REPORT 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE 
 
 Cntstees at €mull MAxsii^, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF A MAJORITY OF THE 
 
 floMMITTflE ON f/[F{. ^/Qe'^ -pROPO^/J. 
 
 ENDOW A COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. 
 
 
 BY ANDREW D. WHITE, 
 
 Chairman of the Committee. 
 
 
 Albany, February 13, 1872. 
 
 U.S. A. )) 
 
 O, 
 
 ITHACA, N. y. 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1872. 
 
 '> . / 
 
REPORT. 
 
 To The Board of Trustees of The Cornell University : — 
 
 Gentlemen : — The Committee appointed at your last meeting to examine 
 and report concerning the establishment of an institution for the education 
 of women in connection with the University, as well as in regard to any 
 proffer of an endowment for that purpose, respectfully submit the follow- 
 ing 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 Your Committee began at once an extended correspondence with per- 
 sons in various parts of the country whose experience in the education of 
 the sexes together, gives their statements value; they also obtained various 
 documents bearing on the question. 
 
 But in this correspondence they did not consult the authorities of col- 
 leges which had never tried the system. They had before them, already, 
 a long report based on information thus obtained — the report made to the 
 Regents of the University of Michigan several years since — when the sub- 
 ject was first broached in that State. The Regents' committee wrote ^o a 
 large number of eminent gentlemen connected with the venerable institu- 
 tions of learning in the older States, and to a very small number of others. 
 The result was what might have been expected. It was as if the Japanese 
 authorities aroused to the necessity of railroads and telegraphs, had cor- 
 responded with eminent Chinese philosophers regarding the ethics of the 
 subject, instead of sending persons to observe the working of railroads 
 and telegraphs where they are already in use. Of course, the great major- 
 ity of responses to that committee were overwhelmingly against the ad- 
 mission of women. It was declared to be "contrary to nature," "likely 
 
6 Report of the Committee 
 
 to produce confusion," "dangerous," "at variance with the ordinances of 
 God ; " in short, every argument that a mandarin would be sure to evolve 
 from his interior consciousness against a railroad or a telegraph which he 
 had never seen, these correspondents reproduced against a system of 
 education which they had never tried. 
 
 Nor did your Committee think it just to give theories on one side, with- 
 out giving them as fully on the other. Against the theories of the emi- 
 nent men referred to, it would be only fair to set those of such men as John 
 Stuart Mill and Henry Thomas Buckle. Such a discussion would have 
 made the report very cumbrous, and it has been judged best to present, 
 mainly, facts and reasoning based on the experiences of those who by prac- 
 tice know something of the matter under consideration. 
 
 A subordinate Committee, consisting of Messrs. Sage and White, was 
 therefore appointed to visit leading Universities and Colleges to which 
 young women have been admitted with young men, and to make examin- 
 ation into their various systems, and their results, moral and intellectual. 
 The institutions visited were Oberlin College, the State University of 
 Michigan, the Northwestern University, near Chicago, the State Indus- 
 trial University of Illinois, and Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, 
 the college in whose work that noble citizen, Horace Mann, gave up his 
 life. The State University of Wisconsin had been previously visited by a 
 member of the Committee ; the State Agricultural College of Iowa pre- 
 sented an example too recent to carry great weight ; but a valuable letter 
 was received from its President, discussing the subject and stating facts 
 established in a long previous experience. 
 
 It was with some surprise that the Committee, even those members 
 whose attention had been l<mg directed to the subject, found how great a 
 body of facts had already been established, tending to the solution of the 
 question in hand. 
 
 That there had been much presentation of theories on one side and the 
 other, they well knew. Discussions as to woman's mental and moral ca- - 
 pacity, her sphere of activity, her equality with man or subordination to 
 him, — theories, physiological, psychological, political, sesthetical and bibli- , 
 cal, they were aware, had been presented in endless variety; but they now 
 learned more clearly than ever before that, in this matter, there is a vast 
 body of facts, — the outgrowth of various ideas, upon various soils, in ac- 
 cordance with various systems, under various degrees of freedom. 
 
 It seemed their first duty to investigate these facts separately, then to 
 collate them, then to throw any light thus concentrated into various theo- 
 ries and programmes. 
 
 First of all it was found that, for very many years, in fact during the 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 7 
 
 greater part of the century, the education together of young men and 
 young women of marriageable age, and coming from distant homes, has 
 been going on all about us, in the Academies and High Schools of the State 
 of New York and neighboring States, and that not only have no evil re- 
 sults followed worthy to be taken into the account, but that the system has 
 worked so well that it has come to be regarded as natural and normal. 
 
 While this practical experiment has thus been going on for many years, 
 under almost perfect freedom as regards boarding, lodging and social in- 
 tercourse, with no well-watched quadrangles, no system of proctors to 
 restrain the young men, or of matrons to guard the young women, the dis- 
 putants on this question, on either side, appear to have been straining 
 their eyes in looking deep down into the human consciousness or afar off 
 into the universe at large, to solve a problem which their fathers and 
 mothers, and sons and daughters had done so much already to work out, 
 nay, in whose solution they themselves had taken part. 
 
 Among the letters giving results obtained in this field of experience, 
 none certainly is entitled to greater weight than that of the Honorable 
 Samuel B. Woolworth, for thirty-two years the successful Principal of 
 some of the best academies in the State, and of one which, under his man- 
 agement, ranked in many respects the first. It should be added that this 
 direct personal experience of Dr. Woolworth is supplemented by an expe- 
 rience of many years as Secretary of the Board of Regents of the State of 
 New York — a position bringing him into most intimate relations with 
 every academy and high school in the State. His letter is as follows : — 
 
 "All my experience in teaching has been in institutions to which per- 
 sons of both sexes have been admitted — at Onondaga Academy six years — 
 at Cortland Academy twenty-two years — at the state Normal School four 
 years. 
 
 " I answer your questions seriatim : — 
 
 "I. The coeducation of the sexes has been favorable to good order 
 and discipline. 
 
 " 2. A mutual stimulating influence has been exerted on scholarship. 
 
 " 3. There have been no scandals — at least not more than may exist be- 
 tween the members of a school limited to one sex, and the outside world. 
 
 "4. To most of the academies, and to all of the normal and union schools 
 of the state, both sexes are admitted." 
 
 The letters received from the Principals of the State Normal Schools 
 bear similar testimony. There is one, however, which may be regarded 
 as an exception. The Reverend Joseph Alden, D. D. writes of 
 his five years' experience in the education of young men and young 
 women together as Principal of the State Normal School at Albany, that 
 
8 Report of the Committee 
 
 "no evil has been experienced here;" but that after an experience of 
 thirty-five years as Student, Tutor, Professor, and President, in six differ- 
 ent colleges, his " opinion is fixed on the subject that ladies should not 
 be admitted to ou> colleges.^'' 
 
 Doctor Alden gives no facts nor arguments in support of this position, 
 stating that "the grounds of this opinion, if committed to writing, would 
 cover more space than your Committee would care to go over; and I 
 presume that my views of college education differ so materially from theirs, 
 as to render my own premises unsound in their view." 
 
 The Doctor concludes by saying of his Normal School experience, that 
 he "don't think that it proves anything with reference to a College." 
 
 It is to be regretted that the Doctor does not give the Committee the 
 benefit of the facts and reasonings that have brought him to this conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 It will however be observed by a reference to the letter as given in the 
 appendix, that in neither of the Colleges with which he had been connected 
 had the experiment of the coeducation of the sexes been tried ; and while 
 the committee are ready to give full weight to any expression of opinion by 
 one so justly respected, even though unsupported by any actual experience, 
 and at variance with his acknowleged experience in the State Normal 
 School, they think that it should be very carefully compared with that of 
 the other Principals of Normal Schools in the State. 
 
 But before giving their testimony, which is without exception favorable 
 to coeducation, a point should be specially noted in regard to the analogy 
 between the instruction in the State Normal Schools and the Colleges. 
 Dr. Alden asserts his belief that this analogy is too remote to form the basis 
 for a sound inference in favor of admitting young women to College. 
 
 In the absence of any arguments or presentation of facts by the Doctor 
 to support this statement of opinion, the committee are left to their own 
 unaided reason on the subject, and they can only say that argument from 
 successful coeducation in Normal Schools to successful coeducation in Col- 
 leges and Universities, seems to them logically -irresistible. In both cases 
 the students are of marriageable age, and from distant homes,— in both cases 
 great freedom is allowed, though in this matter the argument is, a fortiori, 
 for success in education in the Colleges, rather than in the Normal Schools, 
 for the Colleges generally have dormitories under some little control, while 
 the Normal Schools generally have none. Besides this, if there is any 
 force in the argument so often urged in favor of classical education, that 
 it gives refinement and higher culture, still stronger is the argument in fa- 
 vor of successful coeducation in Colleges, rather than Normal Schools. 
 
 From the testimony of the other Principals the following extracts pre- 
 sent fair examples. 
 
Ox THE Sage Proposal. 9 
 
 Principal Sheldon, of the State Normal School at Oswego, writes of 
 coeducation: — "I think the influence is good on both sexes, socially, 
 morally, and intellectually. My experience in all grades of schools below 
 the university has confirmed me in this opinion. This experience has led 
 me to feel that it would work equally well in the university. Of this, 
 however, I cannot be so confident, as the conditions here are somewhat 
 changed. I am now making a practical experiment in this direction by 
 sending my own daughter to Michigan University." 
 
 Principal J. W. Armstrong, D. D. of the State Normal School at Fre- 
 donia, writes: — "My observation shows that the morals of students of 
 either sex deteriorate, apparently, in proportion to the rigor of the separa- 
 tion of the sexes. The same is true of their delicacy of feeling, their 
 sense of honor, and their love of truth. 
 
 "In all mixed seminaries and academies where social intercourse of the 
 sexes was either forbidden or largely restrained, the ladies lost in prudence, 
 delicacy, and truthfulness, even faster than the gentlemen. 
 
 "For many years my views of school government have been much 
 more liberal than the common practice would justify. In this Normal 
 School I allow, and even encourage, all the freedom of intercourse be- 
 tween the sexes, which would be allowed in a well-regulated family. This 
 has been tested for two years. The results are good in the recitation-room, 
 where they mingle as they choose on the seats ; in the halls, where they 
 communicate freely as at home; in the boarding-places, where they have 
 only the same restrictions. They visit, walk, and ride out together, out 
 of recitation hours, whenever and wherever they please. The results are, 
 they study better, are more polite, visit far less, tvalk and ride together 
 far less, than when restrained, and never under imprudent or objection- 
 able circumstances. 
 
 " We have the most orderly, studious, and happy school I ever was 
 in. 
 
 " In Genesee College the results were good, though the restrictions 
 were too many to allow the best results. 
 
 "All my experience and oljservations have confirmed my earlier faith 
 
 ■L^i- he sense and virtues of the youth of the land who attend our schools, 
 
 ■ ■■: of 'he necessity of the two sexes exerting reciproc:illy theic_influence up- 
 
 ' heir development, in order to obtain the best results, and of the fact 
 
 nine-tenths of all the irregularity and disorder in our Colleges arises 
 
 fi' n the establishment of an arbitrary and unnatural state of society 
 
 n )ng the students. 
 
 I have written you in great haste and candidly." 
 . will be seen that Dr. Armstrong's experience extends both to Colleges 
 
10 Report of the Committee 
 
 and Normal Schools, and that while arriving at an opposite conclusion 
 'rom that reached by Dr. Alden, he does not hesitate to support it both 
 by facts and arguments. 
 
 Says Principal Hoose, of the State Normal School at Cortland : — 
 " My immediate personal observation and experience cover about eight 
 or ten years of college life where both sexes recited together and attended 
 college upon an equality of privileges. 
 
 " I saw no harm, but good results; scholarship was as good, conduct 
 better in regard to roughness, etc., than when the sexes were separated. 
 
 " My opinion, based upon general experience, observation, and prin- 
 ciples is in favor of the admission, etc." 
 
 Prof. J. W. Dickinson, of the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass. , 
 says : — 
 
 "There is always a state of uneasiness among boys and girls when they 
 are collected apart from one another. This is clearly seen in our colleges 
 and young ladies' seminaries. The presence of young ladies exerts a re- 
 straining and refining influence over young men, and the presence of young 
 men exerts an influence that tends to give strength and dignity to the 
 characters of young ladies. We have had no trouble arising from the 
 association of the two sexes in our school." 
 
 From these statements, from an overwhelming body of other testimony, 
 and from what may be observed all about us in nearly every town in the 
 State, it will be seen that the successful education of youth of both sexes- 
 — of marriageable age — coming from distant homes, left to themselves al- 
 most entirely as to their choice of homes and associates, guided by their 
 own judgment as to social intercourse and general conduct, is 3. fact, a fact 
 not confined to recent experience, not restricted to a narrow territory, but 
 a fact of many years' standing, a fact established in nearly every county 
 of this and neighboring States. 
 
 It may, however, still be claimed that there is no analogy between in- 
 struction in Academies, High Schools and Normal Schools, and instruction 
 in Universities and Colleges ; or in other words, that human nature in per- 
 sons studying algebra, geometry, languages, and natural, moral and men- 
 tal philosophy, in an institution called an Academy or Normal School, is 
 not the same as in persons of the same age pursuing the same general 
 lines of study, in an institution called a College or University. 
 
 The simple statement of the proposition would seem to carry its own 
 refutation ; but let it be conceded. The Committee pass to the facts es- 
 tablished in the Colleges and Universities themselves. 
 
 The system of educating young men and young women together in 
 Colleges and Universities is very much more recent than their coeduca- 
 tion in Academies aud High Schools. 
 
On the Sage Proposal. ii 
 
 The causes are not difficult to find ; one is simple matter of history. 
 The College'^ of this country inherited a semi-monastic system from those 
 of the motlier country. Those of the mother country inherited many 
 controlling ideas of their system from times before the Reformation, when 
 Universities were almost entirely in the hands of a clergy, vowed to 
 celibacy. 
 
 The Colleges and Universities have been far less amenable to public 
 opinion than Academies and High Schools have been, the latter being con- 
 trolled by men taken from the communities in which the schools were sit- 
 uated, and representing the average common sense of those communities ; 
 the former more by Faculties, bred mainly in the traditional ideas, and 
 of Trustees, too remote to feel warranted in making radical changes. 
 
 Under such a system, mandarinism is almost inevitable. The tradi- 
 tional studies, the traditional modes of government, the traditional habits 
 of thought will naturally be regarded as the only sound and safe ; they 
 will be argued for and fought for to the last by every graduate honored by 
 a degree, and every mandarin glorified by a button. 
 
 Still, justice must be done the older colleges, by saying that some of 
 their greatest men have been hopeful as to the education of both sexes to- 
 gether. 
 
 In the letter of President Mark Hopkins, of Williams College, to the 
 Committee of Regents of the University of Michigan, written in 1S58, 
 occurs the following passage : — 
 
 "The question you put me is one of no little interest. , ^^ ^^ There 
 are difficulties and embarassments connected with it, still my impression is 
 that the advantages connected with our higher institutions for young men, 
 might be shared by young women to a great extent, with great advantage 
 to both. Probably the course of study should not be the same through- 
 out, but in many things there certainly could be no objections to the con- 
 tinuance of that association in study, which is begun at the common 
 school ; and there would be many advantages from it. The difficulty 
 would be social ; if intercourse of the classes and aside from study could 
 be properly regulated, it would work well. That would depend much on 
 the arrangements you might be able to make, and on the tone of senti- 
 ment in the community. # # # My impression is that you might try 
 the experiment safely, and I hope you will do so." 
 
 A letter from the venerable President Nott, of Union College, to 
 
 Ih ^ same Committee, at the same period, dwells on the wide prevalence of 
 
 tlie theory, that difference of sex necessitates separation in education, on 
 
 the difficulties and dangers, on fears "that what is gained to manners by 
 
 iiainished rudeness in one sex, would be more than counterlialanccd by 
 
12 Report of the Committee 
 
 loss of native modesty in the other." In another letter, written to the 
 trustees, he says: — "I would like to see the experiment tried under 
 proper regulations, ^ ^ ^ and were I at the head of a University in 
 Michigan, and public opinion called for the trial of the experiment, I 
 should not oppose obedience to that call. Corporations are always con- 
 servative ; it is their nature not to lead, but to follow public opinion, and 
 often far in the rear. That it will not be approved by.college corporations 
 generally, may be taken for granted." 
 
 This latter prediction, the correspondence of the Board of Regents 
 proved true. An overwhelming opposition is shown by the letters from 
 the authorities of nearly all the older colleges. 
 
 It was thought by the writers that the results would be " demoralizing ;" 
 that "young men would lose a proper sense of the dignity of their own 
 pursuits;" that the results would be "degradation" and "corruption;" 
 that "it would deprive both sexes of the cultivation peculiar to each;" 
 that " the delicacy of female character would be destroyed;" that "common 
 morality would suffer;" that "it would tend to un woman woman;" that 
 *'the success of the measure would produce confusion;" that "to con- 
 found the higher education of the two sexes, would lead to lamentable conse- 
 quences;" that "the effects of such a system would probably be to give 
 them false ideas of life in general and of their particular spheres, than 
 which nothing could be more injurious in the forming stage of character;" 
 that "a present and locat popularity might be gained, but at-a fearful ulti- 
 mate expense and the disapprobation of men of science and learning 
 throughout the country." 
 
 These statements of theory have an interest ; but as they are confessedly 
 not based on observation, they seem to your Committee to be entitled to 
 the same weight, and no more, that is given the testimony of theorists on 
 the opposite side who seem to suppose that all evil is to be banished, all 
 passion subdued, and a millenium of pure thoughts and good manners 
 immediately brought in by a breaking down of the barriers which now di- 
 vide the sexes in advanced education. 
 
 From these statements of theories we turn to recitals of facts. 
 The first college visited by the Committee, was Oberlin College, Ohio. 
 There were found a very large number- of students of both sexes. For 
 the young men, dormitories were provided on the usual plan ; for the 
 young women, a large and well-appointed building with matron and as- 
 sistants, but the increasing numbers of students 'have obliged the college 
 authorities to allow both young men and women to board in families in 
 the town; the same cause has also led the authorities to admit young men 
 in large numbers to the privileges of the dining hall. Your Committee 
 
On the Sage Prqposai,. 15 
 
 dined in the college hall with two hundred students, about half of whom 
 were young men, and half young women. The order was excellent — the 
 appearance of all neat and cleanly. The young men and the young women 
 sat at the same table, on opposite sides; the conversation was quiet; 
 there was throughout, an air of refinement which the member of the 
 Committee more familiar with college life has never seen at a table fre- 
 quented by men alone. 
 
 In the recitation rooms a similar result was observed. They seemed 
 decidedly more orderly than those in which young men are educated by 
 themselves. Recitations were attended in different branches of mathe- 
 matics, and in ancient and modern languages. The young ladies, while 
 showing self-possession, appeared refined, quiet and modest. Their ex- 
 ercises were in all cases performed as well as those of the young men, and 
 in many cases better. 
 
 The Committee visited the students in their rooms to get at their ideas ; 
 they also talked with citizens of the town. The general statement was 
 that the results had been good, — that the evil results, so generally proph- 
 esied, had not been seen, — that the system appeared to work well. 
 
 In the light of his experience, the President of the institution, the Rev- 
 erend Dr. Fairchild, states that "tlie proportion of young ladies has not for 
 many years fallen below one-third, nor risen above one-half, except during 
 the war, when the ladies predominated in the ratio of five to four ;" that the 
 present number of students is about one thousand, but that the greater part 
 of these are in what ought to be called a preparatory department ; that in 
 the college course proper the proportion of ladies to gentlemen has risen 
 as high as one to four, but that it now stands as one to ten ; that the 
 boarding-halls having been found insufficient, students have been allpwed 
 to board in families; that " the special discipline of young ladies is com- 
 mitted to the Lady Principal, assisted by a ladies' board of managers com- 
 posed in general of wives of Professors in the College. The advice of the 
 College Faculty is sometimes taken, but the young ladies do not come be- 
 fore them for discipline." 
 
 There are no monitors, "but each one makes a weekly report of suc- 
 cess or failure in the performance of prescribed duties. Young l^^dics 
 boarding in families have their reports countersigned by the matron of the 
 house, who is, in a degree, responsible for the conduct of her charge." 
 
 The association of tlie young men and women outside of the class-room 
 is regulated as experience seems to require ; some provision is made for 
 social intercourse, visiting is allowed under rules dictated by common 
 sense.. 
 
 A very useful element in the jireservation of ]iroper lelations between 
 
14 Report of the Committee 
 
 the two sexes is found in the presence of brothers and sisters, who are of 
 course mutually sensitive as to anything that would tend to degrade each 
 other. 
 
 The social culture is found valuable. " To secure this, the student does 
 not need to make any expenditure of time, going out of his way or leaving 
 his proper work, for the pleasure or improvement resulting from society. 
 He finds himself naturally in the midst of it, and he adjusts himself to it 
 instinctively. It influences his manners, his feelings, his thoughts. He 
 may be as little conscious of the sources of the influence as of the sunlight 
 or the atmosphere ; it will envelope him all the same, saving him from the 
 excessive introversion, the morbid fancies, the moroseness which some- 
 times arise in secluded study, — giving elasticity of spirits and even of 
 movement^ and refinement of character not readily attained out of society. 
 It seems desirable that our young men especially should enjoy these advan- 
 tages during the period of their course of study, while the forces that form 
 character work most efficiently." 
 
 It is also declared that good order is greatly promoted. There have 
 been no difficulties in the college dining-hall. 
 
 " There has been an entire absence of the irregularities and roughness, 
 so often complained of in college." 
 
 The Committee cannot but consider this a crucial test. The Oberlin 
 ■College table is probably the only one on the continent of which this can 
 be said. 
 
 The system promotes morality. "Evils that might be tolerated in the 
 shape of drinking saloons and other places of dissipation, if young men 
 only were present, seem intolerable when ladies are gathered with 
 them." 
 
 As to ability to maintain an excellent standing in college classes. Doctor 
 Fairchild declares that during his own experience as professor — eight years 
 in ancient languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, — eleven in mathematics, 
 abstract and applied, — and eight in philosophical and ethical studies — he 
 has never observed any difference in the sexes as to performance in the 
 recitations. He is careful to state, however, that he does not at all be- 
 lieve or consider that it follows from the above that there are not great dif- 
 ferences in mental and moral characteristics between man and woman, 
 fatal to the theories of those known as "strong-minded women." 
 
 As to health it seems best to give his own words : — 
 r " Nor is there any manifest inability on the part of young women to en- 
 dure the required labor. A breaking down in health does not appear to 
 » be more frequent than with young men. We have not observed a more 
 frequent interruption of study on this account; nor do our statistics show 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 15 
 
 .- -reater draft upon the vital forces in the case of those who have com- 
 jjicled the full college course. Out of eighty-four young ladies who have 
 t,iaduated since 1841, seven have died— a proportion of one in twelve. Of 
 :hrte hundred and sixty-eight young men who have graduated since that 
 <i" , thirty-four are dead, or a little more than one in eleven. Of these 
 :y-four young men, six fell in the war, and, leaving these out, the pro- 
 portion of deaths still remains one to thirteen. Taking the whole number 
 of gentlemen graduates, omitting the theological department, we find the 
 proportion of deaths one to nine and a half; of ladies, one to twelve ; and 
 this in spite of the lower average expectation of life for women, as indicated 
 in life insurance tables. The field is, of course, too narrow for perfectly 
 conclusive results ; but there is no occasion for special apprehension of 
 failure of health to ladies from study." 
 
 The Doctor also alludes to the fear so often felt that under this system 
 " the young men will become frivolous and effeminate, and the young 
 women coarse and masculine." As regards men, he says: — "We have 
 found it the surest way to make men of boys, and gentlemen of rowdies." 
 As to the young women, he says ; — "You would know whether the result 
 with us has been a large accession of coarse, 'strong-minded ' women, in the 
 offensive sense of the word; and I say without hesitation, that I do not 
 know of a single instance of such a product as the result of our system of 
 education." 
 
 To show that the system of joint education "does not bewilder woman 
 with a vain ambition or tend to turn her aside from the work which God has 
 impressed upon her entire constitution " — that is, the duties of a wife and 
 mother, it is stated that "of the eighty-four ladies who have taken the 
 college course, twenty-seven only are unmarried, and, of these, four died 
 early, and of the remaining twenty-three, twenty are graduates of less 
 than six years standing." 
 
 In answer to the question whether young people will, under such a sys- 
 tem, form such acquaintances as will result, during their course of study or 
 after they leave college, in matrimonial engagements, the Doctor says : — 
 " Undoubtedly they will, and if this is a fatal objection, the system must 
 be pronounced a failure. The majority of young people form such ac- 
 quaintances between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, and these are 
 the years devoted to a course of study. It would be a most unnatural 
 state of things if such acquaintances should not be made." 
 
 He then says, very pertinently: — "The reasonable inquiry in the case 
 is whether such acquaintances and engagements can be made under cir- 
 cumstances more favorable to a wise and considerate adjustment or more 
 promising of a happy result." 
 
i6 Report of the Committee 
 
 Finally the subject of immoralities and scandals is taken up. The Doc- 
 tor is understood to assert that sporadic cases of scandal may occur, as has 
 happened in the most carefully guarded seminaries under the old system, 
 and even in monastic institutions, but that this is all that is to be fea 'd. 
 
 The address from which the extracts are made, closes with the folh 'le 
 words : 
 
 " In concluding this statement, permit me to say that I have no special 
 call as an apostle or propagandist of this system of education. The opin- 
 ions set forth are such as with my limited experience I am compelled to 
 cherish, and when called upon, as now, I cheerfully express them." 
 
 The Committee feel bound to add that these words seem in accordance, 
 not only with the entire spirit of the report itself, but also with all the 
 facts obtained by them at Oberlin. 
 
 The Committee next visited the State University of Michigan. Here 
 young women were admitted about four years since. The system is the 
 opposite of that at Oberlin. There is no preparatory department, there 
 is no building set apart for the young women, they are left free to choose 
 their own boarding-houses and form their own associations as they see fit. 
 During the first year after young women were admitted, there was but 
 one who availed herself of the privilege ; there are now sixty, and this 
 number is about equally divided between the Colleges of Literature, Sci- 
 ence and Arts on the one side, and the Colleges of Law and Medicine on 
 the other. Young men and women attend lectures and recitations to- 
 gether, except in the Medical College, where seperate courses are pro- 
 vided. 
 
 The general testimony was in favor of the new order of things. Some 
 individuals in the Faculty and many citizens whose opinions are entitled to 
 respect, still declared themselves disbelievers in the system; but their posi- 
 tion was based upon general principles and no fact was adduced in support 
 of it. 
 
 On the other hand the sub-committee found that the leading mathemat- 
 ician in one of the classes, who had carried off a prize over the whole 
 class, for solving a difficult problem which had been presented, without 
 finding a solution for several years, was a young woman. They were also 
 reminded that one of the best Greek scholars in the institution for many 
 years was a young woman ; and the class exercises generally showed that 
 the young women were not at all behind the young men. There was also 
 obtained from the Professor of Natural History, Dr. Winchell, a very 
 ingenious and careful table of statistics regarding the study of botany. 
 
 This table, which is appended to the report, aims to show the relative 
 proficiency of young men and women ; and then, without regard to sex, of 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 17 
 
 si lents in the classical course, students in the course where Latin is 
 studied, but not Greek, students in the scientific course, and some others. 
 The results were obtained by a careful award of marks in a given scale, 
 upon a written examination held in June, 1871. 
 
 '^'he points on which the comparison was made were two, viz : — The 
 subject of botany itself, and style in writing etc. In the comparison as re- 
 • 1 is botany itself, "all young women" stood first on the whole list; all 
 young men stood eleventh. In the comparison aS regards style etc., "all 
 young women" stood first, and "all young men " seventh. The average 
 standing in botany on a scale of 100 was 93 for the young women, against 
 70 for the young men. In orthography the mean number of words mis- 
 spelled by the young women was 1.91, and by the young men 4.95. The 
 proportional number of words mis-spelled was for the young women 22, for 
 the young men 56. In every respect the young women gained the vic- 
 tory. 
 
 The Committee also heard in the classrooms recitations in the languages 
 by young women, showing as much clearness and vigor as those by young 
 men. 
 
 They conversed with some of the young lady students and were most 
 favorably impressed by their quiet dignity, modesty and refinement. The 
 testimony of these, as regards danger to health from collegiate study, was 
 that though there had been occasional cases of injury from overwork, 
 the general health of young women in college is quite as good as that of 
 young women out of college. 
 
 As to trouble arising from the mingling of the two sexes in the univer- 
 sity town, there has been less social intercourse between the young women 
 and young men, than between the latter and the daughters of citizens in 
 the town, not in college ; the young ladies seem to be quietly on their 
 guard against receiving too much attention from students of the other sex. 
 
 As to order, Professor Frieze, formerly the honored acting President 
 of the institution, than whom no one could be more careful and consci- 
 entious in a statement of the kind, writes: — "One fact maybe of interest. 
 The janitor of the recitation building, who has been in service four or five 
 years, has repeatedly said, and still says, that the conduct of students in 
 that building in moving from room to room, and especially in passing up 
 and down the staircases, is very greatly improved. They are almost free 
 from crowding, shouting, etc., — ^the old complaints. He is sure this in- 
 creased gentleness in manners is due to the presence of the ladies ; hav- 
 ing noticed frequently the effect of their presence in the halls." 
 
 One of the members of your Committee, during the visit to that Uni- 
 versity, was under circumstances very favorable to the formation of a cor- 
 2 
 
i8 Report of the Committee 
 
 rect judgment on this point. For five years, during the period before the 
 admission of young women, he was in daily familiar intercourse with the* 
 students of the institution as a Professor. He can hardly be mistaken in * 
 the belief that there has taken place a decided change for the better, as re- 
 gards student manners in the recitation rooms, and in personal neatness 
 and tidiness. 
 
 As to the general effect, Professor Cooley, of the Law Department, 
 Chief Justice of the State, and a resident near the university grounds, 
 writes : — 
 
 "The admission of womeij has scarcely caused a ripple on the surface 
 of univeioity matters. ^ ^ ^ From the moment the thing became an 
 accomplished fact, it has been to every one here a matter, I may almost 
 say, of entire indifference. As yet I have witnessed no evil results what- 
 ever. You are misinformed if you are told that the standard of admission 
 is lowered; the tendency has been in the other direction." 
 
 Other valuable letters might be given, from members of the Michigan 
 University Faculty, but these are selected because the well-known judi- 
 cial fairness of the writers, places them beyond cavil. 
 
 The University of Michigan should not be dismissed before alluding 
 to one more point of great importance. The general testimony was, that 
 the young lady students were more conscietitious in study than the young 
 men, and that this was the main cause of their remarkable success in every 
 class and study. 
 
 The next visit was made to the North Western University, at Evanston, 
 near Chicago, an institution largely endowed, and under control of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. Here the ladies' hall was visited, and the 
 experience of the President and several members both of the governing and 
 instructing bodies obtained. 
 
 The experiment did not seem to have been so fully tried as at the estab- 
 lishments previously visited ; but the universal testimony was in its favor. 
 
 Meeting the instructors and lady students, socially in their hall, and 
 setting with them at their table, it was evident that the last charge in the 
 world which any sane man could think of bringing against them, would be 
 lack of feminine dignity, refinement, modesty or delicacy. 
 
 The next visit was to the Illinois Industrial University, at Champaign, 
 Illinois, about 130 miles south of Chicago. This is one of the recipients 
 of the United States land grant, and is progressing in a manner most sat- 
 isfactory, under the presidency of the Honorable John M. Gregory, for- 
 merly the very success ful Superintendent of Public Instruction in the 
 State of Michigan. 
 
 The same absence f the evil results so long predicted by theorists, the 
 
On thk Sage Proposal. 19 
 
 «ame good found elsewhere, under the system of joint education, was 
 found here. Many interesting facts regarding this institution have to be 
 omitted for lack of time. 
 
 The final visit of the series was to Antiocb College, at Yellow Sjaings, 
 Ohio, the institution noted as the place where the final work of Horace 
 Mann was accomplished. 
 
 Here a system is established more akin to the restrictive system at 
 Oberlin, than the free system of the University of Michigan; there are 
 separate halls for the two sexes, and the young ladies' hall is kept under 
 careful supervision. 
 
 Visits to the recitation rooms showed that the young women were quite 
 equal to the young men as regards native ability and conscientious study. 
 
 In the dining hall both sexes were found together, as at Oberlin, and 
 the code of dining-table ethics was evidently superior to that which gen- 
 erally exists when a great body of young men take their meals by them- 
 selves. Nothing could be better of its kind than the bearing of the young 
 women. Here, too, there was an utter lack of those masculine or semi- 
 masculine characteristics, that want of refinement and feminine modesty 
 which has been predicted by the theorists. 
 
 A written statement to the Committee by the present President, the 
 Reverend G. W. Hosmer, D. D., contains much information of interest. 
 He says : — " I have been President of this College for five years. Of 
 the one hundred and seventy students — about the average number in 
 attendance in all departments — one-third have been women, and the 
 average age of all our students has been twenty years, nearly. In this 
 institution both sexes have been received from the beginning with Horace 
 Mann, eighteen years ago. 
 
 " My personal knowledge for five years, and what I have known of the 
 institution from its beginning, make me say confidently that the experi- 
 ment has been successful. 
 
 *' You ask for my opinion as to the effect of coeducation upon the in- 
 tellectual progress, and upon the character and conduct of the young men, 
 and also upon the progress, character and conduct of the young women. 
 
 " I think the young men have not been hindered, but rather quickened 
 and urged forward in study; and as to character and conduct, I am sure 
 they have been improved ; rendered more orderly, gentle, and manly ; 
 and I think the young women have studied with more earnest and stronger 
 purpose, and with us, I am sure their character has not suffered, but rather 
 in character and conduct they have been benefited. On the whole, I 
 think our young men have been made more gentle, and our young women 
 •stronger and more earnest, by being members of the same institution, and 
 meeting in the recitations. 
 
20 Report of the Committee 
 
 " You ask me next, if, on the whole, I think the coeducational plan is- 
 advantageous to the community, or otherwise. I consider that better,, 
 more thorough education of women is vital to the welfare of society, and 
 I think that the coeducation plan, with a large elective privilege in taking, 
 studies, is a sure way to such better and thorough education. 
 
 " Lastly, you ask me if it be better to have separate lodging-houses and 
 rules to regulate the conduct of the young men and women; or to leave 
 them to their own sense of right and of propriety. 
 
 " We have a separate building for the young women, and a matron who 
 lives with them, making family life as nearly as can be ; and we have rules 
 to prevent indiscretion, so that I^think that it is true that our young people, 
 while they enjoy in a large measure the intercourse of home life, are held 
 from dangers more securely than they could be in the usual order of 
 American society. 
 
 "I asked Horace Mann, the year he died, if he regarded his experi- 
 ment of coeducation a success : 'Yes,' he said, ' but the success has been 
 more by a care and vigilance brought as near to omniscient supervision, 
 as it is possible for man to bring them.' 
 
 "We too, have been careful, but not severely scrutinizing, and I think 
 that our young people enjoy their student life more than is common in, 
 colleges. Our institution is more like a home than any institution can be, 
 in which one sex is admitted. 
 
 "In a city where the young men and women could live widely sepa- 
 rated in the homes, and only come together in the recitations, there might 
 be no need of many regulations, but if the institution be in a town or vil- 
 lage, I should think there must be separate halls for the young men and 
 young women, and judicious regulations, and a parental watchfulness." 
 
 The Agricultural College of Iowa was not visited, but the following let- 
 ter from its President, the Honorable A. S. Welch, formerly Principal of 
 the State Normal School of Michigan, and for a time Senator of the 
 United States, from the State of Florida, seems especially valuable. 
 
 " I have had charge of two State institutions, to both of which young 
 men and young women are admitted. One of them is, as you may re- 
 member, the State Normal School of Michigan, the other, this College, 
 which was opened in the spring of '69. Michigan Normal School com- 
 prised about two hundred young women and fifty young men, all of whom 
 found board in the different families of the city.* 
 
 " In this institution we have about fifty young women and one hundred 
 and fifty young men, most of whom board in the same hall, the ladies 
 having rooms in the wing of the same building. 
 
 * Vpsilaiiti, a town with about half the population of Ithaca. 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 21 
 
 "The executive charge of these two institutions has given me sixteen 
 years of observation and experience in the coeducation of the sexes, and I 
 am unqitalifiedly in favor of it. 
 
 "First, I am sure that llie effect of the system on the intellectual pro- 
 gress and on the conduct and character of both the young men and the 
 young women, is, in every ivell regulated instituliott, safe and salutary. 
 
 " Second, all the results I have reached warrant the belief that the 
 collegiate education of young men and young women in the same classes, 
 is advantageous to the community. Apart from the experience I have 
 had, I do not see how the isolation of one sex from the other during the 
 period given to higher education, can secure a better scholarship, or more 
 refinement of manners or greater purity of morals. 
 
 " Of course there will be trouble in the government of colleges which 
 admit both sexes, but such troubles will, I believe, be less serious and 
 more easily managed than the rougher ones incident to Colleges conducted 
 on the plan of sexual isolation. 
 
 " If young ladies attending college find their homes with the better 
 families of the city, their intercourse with the young men may be left 
 largely to their own judgment and to the influences which such families 
 will naturally have over them, but if circumstances compel you to gather 
 them into a boarding-hall, they should, it seems to me, be put under the 
 immediate supervision of a competent matron, and their social intercourse 
 with the young men be limited to certain hours. They will help, rather 
 than hinder the good order of the recitation room." 
 
 It seems now advisable to find what light may be thrown upon the sub- 
 ject of our investigation by a collation of the various facts obtained, and 
 of the reasonings to which those facts have given rise ; and first, as to its 
 effects on the present body of students. 
 
 EFFECTS ON YOUNG MEN. 
 
 As to the effect on character and manners, there seems no exception 
 to the rule that the admission of young women to Colleges and Universi- 
 ties, thus far, has tended to refine the young men ; from the declarations 
 of such men as Presidents Fairchild, Ilosmer and Armstrong, down to the 
 plain statement of facts by the janitor of the University of Michigan, the 
 testimony on this point is concurrent. 
 
 The question may be asked, " Is this a healthful refinement ?" It 
 would appear to be so. It is just what is sought for young men in the 
 Avorld at large. Nothing is more universally acknowledged to be a bless- 
 ing to young men in society, than association with young women whose 
 thoughts and pursuits are of an ennobling kind. That the women enter- 
 
22 Report of the Committee 
 
 ing a University will be of this class, is in the nature of things. No friv- 
 olous young woman, no mere petted and spoiled beauty of a season will 
 be likely to wish to undergo the moral restraint or mental labor demanded 
 in such a course, and if such an one were to enter from caprice, she would 
 be certain to depart soon. It was once said with authority, of a noble and 
 educated woman: — " To know her, was a liberal education," and within a 
 month, one of the most noted divines and thinkers in this country, a man 
 not at all an advocate of what are known as "woman's rights," has stood 
 up and declared his very great indebtedness to two women of noble gifts 
 of heart and mind.* 
 
 But will this refinement be gained at the cost of manly qualities ? As 
 to this we might balance theory against theory. If it be argued, a priori, on 
 the one hand, that much association with young women is likely to make 
 young men take on some unmanly qualities, it can be just as strongly 
 argued on the other, that the association is likely, while increasing refine- 
 ment, to bring out the distinctively manly qualities. 
 
 There is truth, undoubtedly, in both these arguments ; men may lose 
 their roughness and boorishness and loud self-assertion, while they in- 
 crease their self-respect, manliness and true bravery; and the testimony of 
 Doctors Woolworth and Armstrong, and Fairchild and Hosmer, shows 
 clearly that this latter statement expresses what has taken place where the 
 experiment has been fairly and fully tried. 
 
 And the recent history of this country affords a valuable commentary 
 on these statements. From no Colleges did a more hardy, manly, brave 
 body of young men go into our armies than from Oberlin and Antioch. 
 
 By that the charge of effeminacy is effectually dispelled. 
 
 Still another important question relates to the effect of coeducation on 
 young men, as regards devotion to study. On one side, it has been ar- 
 gued that the presence of young women would tend to divert young men 
 from close attention to study — that it would arouse thoughts more power- 
 ful than the love of learning. On the other side, it has been argued that 
 the desire to appear to good advantage before the young women will prove 
 a powerful stimulus to the young men, and also that the cojiscientiousness 
 of women in study, will certainly elevate the general tone of scholarship. 
 
 The facts, as stated by the gentlemen already referred to, and as ob- 
 served by your Committee, decidedly favor the latter argument. 
 
 The next question naturally is, what is to be the effect on those it is- 
 purposed to introduce ? 
 
 * Doctor Hedge, in a recent speech at Boston. 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 23 
 
 THE EFFECT ON YOUNG WOMEN. 
 
 The first question naturally regards the effect o\\ physical heal tli. 
 
 On one side, appear those like that eminent authority, Dr. Clark, of 
 Boston, who think much close study, at the time usually assigned to a col- 
 lege course, hurtful. These say that they are frequently called upon to 
 treat diseases permanently injurious to body and mind brought on young 
 women by too close application to study at this period of life. 
 
 On the other side are the statistics given by the President of Oberlin 
 College, and the answers given the Committee by the lady students them- 
 selves, at the University of Michigan, which seem to show that the health 
 of the young women is quite as good in college as out of it. 
 
 The deterioration in the health of American women is without doubt 
 one of the most serious among modern social problems. It outweighs in 
 real importance, vast masses of questions usually claiming far more at- 
 tention. 
 
 That some of this deterioration may be due to close application to study 
 is possible, but the numbers of those who have ever closely applied them- 
 selves to study is so very small, compared with the number of those in bro- 
 ken health, that, evidently, search must be made for causes lying deeper 
 and spreading wider. 
 
 The want of success in grasping and presenting these causes hitherto 
 by men, seems to show that there should be brought to the question the 
 instinct, the knowledge, the tact of woman herself, and it would seem that, 
 for this, she has need of a system of education to give the mental strength 
 required for searching out those causes, and grappling with them. 
 
 More than this, it would seem that if the cause lies to any extent in want 
 of knowledge of great principles of health, or in want of firm character to 
 resist the inroads of certain vicious ideas in modern civilization, a change 
 of woman's education from its too frequent namby-pamby character, into 
 something calculated to give firmer mental and moral texture, would help, 
 rather than hurt in this matter. 
 
 While the Committee do not think this injury to health so likely to be 
 increased as diminished by the system of education proposed, they hold 
 that very careful provision should be made for the development of physical 
 strength commensurate with mental strength. 
 
 Any college building erected for women should be planned with special 
 reference to the health of its inmates. Sun-light should be admitted to 
 every room aiid copiously ; the most effective system of ventilation should 
 be adopted ; there should be a well-equipped gymnasium, and provision 
 should be made for work in the botanical and general gardens, and for 
 amusements. 
 
24 Report of the Committee 
 
 Physiology and hygiene should be among the subjects absolutely I'e- 
 quired in every course of study. 
 
 In the general system of studies, the Committee believe that stimulus, 
 in the way of competitive prizes, should not be brought to bear, to any 
 considerable extent, on the young women. If any quality in their work 
 at the various College, as submitted to the Committees, appears more clear 
 than another, it is conscientiousness ; and this is far more effective than 
 emulation in its direct influence, and more responsive to considerations of 
 health. 
 
 With such provisions and precautions, it is not likely that a body of 
 young women would be more injured by study in the College proposed 
 than by the aimlessness, listlessness, luxury and relaxing modes of pjiysical 
 and intellectual life common among young women who make no endeavor 
 after a higher and better education. 
 
 But another class of effects claims attention — eiTects on character and 
 manners. 
 
 By one side it is argued that the proposed system will probably injure 
 the dignity, modesty, refinement and delicacy of young women, — that it 
 will give a masculine tone. 
 
 By the other side it is argued that association, under proper restrictions, 
 with young "men engaged in scientific and literary pursuits makes any 
 young women feel, more than anything else, the necessity for womanly 
 dignity and self-control, at the same time that it brings out more clearly 
 the value of that refinement and modesty which all young men prize so 
 highly. 
 
 That there may be some danger to certain classes of women shallow in 
 character and weak in niind is not unlikely, but, of all women, these are the 
 least likely to involve themselves in the labor of preparation for the uni- 
 versity or of going on with its courses of study. 
 
 As to the good effect on the women who have actually entered the col- 
 leges, the testimony is ample. The Committee in its visits found no op- 
 posing statement either from college officers, students of either sex or 
 citizens of university towns, and all their observations failed to detect any 
 symptoms of any loss of the distinctive womanly qualities so highly 
 prized. 
 
 Nor have they found that those who have been thus educated have shown 
 any lack of these qualities in after life. 
 
 On the contrary, it would be hard to find a body of women combining 
 these qualities more nobly than the matrons of this State and surrounding 
 States, who have graduated at the Academies and Normal Schools. These 
 qualities they have, by the agreement of all observers, in a very much 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 25 
 
 higher degree than the women of countries where a semi-conventual 
 system of education is adopted. 
 
 It may be said that they must come in contact with vulgarity in words 
 aiid actions, and so be injured. This, it is believed, will be rare indeed. 
 There would at once be brought to bear a common law, a stringent code 
 not made by any Trustees or Faculty, but none the less effective. It would 
 be enforced by the great body of students, — and summarily. Should any 
 boor so far forget himself, as to say or do what could be construed into 
 an insult to the young women present, there would certainly be a suffi- 
 cient number of brothers, friends or admirers of the injured parties, to 
 take such measures as the case might demand. 
 
 And here, it may be added, would be one of the good influences on the 
 young men. Nothing is more disheartening to those in charge of Colleges, 
 than to find profanity and obscenity, on the part of a wretched minority, 
 tolerated by the great body of students, simply because all are men, and, 
 by common consent, among men a man may say what he pleases. 
 
 By the admission of women the point of honor in this respect is at once 
 changed. Words and actions before unchallenged would now be nec- 
 essarily forbidden by the great body of students themselves, and such 
 edicts would be enforced. 
 
 With the aid of a few words of common sense to young women by 
 their matrons, and to the young men by their Professors, there would be 
 created a right sentiment in this respect, powerful enough for all emer- 
 gencies ; and it is believed that women would be subjected to far less 
 annoyance from vulgarity in the University, than they constantly have to 
 encounter in the streets or conveyances of any town or city. 
 
 It seems necessary before closing this discussion as to the effect on 
 woman by this plan of education to allude to an argument often pre- 
 sented, that as woman's sphere of duty is different from that of man, her 
 education should be different. The most natural argument from analogy 
 would seem to destroy this position. While the physical and material duties 
 of woman differ widely from those of men, her physical nutriment and the 
 ordinary conditions of sound physical health are the same. The simplest 
 analogy would lead us to the conclusion that the intellectual nutriment, 
 and the conditions of sound mental health should be the same. 
 
 Under every roof in the land, we see persons of different sexes in the 
 household, preparing themselves by the same diet for their different func- 
 tions and duties. It would seem then that, no matter how great the dif- 
 ference may be between the intellectual duties and functions of the two 
 sexes, it does not at all follow that there should be a difference in the gen- 
 eral preliminary mental food. As the bodies of men and women are built 
 
26 Report of the Committee 
 
 up by the same food, whether vegetable or animal, so it would seem that 
 their minds and hearts and souls are to be built and beautified by the 
 same moral, mental and resthetical food. 
 
 The very statement of this argument shows that the same education of 
 both sexes does not lead to any usurpation of unnatural functions, social 
 or political, by women. It would rather show that such education, by its 
 proper development of mind and heart and soul in women, would most 
 surely lead to her taking that very place, and discharging best those very 
 duties, whatever they may be, which the Creator has appointed her. 
 
 Even if the most restrictivetheory of woman's duties be accepted, — even 
 if it be allowed that her only duties are those of a well-ordered house- 
 hold, — would she not be fitted better for her duties as the mother of future 
 generations of citizens by courses of study large and broad, than by the 
 unutterably inane instructions of the great majority of our ladies' board- 
 ing and " finishing " schools ? 
 
 The noble institutions of comparatively recent creation for the education 
 of young women separately, like Vassar College and Wells College seem 
 to support this general line of argument by facts. The great acknowl- 
 edged value of these institutions arises mainly from the fact that they have 
 broken away from the traditions of the boarding and "finishing" schools, 
 and have provided thorough, substantial courses of instruction more like 
 those aimed at in our best colleges. 
 
 While the admirable character of these Colleges, and the excellence of 
 the work they are doing and will continue to do, will, doubtless, be to 
 many an argument that young women can be most satisfactorily educated 
 by themselves, it will be no less strong an argument for the position that, 
 in the main, the best studies for developing the most worthy culture in 
 young women, are identical with those required for young men. 
 
 The question now arises as to the 
 
 EFFECTS COMMON TO BOTH SEXES. 
 
 First of these is the possible formation of acquaintances likely to ripen 
 into matrimonial engagements. 
 
 The facts conceded by President Fairchild, on this point, and his reasons 
 based upon them have been given, and seem convincing; the Committee 
 think that the argument may be stated in yet another way. Granting the 
 possibility or probability of such engagements, the question comes up 
 practically : — " How do young men and young women form such engage- 
 ments now? " 
 
 It is matter of notoriety that these engagements — the most important of 
 life, — are, as a rule, formed with less care, foresight and mutual knowledge. 
 
On the Sa(je Proposal. 27 
 
 than any other. Choice is determined by mere casual meeting, by an 
 acquaintance of a few weeks, by winning manners at a ball, by a pleasing 
 costume in the slrei l, and at the best by a very imperfect revelation of 
 those mental and moral qualities which are to make or mar the happiness 
 of all concerned. Should such engagements be formed in a University 
 where both sexes are educated together, they would be based upon a far 
 more thorough and extended knowledge, upon an admiration of a much 
 higher range of ([ualities, and upon a similarity in taste and temper, which 
 could not be gained elsewhere. 
 
 Every one acquainted with life in our larger and better Colleges and 
 Universities, knows that nowhere do men more surely value each other 
 for real and substantial qualities and attainments. Nowhere is the merely 
 dressy man in lower estimation; nowhere is the thorough scholar, the 
 ready writer, the powerful orator, more highly regarded; nowhere do 
 wealth, family influence, intriguing, caballing, avail less ; nowhere do 
 earnest purpose and good work avail more. 
 
 Certainly the choice of a companion for life made in such an atmosphere 
 cannot be less safe than that which is made under the present system in 
 the world at large. If any theorist objects, with some force, that these 
 attachments between students of either sex, would so fill the thoughts, as 
 to leave no place for study, the testimony already laid before the trus- 
 tees shows that practical educators find that these same attachments act as 
 a powerful stimulus to study. 
 
 And it should be remembered here, that under the present system of 
 separate education, attachments are frequently formed, engagements made, 
 and the resulting correspondence kept up, and yet that this has never 
 been considered a disturbing element in American education. On the 
 contrary it has been generally found that young men have been steadied 
 thereby. 
 
 Another class of effects has sometimes been feared — illicit attachments. 
 Careful and confidential conversation and correspondence with men in po- 
 sition to know fully the value of this objection, fail to show any especial 
 danger. 
 
 In the recent meeting at Boston, Dr. Edward Clarke, whose authority 
 on any such subject is deservedly great, while opposing coeducation, on 
 grounds alluded to elsewhere, took pains to state that immoral relations 
 between students of a marriageable age were not feared by him. He 
 stated distinctly that whatever danger there may be of this kind, is at an 
 earlier period, before young women have arrived at an age to have an 
 understanding of the necessary reserve between the two sexes. This- 
 opinion, resulting from an experience like that of Dr. Clarke who has. 
 
28 Report of the Committee 
 
 thoroughly studied the whole question involved, both socially and phys- 
 iologically, adds to the value of such testimony as that of Dr. Woolworth, 
 •who, after an experience of thirty-two years as Principal of some of the 
 largest academies in this State, in which boys and girls and young men and 
 young women, of all ages, have been brought together, thus — according to 
 Dr. Clark's experience, greatly increasing the danger — uses these words : 
 — "There have been no scandals, at least, not more than may exists be- 
 tween the members of a school limited to one sex and the outside world." 
 We would now call your attention to the 
 
 EFFECTS ON THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The first point that will occur to every one under this head is as to the 
 standard of scholarship. It has been claimed, that the admission of wo- 
 men would tend to lower the scholarship; and no case has been morefre- 
 •quently cited than Oberlin College. 
 
 This objection is based upon want of recognition of the fact that Oberlin 
 College, and others like it, carry on great preparatory schools, nominally 
 subordinate to the regular college organisation, but really outweighing it 
 in numbers. This is not the case at the Cornell University, and there is 
 no reason to expect that it will be. The University authorities have planted 
 themselves firmly on the ground that they have no right to use their 
 •endowment in duplicating the instruction given in the Academies and 
 Public Schools. 
 
 If women shall be admitted, it will be only upon just such examinations 
 as are passed by young men ; if they shall be continued from year to 
 year, it will be by passing the examinations now required. 
 
 If it be said that the presence of women will tend to lower the stand- 
 ard of scholarship, or at all events to keep the Faculty from steadily rais- 
 ing it, it may be answered at once, that all the facts observed are in oppo- 
 sition to this view. The letters received by the Committee, and their 
 own recent observations in class-rooms, show beyond a doubt, that the 
 young women are at least equals of the young men in collegiate studies. 
 As already stated, the best Greek scholar among the thirteen hundred 
 students of the University of Michigan, a few years since; the best math- 
 -ematical scholar in one of the largest classes of that institution to-day, and 
 ■several among the highest in natural science, and in the general courses of 
 study, are young women. 
 
 It has been argued that the want of accuracy and point, the " sloppiness" 
 of much of the scholarship in some of the newer colleges, is due to the 
 admission of women. The facts observed by the Committee seem to 
 prove that this argument is based on the mistake ofconcomitancy for cause. 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 29 
 
 If " sloppiness " and want of point are inadmissable anywhere, it is in 
 translation from the more vigorous and concise ancient and modern authors. 
 Now, the most concise and vigorous rendering from the most concise and 
 vigorous of all — Tacitus himself — was given by a young lady at Oberlin Col- 
 lege. Nor did the Committee notice any better work in the most difficult of 
 the great modern languages than that of some young women at Antioch 
 College. 
 
 Nor is our own University entirely without experience on this point. 
 Among candidates for admission, two years since, no better examination 
 was 'passed than that by a young lady who had previously been success- 
 ful in a competition for the State scholarship, in one of the best educated 
 counties of the State. That she did not remain in the institution, was not 
 at all due to the want of ability to compete for its higher honors. 
 
 As bearing on this point, the Committee present a letter from Professor 
 Walter Smith, a man of great experience in England, as regards technical 
 and art education, and who, on account of this experience, has been sum- 
 moned to th'is country by the State of Massachusetts, and made State Di- 
 rector of Art Education. 
 
 "You ask my opinion, as a practical teacher, of the capacity of women 
 and girls to take in technical education of the highest class, in arts and 
 science, and as a corollary, what opinion I have formed of the general 
 question, that which is now somewhat amusingly called ' the higher educa- 
 tion of women.' 
 
 "To preface what I would say in response, I may state that for twelve 
 years I held the position in England of Head Master of a School of Art, 
 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which never had less than two thousand 
 pupils under its art instruction, (and which, for some years, had as many 
 as six thousand pupils in its various central and district classes); also that 
 for several years my own professional duties were spread over three schools 
 of art, in towns — the population of which exceeded half a million — one 
 school being a school of art and science and training-school for teachers, 
 the only school of the kind in England, except the National Training 
 School at South Kensington, London. The principal male and female 
 schools of the district were also under my supervision. This, continuing 
 in an unbroken period of above ten years, gave me, as I believe, sufficient 
 opportunities of forming an opinion upon the question of capacity for 
 sustained study, with regard both to male and female students. 
 
 " During the period described, I must have given in the schools of art, 
 schools and colleges in which I either taught or managed teaching, several 
 hundreds of courses of lectures upon the subjects which lay at the found- 
 ation of a knowledge of art, and those elements of science that belong 
 
30 Report of the Committee 
 
 alike to art and scientific knowledge, such as geometrical drawing, orthog- 
 raphic projection, practical and theoretical perspective, conic sections, 
 ■etc., etc., mechanical drawing being also an important subject. 
 
 " I formed a very definite opinion about the teachability of the two sexes, 
 taught in one class, because the common evil of blackboard instruction 
 became apparent, viz : — the teacher and all the readier pupils being made 
 to wait vmtil the slower ones hiid got through, before a fresh problem 
 could be given. This hindrance seldom came from the female students, 
 and did come very liberally from others. At the government examina- 
 tions which came at the end of the winter course, this was more palpably 
 shown by the result of the work done. I never remember a year in which 
 the amount, both the prizes and certificates obtained by the ladies at these 
 public examinations, was not, out of all proportion to the numbers com- 
 peting, greater than that of those obtained by the male students. 
 
 "There is only one serious cause of failure at the public examinations 
 at which girls sit for examination ; and that is, their liability to become 
 excited; some of the best suffer from that and are sacrificed to it. 
 
 " My opinion concerning the capacity of women to succeed in art study 
 especially, was a good deal matured by an incident in my eajly experience 
 in the north of England, which I shall not forget. When I assumed my 
 position as Head Master, I found what probably always existed and un- 
 happily now exists in many schools, a desire on the part of the young 
 ladies to draw and paint simple bits of prettiness, without anything edu- 
 ■cational in them. I strove hard to induce them to attack the curriculum 
 of study of the night classes for artisans, — the school of art course, — which 
 . meant work, both physical and mental, not the coloring of bird's-nests and 
 and butterflies, ^etc, etc. 
 
 "At that time there were annual competitions for bronze medals award- 
 ed by the Government Art Inspectors, which were distributed by an al- 
 lotment of three medals to each of twenty-three stages of instruction, 
 i. e., a possible three medals, if the work was gdod enough. To induce 
 the ladies of the day classes to enter these competitions, I promised that if 
 they would take up two stages of study, they should be reserved for 
 them, and I would ask the male students not to compete with them. Be- 
 fore this, no lady had ever taken a medal in that school. Of course the 
 result of this ' protection ' was that works good enough to take all the three 
 medals in both stages were produced. That success opened up a new 
 world to the dozen pupils who had achieved it. The next year I declined 
 to reserve stages for them, but recommended an open competition with 
 the male students in every stage. At the next annual examinations more 
 than half the medals and prizes awarded to the school were taken by the 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 
 
 31 
 
 ladies, whose numbers were about one-fifth of the numbers of the male 
 students. 
 
 " In the following year the male students came piteously to me to ask 
 that some of the stages of instruction might be reserved to them, as they 
 could not compete with the ladies. 
 
 " Having gone through the bondage of protection and emerged into free 
 trade, we could not go back ; and since that time no reservation or dis- 
 tinction has been made between the students with regard to sex. 
 
 "That is an experience which will not easily be erased from my mem- 
 ory. 
 
 " Independently of this, I have had, in the preparation of both male 
 and female teachers for the professional art examination at the South 
 Kensington Museum, London, special opportunities ofnotirig the mental ca- 
 pacity of both sexes in grasping purely scientific subjects, such as radial 
 and parallel projection, and here put on record that I have found young 
 women, not only equal to their masculine fellow students, but clearer- 
 headed and more successful, both in their preparation and final examina- 
 tion in London. 
 
 " I suppose I need not refer to the comparative success of the two sexes 
 in the more artistic subjects of study; that has been definitely settled long 
 since in favor of the women ; and it is my experience in teaching the sci- 
 entific subjects as recorded above which has led me to the conclusion that 
 in both fields, women are at least the equals of men. 
 
 " Moreover I have seen that the result of this mental work has been a 
 very great advantage to those women who have undertaken it ; it has made 
 them happier, and by inducing a feeling of equality with their male fellow- 
 students, has broadened their characters and increased their intelligence 
 in everything, and thus made them more agreeable companions. 
 
 " I expect that if there be any real difference in the mental capacities of 
 of men and women, which I doubt, it will only be developed by an iden- 
 tical training of both, letting the results manifest themselves, without any 
 extraneous assistance. 
 
 " It is an utterly useless experiment to teach the two sexes differently 
 and then point to a difference of character as a proof of difference of men- 
 tal capacity, which is practically what we have done in England hitherto. 
 Up to within a year from the present time, no grammar-school in the 
 United Kingdom was open to girls, and at the present moment no Univer- 
 sity is open to them. That is sufficient ground for asserting an entire in- 
 competence to form an opinion on the subject, from evidence hitherto at- 
 tainal>le, of the people who allowed so gross an injustice to last so long. 
 
 "The speculations of mere theorisers on this question are absolutely 
 ■worthless as evidence, and exceeding impudent in their pretentiousness. 
 
32 Report of the CoMiMittee 
 
 " I have heard young men who never taught a mixed class of males and 
 females for an hour in their lives, glibly lay down the axiom that man's 
 is the reasoning and progressive mind, woman's the contemplative and 
 conservative mind, and then proceed to account for this phenomenon by 
 quotations of the opinions of philosophers, or by a recital of their own 
 experienced observation, made probably during a ball or a picnic. 
 
 "The first thing to be done before any reliable conclusions can be 
 come to in this matter, is to reject the evidence of those who are mere 
 speculators or retailers of hearsay evidence. Those men and women only 
 should be put into the witness-box who have something to say ; it is 
 utter waste of time to examine people of strong opinions, partisans of 
 either side, who make up for their want of practical experience by great 
 vehemence of expression. 
 
 " For my own part, I look upon a solution of this question as of more 
 importance economically than as a matter of justice. One half of the 
 minds of civilized people are as deliberately crippled and stunted by our 
 foolish prejudices about capacities, as are the feet of half the Chinese 
 crushed into shapelessness and uselessness through an old tradition. But 
 ours is the more cruel habit of the two, for our barbarism sacrifices the 
 beautiful mental structure ; the Celestials only distort the small extrem- 
 ities of the body. 
 
 " Looking upon the question as one of fair play between men and 
 women, I cannot suppose it possible for an intelligent man to believe it is 
 for the good of the human race that the education of either half should be 
 better than that of the other half. I am aware that some fanatical persons 
 regard women as the superiors mentally of men, and their belief is to be 
 accounted for by the example set to them by fanatical persons who have 
 upheld the opposite of their creed. 
 
 "It seems to me that practical people who know anything of the sub- 
 ject will reject both fanaticisms and believe in the perfect equality of the 
 two." 
 
 Still another effect upon the Institution has been prophesied by some — 
 a loss of reputation. It is said that the admission of women would tend 
 to its classification, in the popular mind, with certain institutions not 
 highly esteemed among scholarly or thoughtful men, or the public at 
 large. 
 
 That this would be the effect on some minds is probable ; but the Com- 
 mittee see no reason to believe that this feeling would extend very far or 
 last very long. 
 
 The same prophecies were made when the admission of young women 
 was proposed at the University of Michigan; but the testimony of Chief 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 33 
 
 Justice Cooley, a Professor in that institution, shows that the standard of 
 scholarship is not lowered, and that no permanently injurious current 
 of opposition has been felt. The reason does not seem difficult to find. 
 The University of Michigan was strong enough to try the experiment; 
 it had braved storms enough not to tremble at a gust of prejudice. 
 And it should be borne in mind that the Cornell University, too, is not so 
 feeble in endowment, or in Faculty, or in number of students, or in the 
 general provisions for education, or weak in its hold on the popular con- 
 fidence, as to be shaken by a temporary loss of prestige in the minds of 
 a comparatively small class. 
 
 And it should also be borne in mind that the sentiment of opposition to 
 this movement now, is by no means so unhesitating as it was a few years 
 since. Members of the Committee have been surprised to find many ad- 
 vocates of coeducation in the very quarters where they expected the most 
 steady opposition ; and even if there be opposition, all the winds of pub- 
 lic opinion which the University has encountered thus far, have not been 
 so favorable as to leave us without experience in buffeting opposing blasts, 
 or, to state the fact more plainly, while no institution has ever had more 
 noble friends or a more kindly public instinct in its favor, none has ever 
 had to encounter a more bitter storm of misrepresentation, sneers, and 
 old-world arguments and pedantic missiles, and it is therefore of very lit- 
 tle consequence whether there be or be not added one more cause of fu- 
 tile opposition. 
 
 EFFECTS ON COLLEGES FOR THE SEPARATE EDUCATION 
 OF WOMEN. 
 
 In view of the noble endowments and efforts already made in this State 
 for the separate education of women, the question naturally arises, what 
 will be the effect of the proposed experiment in coeducation upon these ? 
 Here too we can appeal to fact rather than theory. In the States vvhere 
 the system of educating young men and young wamen together is being 
 most fully tried, there are, at the same time, institutions for the education 
 of young women apart, flourishing and growing with the growth of the 
 country. So it will doubtless be in the State of New York. There will 
 always be a large number of parents who will prefer to educate their 
 daughters in colleges like Vassar or Wells, where young women only are 
 admitted. Nor do your Committee see anything to regret in this. That 
 prince among modern thinkers, John Stuart Mill, never said a thing more 
 wise than when he declared that uniformity in education is an injury, and 
 variety a blessing. Tljis great Commonwealth is broad enough for all, and 
 any work proposed here will strengthen and be strengthened by all good 
 work done at .Aurora, PoughUecpsie or Elmira. 3 
 
34 Report of the Committee 
 
 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE OPPOSING THEORY. 
 
 In beginning their report your Committee stated that their duty seemed 
 first to be to investigate the facts in the case separately, then to collate 
 them, then to throw any light thus concentrated into theories and pro- 
 grammes. 
 
 In accordance with this plan they would conclude the general discussion 
 of this subject by concentrating such light as they have been able to gain, 
 upon the main theory embedded in the arguments against mixed educa- 
 tion. 
 
 The usual statement of this theory contains some truths, some half- 
 truths, and some errors. As ordinarily developed, it is substantially that 
 woman is the help-meet of man, that she gives him aid in difficulty, coun- 
 sel in perplexity, solace in sorrow ; that his is the vigorous thinking, hers 
 the passive reception of such portions of thought as may be best for her ; 
 that his mind must be trained to grapple with difficult subjects, that hers 
 needs no development but such as will make her directly useful 
 and agreeable; that the glory of man is in a mind and heart that 
 rejoices in solving the difficult problems and fighting the worthy 
 battles of life ; that the glory of woman is in qualities that lead her to 
 shun much thought on such problems, and to take little interest in 
 in such battles ; that the field of man's work may be the mart or shop, 
 but that it is well for him to extend his thoughts outside it ; that the field 
 of woman is the household, but that it is not best for her to extend her 
 thoughts far outside it ; that man needs to be trained in all his powers to 
 search, to assert, to decide ; that woman needs but little training beyond 
 that which enables her gracefully to assent ; that man needs the University 
 and the great subjects of study it presents ; while woman needs the " fin- 
 ishing schools " and the "accomphshments," and that, to sum up, the 
 character, work, training and position of woman are as good as they ever 
 can be. 
 
 The truths in this theory have covered its errors. The truth that wo- 
 man is the help-meet of man has practically led to her education in such 
 a way that half her power to aid and counsel and comfort is taken away. 
 
 The result has been that strong men, in adversity or perplexity, have 
 often found that the "partners of their joys and sorrows " give no more 
 real strength than would Nuremberg dolls. Under this theory, as thus 
 worked out, the aid and counsel and solace fail just when they are most 
 needed. In their stead the man is likely to find some scraps of philoso- 
 phy begun in boarding-schools, and developed in kitchens or drawing- 
 rooms. 
 
On thk Sage Proposai,. 35 
 
 But to see how a truly educated woman, nourished on the same thoughts 
 of the best thinkers on which man is nourished, can give aid and counsel 
 and solace, while fulfilling every duty of the household, we are happily 
 able to appeal to the experience of many, and for the noblest portrayal of 
 this experience ever made, we may name the dedication to the wife of 
 John Stuart Mill of her husband's greatest essay. 
 
 But if we look out from the wants of the individual man into the wants 
 of the world at large, we find that this optimist theory regarding woman 
 is not supported by facts, and that the resulting theory of woman's educa- 
 tion aggravates some of the worst evils of modern society. One of these 
 is coHventional extravagance. 
 
 Among the curiosities of recent civilization perhaps the most absurd 
 is the vast tax laid upon all nations at the whim of a knot of the least 
 respectable women in the most debauched capital in the world. The 
 fact may be laughed at, but it is none the less a fact, that to 
 meet the extravagances of the world of women who bow to the decrees 
 of the Brdda quarter of Paris, young men in vast numbers, especially in 
 our cities and large towns, are harnessed to work as otherwise they would 
 not be ; their best aspirations thwarted, their noblest ambitions sacrificed, 
 to enable the "partners of their joys and sorrows" to vie with each other 
 in reproducing the last grotesque absurdity issued from the precincts of 
 Notre Dame de Lorette, or to satisfy other caprices not less ignoble. 
 
 The main hope for the abatement of this nuisance, which is fast assum- 
 ing the proportions of a curse, is not in any church ; for, despite the 
 pleadings of the most devoted pastors, the church edifices are the chosen 
 theaters of this display ; it would seem rather to be in the infusion, by a 
 more worthy education, of ideas which would enable woman to wield re- 
 ligion, morality and common sense against this burdensome perversion of 
 her love for the beautiful. 
 
 This would not be to lower the sense of beauty and appropriateness in 
 costume; thereby would come an cesthetic sense which would lift our best 
 women into a sphere of beauty where Parisian grotesque could not be 
 tolerated ; thereby too would come, if at all, the strength of character 
 which would cause woman to cultivate her own taste for simple beauty in 
 form and color, and to rely on that, rather than on the latest whim of any 
 foohsh woman who happens to be not yet driven out of the Tuilleries or 
 the Br^da quarter. 
 
 Still another evil in American women is the want of any general appre- 
 ciation of art in its nobler phases. The number of those who visit the 
 museums of art is wretchedly small, compared with the crowds in the 
 temples of haberdashery. Even the love of art they have is tainted with 
 
36 Report of the Committee 
 
 "Parisian fashions." The painting which makes fortunes is not the worthy 
 representation of worthy subjects ; French boudoir paintings take the 
 place of representations of what is grand in history or beautiful in legend ; 
 Wilhems and his satin dresses, Bourgereau with his knack at flesh color, 
 have driven out of memory the noble treatment of great themes by Ary 
 SchefFer and Paul Delaroche ; Kaulbach is eclipsed by Meissonier. Art 
 is rapidly becoming merely a means of parlor decoration, and losing its 
 function as the embodiment of great truths. 
 
 So rapidly evaporates one of the most potent influences for good in a 
 republic. An education of women, looking to something more than ac- 
 complishments, is necessary to create a healthy reaction against this ten- 
 dency. 
 
 Still another part of woman's best and noblest influence has an alloy 
 which education of a higher sort, under influences calculated to develop 
 logical thought, might remove. For one of the most decided obstacles to 
 progress of the best christian thought and right reason has arisen from the 
 clinging of women to old abuses, and the fear of new truths. From 
 Mary Stuart at the Castle of Amboise to the last good woman who has 
 shrieked against science, — from the Camarilla which prays and plots for 
 reaction in every European court down to the weakest hunter of the 
 mildest heresies in remote villages, the fetichisms and superstitions of 
 this world are bolstered up mainly by women. 
 
 In Lessing's great picture, the good, kind-faced woman whose simplic- 
 ity Huss blesses as she eagerly heaps up the fagots for his martyrdom, is 
 but the type of vast multitudes of mothers of the race. 
 
 The greatest aid which could be rendered to smooth the way for any 
 noble thinkers who are to march through the future, would be to in- 
 crease the number of women who, by an education which has caught 
 something from manly methods, are prevented from clinging to advancing 
 thinkers or throwing themselves hysterically across their pathway. 
 
 So too that indirect influence of women on political events, so lauded 
 even by those who are most opposed to any exercise by her of direct in- 
 fluence, has some bad qualities which a better system of education might 
 diminish. The simple historical record shows that in what Bacon calls 
 the "insanity of states," her influence has generally been direful. 
 From Catharine de Medicis in the struggle of the League, down to Louise 
 Michel in the recent catastrophe at Paris — from the tricoteuses of the First 
 French Revolution to the petroleuses of the last, woman has seemed to 
 aggravate rather than soothe popular fury. Nor is the history of ci- I 
 strife nearer home without parallel examples. 
 
 An education which would lead women to a more thousrhtful considera- 
 
On the Sage Proposal. 37 
 
 lion of great questions and more logical treatment of them, would, per- 
 haps, do something to aid mercy and justice in the world at those very 
 times when they are most imperiled. 
 
 But to all this it may be said that these considerations are too general 
 and remote — that woman's most immediate duties relate to maternity, and 
 that her most beautiful mission relates to the dispensing of charities. As 
 to her duties as mother, if the suliject were fully discussed, it would be 
 shown that, under the present system of physical, mental and moral edu- 
 cation of women, there is a toleration of perhaps the most cancerous evil 
 of modern society. Suffice it that the system of education proposed can- 
 not make it worse, and may make it better. 
 
 As to woman's beautiful function as the dispenser of charities, it will 
 do no harm to have leading minds among women, shown, as a stronger 
 education would show them, that systems of charity based on impulse 
 and not on reason have in the older countries caused almost as much 
 misery as they have^cured. Her work in charity would be certainly 
 strengthened by the training which would give her insight into this. 
 
 THE PROPOSED ENDOWMENT. 
 
 Among the matters on which the Committee was mstructed to report, 
 were any proffers of endowment having reference to the education of 
 both sexes together. 
 
 They are now authorized to submit, herewith, the proposal signed by 
 The Honorable Plenry W. Sage, of Brooklyn, a member of the Board of 
 TruTitees, offering to the Institution the sum of two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars, to be paid withjn three years from the acceptance of the offer, 
 on the condition, to use his exact language, that "instruction shall be af- 
 forded to young women, by the Cornell University, as broad and as thor- 
 ough as that now afforded to young men." 
 
 This is the entire statement of the condition. The Trustees are not 
 hampered by any subordinate conditions as to method. 
 
 POSSIBLE PLANS FOR THE COEDUCATION IN THE UNI- 
 VERSITY. 
 
 In view of this offer, two plans for a Woman's College have been dis- 
 cussed. Both are based upon our experience, which proves that some 
 portion of the endowment must be used in providing accommodations 
 for h arding and lodging. Under the present circumstances of the Uni- 
 versity, remote as it is from the town, such provision is a necessity. 
 
 The first plan discussed is that of a large quadrangle or series of quad- 
 
38 Report of the Committee 
 
 rangles adjacent to the University grounds, to be made up of a central 
 building containing some special lecture-rooms and recitation-rooms and a 
 museum connected with a department of botany and horticulture, and of 
 houses, neat and well constructed, which could be afforded at a moderate 
 rent, on condition that each tenant take into the family a certain number 
 of lady students. Thus would be established a system akin to that of the 
 University of Michigan, — the one which has been so long tried in the acad- 
 emies in this State, — that of breaking up the lady students into small 
 colonies, and bringing them directly under family influence. The ad- 
 vantages of this system would be its greater economy, its smaller demands 
 as regards supervision and its aiding to meet one of the greatest wants of 
 the institution, — houses for its officers and for families wishing to enjoy the 
 benefits of a University town. Its disadvantages seem to be the difficulty 
 of finding suitable tenants and the impossibility of the most thorough su- 
 pervision by the University itself. It ought to be said, however, that it 
 is still an open question whether this supervision is as truly effective as 
 that exercised in the family. 
 
 The other plan, is to erect on the same land — adjacent to the Univer- 
 sity grounds — a large College Building complete in all respects, with 
 lecture-room, special recitation-rooms, infirmary, gymnasium, bathing- 
 rooms and study and lodging-rooms for from one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred lady students — a building which would form a striking archi- 
 tectural feature in its connection with the University. 
 
 The advantage of this new plan is that it would admit of most complete 
 supervision — that it would tend to satisfy the popular mind in this respect 
 and that it would add to the dignity of the College and of the University. 
 The disadvantages are that it would require the furnishing and keeping up 
 of a great establishnv^nt. This objection vanishes, however, before the 
 proposed endowment, in addition to the cost of the building. 
 
 Each of these plans has strong arguments in its favor. On the side of 
 the first may be ranged such statements of experience as those of Dr. 
 Armstrong, Dr. Woolworth, the academies of this and surrounding States, 
 and the University of Michigan. 
 
 On the other side is the theory of Horace Mann, who, in his letter to the 
 Committee of the Michigan Regents, declared that a separate college -build- 
 ing for young women, under careful supervision, was a matter of absolute 
 necessity ; and with Mr. Mann, the great majority of the public would 
 probably agree. 
 
 It will be observed that each plan provides for accommodation near the 
 University buildings. This the Committee regard as absolutely essen- 
 general University buildings, from the laboratories, the lecture-rooms. 
 
On the Sage PRorosAL, 39 
 
 tial. To place the buildings proposed at a point remote from the muse- 
 ums, would place the young women under great disadvantages and even 
 dangers. It would oblige them to take long walks, and frevuently, 
 through rain and snow, after sitting in warm recitation-rooms, and this 
 could not fail to be very injurious to their health. 
 
 It will be noted that certain lecture and recitation-rooms are provided for 
 the young ladies under both systems. The purpose of this is two-fold : — 
 first, there are some subjects which it may be found desirable to teach the 
 young women apart from the young men, as for example, physiology and 
 kindred studies. Again, there seems a peculiar fitness in bringing one 
 leading department into especial connection with this part of the Uni- 
 versity ; this is the department of botany and horticulture. All the dif- 
 ferent plans agree on providing a botanical lecture-room, laboratory and 
 museum, with green-house and botanical garden, in connection with the 
 proposed College. Apart from the fact that botany and horticulture have 
 special attractions for young women, it is believed that work in such gar- 
 dens in connection with such a department would afford the best of all 
 physical exercise. 
 
 It is not impossible, too, that, to some extent, self supporting labor may 
 thus be afforded. The demand for floral products of every sort in all our 
 cities is immense, and steadily increasing, and the University grounds are 
 not more remote from some of the most important markets than are many 
 of the existing sources of supply. 
 
 In concluding their report, the Committee would state one simple argu- 
 ment, which seems to them entitled to weight, even with those who dis- 
 sent from many or from all of the arguments already presented. 
 
 The Cornell University is, in a certain sense, a State institution. The 
 main source of its endowment from the government of the United States 
 and its Charter, both State and National, give it this character. In view 
 of the unmistakable tendency of popular sentiment, in view of the fact that 
 in our Act of Incorporation, the v/ord persons, referring to those entering 
 the Institution, is to be read in connection with a context, which leads to 
 the inference that the persons entering the University are of the same sort 
 as the persons in the pulilic schools and academies, that is, persons of 
 both sexes, it seems doubtful whether it will be possible much longer to 
 refuse to try the experiment of educating the sexes together in the Uni- 
 versity. And the question therefore arises, whether it is not best to ac- 
 cept a gift which affords the best opportunity to try the experiment fully 
 and fairly that has ever been offered in this or any other country. Indeed, 
 it is a question whether we have any right to reject such an opportunity. 
 
 In view of this, as well as the considerations previously presented, your 
 
40 Report of the Committee 
 
 Committee recommend that Mr. Sage's gift be accepted on the conditions 
 named by him, and that the establishment created under it be known as 
 
 the Sage College of Cornell University. 
 
 Andrew D. White, Chairman, 
 In behalf of a Majority of the Committee. 
 
REPORT 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE 
 
 €xMttts a( €axull Enikrsitg, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF A MAJORITY OF THE 
 
 f OMMITTEE ON fl^^. ^/Qe'^ pROPO^y\L 
 
 ENDOW A COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. 
 
 BY ANDREW D. WHITE, 
 
 Chairman of the Committee. 
 
 Albany, February 13, 1872. 
 
 ITHACA, N. Y. 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1872. 
 

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