Chatham College - Cornerstone Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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! ©ij P nnsijluantau in its widest scope. No type of training will achieve these ends more successfully than that which is given in the modern college for women. In the fourth place, Pittsburgh has the wealth to support a college for women of the highest rank. The investment necessary to provide for an initial unit of 500 students would not be prohibitive. All the women ' s colleges began with very modest initial investments; and a college such as we need here should not be projected along extravagant lines. Buildings antl equipment should be the best in material and design, but constructed with due regard to service and simplicity. That Pittsburgh has the financial ability to maintain such an insti- tution there is no question. We have in this great city a popu- lation certainly not less responsive to civic and educational ideals than can be found in other communities that have handsomely endowed and are generously supporting colleges for women of high rank. It is not unreasonable to believe that Pittsburgh will do the same thing when her attention is focused upon the need and advantages of such an institution. She has already given evidence of her deep interest in things educational by the provisions made for the University, and by her zeal for the prosperitv of everv worthy enterprise. To be sure, there are many urgent calls upon the benevolence of this city. This, however, will always be true. It is the price that men and women pay for residence in a community like our own. The more we invest in colleges and other enter- prises that have as their object our moral and social welfare, the better and more wholesome wdl our municipal life become. This brings us, therefore, to our conclusion, namely, that m the Pennsylvania College for Women we already have an institution nearly fifty years of age, whose record of splendid work and academic standards justifies its development into a larger and more commanding institution. The time is ripe for such a movement. The larger colleges for women in New England and the East are rapidly approaching their limits in respect to enrollment. Entrance lists in the larger of them are full for two or three years in advance. This condition calls for the establishment of other colleges of equal rank. What reason is there to believe that our own Pennsylvania College for Women may not become as strong as these larger institu- tions? Is Baltimore or Poughkeepsie necessarily more at- tractive than Pittsburgh as an educational center? Is there any reason why a strong woman ' s college should not draw students from the South and West as well as from our im- mediate environment? The same factors that have given the standard colleges for women their prestige will do the same for us here in Pittsburgh. A modern physical equipment, a cur- riculum developed under cultural ideals, but flexible enough to meet present-day conditions, and a faculty of sufficient size and academic equipment to attract and hold the best type of students — these are the requisites demanded tor a woman ' s col- lege of the highest type. Let us, then, as students and faculty, believe in the possi- bilities of growth and development that lie ahead of us. Let us think in terms of a larger Pennsylvania College for Women. Let us talk in terms of a larger Pennsylvania College for Women, and then by every means within our power let us concentrate on the achievement of this desirable and worthy object. John C. Acheson. 13

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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

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I i j 6- J i Stj p nnsyluantan .,01 j j I 0 I j i -6 Board of Trustees W. . Blackburn Mrs. Ogden M. Edwards, Jr. Mrs. William N. Frew Mrs. James H. Lockhart James C. Gray David McK. Lloyd Oliver McClintock. Rev. William L. McEwan, D.D. Rev. John K. McClurkin, D.D. Hon. Jacob J. Miller Mrs. William S. Miller Mrs. John I. Nevin Mrs. William Watson Smith Mrs. Charles Spencer JoHN B. FiNLEY William H. Rea ♦Deceased February 27, 1919.