ÀҾ˹éÒ˹ѧÊ×Í
PDF
ePub

August 6th a memorial service was held in the University Chapel. It was largely made up of music specially selected as appropriate. Mr. Chenhall, the organist, was assisted by Mrs. Chamot and Miss Anne McCormick. Dr. Charles Mellen Tyler very kindly made a brief address. This sad accident alone marred an unbroken six weeks of successful work, pleasant recreation and wholesome rest.

The Summer Session of 1907 has been a successful one, but I see no reason to doubt that it will yield the palm to others in the future, as we shall be able to enlarge the scope of our work and to attract ever increasing numbers of persons devoting their lives to education. The University is doing no work of greater importance or of wider influence.

Respectfully submitted,

GEORGE P. BRISTOL,

Director of the Summer Session

APPENDIX XIII

REPORT OF THE WARDEN OF SAGE COLLEGE

To the President of the University:

SIR-I have the honor to submit my report as Warden of Sage College for the year 1906-1907.

The number of students living in Sage College during the first term was 168, in Sage Cottage 39; during the second term in Sage College 167, in Sage Cottage 39. The total number, therefore, in the two dormitories for the first term was 207, for the second term 206, as against totals of 209 and 203 for the corresponding terms of last year. Over 40 applicants for admission were refused for lack of room. The need for an increase in dormitory accomodations and for an expansion of the kitchen and dining room plant is felt by the residents more keenly every year, and the time is anxiously awaited when the botanical department may be moved to other quarters and the space now occupied by it in the north wing of the College may be utilized to render more spacious and comfortable the building

[ocr errors]

which, for the present at least, must be the center of the life of the women at Cornell.

Various improvements have been made or arranged for in the equipment of the buildings. The disastrous fires near the Campus early in the winter prompted naturally a careful scrutiny of the existing means of protection against fire and the addition of several new features to the apparatus already in place. All outer doors in the College and Cottage were rehung so as to swing outward. Keys for each were put in sealed cases close at hand, new fire gongs and new appliances for turning on the fire alarm within the buildings were set up on every floor and a reliable kind of rope escape was selected for instalment in those upper rooms that do not open directly upon the ladder escapes. Both buildings were thoroughly inspected with a view to making as safe and easy as possible the ways of exit by every route. During the Christmas holidays the large drawing room in the College was embellished with a new ceiling of woodwork panelling and the walls of the room were freshly colored. The furnishings of the College reading room were also overhauled and new chairs, cushions, and curtains added. To make the reading room yet more attractive the students subscribed for three popular monthly magazines to supplement those already donated by individuals and the library. The room certainly presents a far more inviting aspect than it did and is being used more generally as a place of rest or study or meeting. To bring the charges for room and board nearer to prevailing market prices and to meet the growing cost of food and service the rent for rooms in the College and Cottage has been increased for the coming year by an average of $10 per inmate and the rate of board has been raised from $4 to $4.25 a week, thus increasing the total expense of living in the dormitories by about $20 a year. The sum is small, however, in comparison with the addition other institutions have been obliged to put upon their charges.

Except for a few exceptional cases, none of which have resulted seriously, the maladies from which the women have suffered have been slight and the general average of health has been good. The practice introduced this year, of sending notice to the gymnasium instructor and to the Warden of the admission of women students to the Infirmary has made it easier to keep intelligently posted as to the condition of individuals and to draw general conclusions as to the amount and character of illness. Out of 35 cases reported from the Infirmary 18 were diagnosed as colds or grippe; 3 more as laryngitis and 4 as fatigue. Dr. Barringer, having completed her second

year of service as medical examiner, is able now to contribute some interesting data as to the effect of University life upon the health of the women. She reports this spring that she has re-examined and kept under further observation during the year 98 students whom she examined first in the fall of 1905. Of these 40 maintain about the same health average as they did a year and a half ago, 36 have markedly improved during this second year, 22 are not so well.

Dr. Barringer's ability and spirit of cordial interest are making themselves appreciated more and more the longer her connection with the women of the University lasts and the efficiency of the whole physical training department is being advanced through her hearty co-operation. She has made, as she did last year, five trips to Ithaca between October and May and has examined in all 247 women, including all new students of whatever rank, all sophomores and all seniors and juniors electing to take part in systematic athletics. As before, the freshmen and sophomores, who are required to take gymnasium work, were classified according to the nature of the exercise they were fitted to undertake; 17 students the first term and 19 the second term were excused from attendance on the ground that they were performing from two to six hours of manual labor daily outside of their University pursuits; 18 girls were pronounced at the beginning physically unequal to any gymnastic work and were put on a prescribed schedule of rest and outdoor exercise and kept throughout the year under the strict supervision of the gymnasium instructor; nine more were taken from gymnasium classes during the winter and placed upon similar terms. One student improved sufficiently by this method alone to enter the regular gymnastic classes before the year was over and two others at the advice of Dr. Barringer took medical treatment the first term and then were able also to join a class for the second term. In most cases, even where gymnastic work was not allowed at all, the health of these delicate girls grew distinctly better. No woman was allowed both to participate in the heaviest forms of athletics and to carry the maximum number of University hours unless she showed a continual physical vigor that warranted such permission. Three lectures on personal hygiene were delivered by the medical examiner in the fall and were supplemented by advice given to individuals in the office hours held regularly upon each of the examiner's visits. In the interval of block week the gymnasium instructor made a trip to inspect gymnasium methods in several of the leading universities of the middle west and returned with certain suggestions which she

has already begun to carry out. Enough has been achieved to indicate to those in charge how the whole physical department may extend its usefulness by exerting a closer and more systematic influence for healthfulness and moderation over the student body at large and by providing simple corrective work for those individuals whom a little help can restore to physical soundness. In development along such lines it will be following the example of the best and most progressive college gymnasiums in the country.

The Sports and Pastimes Association has continued the effort to raise money for the women's athletic ground. About $175 have been obtained this year from alumnae and other friends and over $125 more will be cleared by the little grocery shop in Sage College. This, together with the sum raised last year, will cover the cost of draining the ground thoroughly and of filling in and grading enough for four tennis courts. That much, we are assured, will be ready for use the coming September. The Tennis Club has felt itself badly hampered by its confinement to the two cramped courts on the north of Sage College and can hardly wait with patience for the new ones to be completed. The basket ball players have profited this year by expert coaching from the outset furnished by Mr. MacSherry, instructor in the armory. A few elementary rules for training were drawn up early in the season by the medical examiner, the gymnasium instructor and the basket ball manager in concert and for the first time were enforced with fair regularity. The final tournaments were held as usual in the armory immediately before the spring vacation. The Rowing Club has sold an old boat advantageously through the help of Mr. Courtney and has made arrangements for the building of a new four oared gig like the one now in use. With two boats at its disposal it proposes to organize class crews and so to introduce an element of rivalry into rowing that will intensify the interest in it as a sport. An effort was made by some students in the early spring to establish a Walking Club on the same systematic basis as the other athletic clubs. The plan was approved by the physical department, but has not yet proved a permanent success. It has been difficult apparently to maintain a steady interest in the enterprise, the students preferring for the most part to be free to choose their own time and manner and company for their country tramps.

The Student Government Association of Cornell Women has passed a year outwardly less eventful than the last but marked not

withstanding by signs of progress. The Executive Committee for Sage has met every Tuesday evening and has been joined once a month by the three representatives of the outside women. Together they have discussed and acted upon various questions of student life and conduct and in the main have succeeded in making their decisions effective, even against occasional opposition. The chief problem with which the Sage Committee has felt itself perpetually forced to wrestle has been that of securing reasonable quiet in the dormitories during working hours and after ten o'clock at night. The proctor system has been organized and a floor committee appointed, consisting of one woman from each floor of Sage College and one from the Cottage, who have met regularly with the Executive Committee and have been each responsible to it for the work of the proctors in their own districts. This scheme has resulted in a more thorough oversight of the proctors and a more business-like administration in every way. There still remain to be developed in the student public a more general respect for laws and authority of their own making and a greater appreciation of the need of considerate self-control. In November the President of the Association and a member from the outside women were sent to represent Cornell at the Conference of Student Government Organizations of Women's Colleges held at the Women's College at Baltimore. The President was encouraged to learn that the problem of noise in dormitories was vexing other associations as well: the delegate from the outside women found herself an object of interest as representing almost the only movement so far started to institute self government among students living outside college buildings.

The committees in charge of the branch of the Association among the women outside Sage have worked admirably in the face of heavy obstacles to arouse and foster an interest in the aims of the Association. In October they called on 67 out of the 79 outside women registered as new students and during the year they have attempted to supply help or advice to the less experienced and have held monthly social meetings in Sage gymnasium. The whole status, however, of the work among these women has been altered by two acts of the Trustees passed during the winter :--first, that the Warden of Sage College have jurisdiction not only overthewomen in Sage, but over all women students in the University; second, that women students be not permitted to board and lodge in houses in which men also board and lodge, unless for special reasons this

« ¡è͹˹éÒ´Óà¹Ô¹¡ÒõèÍ
 »