Chatham College - Cornerstone Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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Pittsburgh and a Woman ' s College is not necessary at the present day to develop an elaborate argument tor the estab- lishment of educational institutions ot col- legiate rank tor women. It is true that what wc understand as college education for women is ot comparatively recent date. F.lnm-a College claims the honor ot being the first woman ' s college in the United States. It was founded in 1855. Vassar College was organized six years later, in 1861; Smith in 1871 ; Wellesley in 1875. Mt. Holyoke reached full collegiate stand- ing in 1888, though she had tor fitty years held an honored place as a seminary, giving courses of instruction conceded to be almost equivalent to those ofFereti in the larger colleges tor men. But, though a period of sixty-five years will cover the life ot this educational movement, it has attained a strength and a general acceptance which make it no longer an open question whether woman is capable ot receiving higher intel- lectual training, or can prove herselt a more valuable member ot society by the use of her trained powers. Any effort to develop in Pittsburgh, trom existing tounda- tions, an institution ot the highest collegiate rank, distinctivelv tor women, is unlikely to find obstacles in what might be called the traditional objections of earlier days. DitTlculty in working out such a plan in our city will result rather from indifference than from hostility to the collegiate training of women, segregate or co-educational; and indifference must be due to a lack of knowledge of the needs and opportunities of the field. A consideration, therefore, of these needs and opportunities is timely and important; ami it will unques- tionably demonstrate the fact that no city in the Uniteil States offers a better field than does Pittsburgh for the tle- velopment of a woman ' s college, cultural in type, and ranking in equipment and in academic standing with the very best institutions now in existence. In the first place, we have a population in this region suf- ficient to support an institution of high academic rank. Care- ful estimates, based on the last census, show that we have within a radius ot fifty miles trom Pittsburgh a population approximating two and a halt millions, and within a ratlins of one hundred miles a population of probably four and a half millions. In the judgment of the General Education Board, a hundred-mile radius is considered a legitimate field for an educational institution, provided there be little or no local competition; and it so happens that within the hundred-mile radius from Pittsburgh as a center there are but two colleges distinctively for women. From the standpoint, then, of mere population, it is evident that the Pittsburgh district can sup- port a woman ' s college of the highest rank. Secondly, adequate preparation for entrance to college is being given to young people in the district. A recent school census shows that there are approximately 35,000 girls enrolled in the high schools within the hundred-mile radius of Pitts-

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a- I I 6- J J J „n.. ©Ij P nnsyluantan j I I j j j ' ■a burgh. With the rapid improvement observable in these high schools in matters of equipment, curricula, and methods ot instruction, it seems clear that they will become each year more efficient in their service, and will prepare increasing num- bers of young women for entrance into all the institutions ot the city. A well-equipped woman ' s college will imdoubtedly attract a large proportion of these students, and will in conse- quence find its sphere of usefulness steadily increasing. A third consideration is the need of a woman ' s college of high rank, devoting itself to the cultural type ot education, in a great, metropolitan center like Pittsburgh. It would stand in competition with no existing institution. We have here one of the greatest technical schools in America, with a woman ' s department which is very properly emphasizing vocational training. We have in the University ot Pittsburgh an insti- tution rapidly coming into its own, which, as it grows in equipment, will offer increasing opportunities for professional and graduate study. Its Arts Department will doubtless con- tinue to provide undergraduate courses offering co-educational facilities of high order; but its dominant emphasis, as a Uni- versity, must necessarily be placed upon its professional and graduate schools. These two institutions may secure all the students they can possibly accommodate under the most favorable conditions, and there will still be left ample material for a high-grade woman ' s college. Many girls, seeking a college education, prefer the segre- gate rather than the co-educational institution. This is abundantly evidenced by the enormous growth of the estab- lished women ' s colleges. In a smaller, though not less emphatic, manner it is proven by the enrollment of our own Penn- sylvania College for Women. In 1906 the enrollment of students in the regular college course numbered but twenty- three. In 191 9 they number one hundred and thirty-seven, a growth of almost 600 per cent. This number includes only students who are candidates tor the Bachelor of Arts degree. It such growth is possible with our present limited facilities, now taxed to their capacity, what might we not expect with an enlarged plant, equippied in thoroughly modern fashion? Many students, ot course, have a strong predilection for the co-educational college; many others have not. From this latter class will come the patronage tor a woman ' s college. These observations bear with equal force in respect to vocational or technical training. Not all students are at- tracted to institutions offering this type of instruction, and many who desire to follow technical pursuits desire a broad foundation of liberal training as a preliminary thereto. This is unquestionably the ideal procedure whenever possible, and it is to be regretted that economic pressure often prevents mdividuals from the full enjoyment ot a cultural trainmg which would have profited them greatly. It must be borne in mind that the distinction, after all, between so-called vocational and cultural institutions lies in spirit and end rather than in cur- ricula. The chief difference is not one of values, but ot ulti- mate purpose. Technical or vocational training, irrespective of its intellectual content, has an immediate utilitarian end in view. Liberal or cultural training, on the other hand, lacks this element of immediacy. It is liberal in that it does not focus upon some special line of work tor immediate realization. Cultural training purposes to view human life in its larger aspects, not selecting some phase thereof for exclusive study, but seeking to comprehend all of life in its broader relation- ships, and to give the individual an intellectual grip upon it