Butler University - Carillon / Drift Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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College Girls CHE word co-eil seems to nie a term prompted by masculine vanity. From the girl ' s point of view, her brother is being co-educated as much as her- self. The co-ed would seem to be a girl who is graciously permitted to attend a boys ' school, while, as a matter of fact, in the co-educational colleges the girls rather outnumber the boys, and take quite as active an interest in most of the college enterprises. There is no denying, however, that one who has been ac- customed to a college for girls only, finds a decided differ- ence in attitude in coming to a place where boys and girls share the college life together. It seems to me inevitable that a college where only one sex is represented should have greater unity of spirit and feel- ing. Only one set of interests exists, and the energy of the whole college is bent toward them. For instance, take the important subject of athletics. The girls in the women ' s colleges have their various teams — not football to be sure, but basket-ball, hockey, tennis, sometimes rowing. They are carefully trained by competent gymnastic instructors. They have exciting athletic meets, where the different classes compete, and, although no special emphasis is laid on record-breaking, their performances in running, jumping, and so on, are worthy of some respect. They even play games with other girls ' colleges, although this is not encour- aged to any great extent. In other words, they have a hearty athletic life of their own. Now, the girl in the co- educational school plays a little tennis, perhaps a little bas- ket-ball. She is given some instruction in gymnastic work, but in a rather perfunctory way, for the great expenditure of time and energy must be put upon the boys. They are the ones who will win athletic prestige for the college, and athletic prestige, whether we wish it or not, is the strongest power in bringing a college to the front to-day. So the place of the girl is in the audience. By the inspiration of her pres- ence, she is supposed to do her part toward winning the game. Much the same situation exists in regard to debating and oratory. Although occasionally a feminine orator comes forward, and does well, she is looked at a little askance, and even those who consider themselves liberal in all things edu- cational, are not quite happy at seeing their college repre- sented by a girl. In dramatics, of course, we have a different condition. No woman, Sarah Bernhardt to the contrary, can make an absolutely satisfying man. Especially is it difificult when a conservative Dean refuses to admit the masculine costume in its entirety. A dress coat and boiled shirt, completed by gymnasium bloomers, gives one something of a shock at first. Yet it must be said that while the co-educational dra-

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matic clubs ha ' e the opportunity to give more complete pro- ductions than those in the women ' s colleges, they do not, as a rule, spend so much time and thought on them on account of their other social interests. The social life, and particularly the inflvience upon it of the fraternities, which are so important in the co-educational schools, can not be discussed at length here. It seems to me, however, that the absence of fraternities is another reason for the strength of class and college spirit found in the wom- en ' s colleges. But I may be accused of testifying against the co-ed, instead of paying ' her m v compliments. What can be said on the other side ? In the first place, we may refute one time-worn argument — that the girl who is educated with men tends to become mannish. In my opinion this education is the very one to make her feminine. Tiie real men are there ; she has no need to manufacture any. She is far more likely to watch the boys in rough and tumble sports than to try them her- self, while her sister of the woman ' s college, away from pr -- ing manly eyes, is perhaps more daring. She is more used to masculine companionship, less likely to become either a coquette or a prude, than the girl who spends four years of her life almost entirely apart from men. Also, she is inclined to take a somewhat broader, saner view of things ; she is not so likely to think that college is every- thing and the world outside amounts to nothing. Perhaps one might say that she does not need to make such a com- plete readjustment when her college life is over. Because, •when one has been living in a world of women, and comes suddenly into the bigger world, there is something of a jolt. She is likely to be rather more mature, not intellectually, but in social experience. On the whole, I should say that the woman who has developed abnormal capacity along any par- ticular line would be more apt to be graduated from a wom- an ' s college, while co-education gives a training, better rounded, perhaps, and rather more conventional. At any rate, the co-ed needs no apology, and no de- fense; she has established her place. She takes her life a little less seriously than did her mother and grandmother, when they set their faces toward the goal of higher educa- tion — words then breathed with awe. She no longer insists upon studying herself to death, and her nervous headaches, if she has any, are more apt to come from too much fudge, or too much dancing, than from too much trigonometry. But what would the college be without her ! How pretty her light gowns look under the soft spring foliage! And how much happier is the youth who strolls at her side than he would be accompanied only by his pipe. Looking at a co-educational campus in springtime, one would think that Tennyson ' s princess and her prince had started a fairer version of her college. The Eesthetic value of the co-ed admits no contradiction. May she long continue to bloom, on the outskirts of the football scrimmage, in the chalky desert of recitation rooms, in the chilly atmosphere of chapel speeches ! Miss Clara McIntyre.