new home of Columbia. Since that
period of phenomenal prosperity and expansion not a year has passed
without some substantial increase in the material equipment of Barnard.
The most important gift, perhaps, was that of a plot of land immediately
south of the original new site, three times as large, and valued at a mil-
lion dollars, generously presented by Mrs. A. A. Anderson in 1903.

With the year 1900, Barnard College entered upon the second stage
of its development as a collegiate institution. A new agreement with
Columbia was adopted, by which Barnard became one of the colleges
of the university, co-ordinate with Columbia College. As such, it is
entitled to representation through its dean on the University Council,
in like degree with the other schools, and the president of Columbia
becomes ex-ofncio president of Barnard. Barnard now certifies its own
curriculum, though it still refrains from granting degrees, the B.A. re-
ceived by Barnard graduates being conferred by Columbia on the com-
pletion of work equal to that required of graduates of Columbia Col-
lege. Since the new arrangement, an effort has been made to duplicate
at Barnard all courses open to undergraduates, including "university"
courses, so as entirely to separate the undergraduate students of Barnard
^ d Columbia. Formerly, in these "university" courses (i.e., those
which, if taken by one holding a bachelor's degree, would be counted
toward a higher degree), women and men, undergraduates and gradu-
ates were admitted to the same classes, chiefly because of the small
lumber of students electing any one course. Another change due to
the new system is the limitation of registry at Barnard to undergradu-