Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/460

 406 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO the University and outside, considered it extremely important. It was the inauguration of what was popularly known as the policy of segregation. In the final statement to the public, explaining the policy, the President said : The proposition briefly stated is as follows: to make provision in the development of Junior College work as far as possible for separate instruction for men and women, upon the basis of extending equal privileges to both sexes. The first hint of this change was given at the December, 1901, Convocation. The President, after announcing the organization during the Autumn Quarter of the Women's Union for the pro- motion of the interests of the women of the University, and speaking of the large success attending the policy of coeducation, continued : But it should be remembered that no apparent progress has been made d.uring twenty years in adjusting the general principles of coeducation to special situations Certain limitations have already clearly fixed them- selves. It is not deemed proper that men and women should take physical exercise together in the gymnasium While coeducation is unquestion- ably to be recognized as a permanent element in American higher education, its exact nature and the limitations which attend it will, for a long time, furnish excellent subjects for consideration and experiment. It is important that our own University .... should be one of the institutions which shall undertake to make contribution to the present knowledge and experience on the subject of coeducation. The President's mind worked fast, and a month after making the statements quoted above he submitted recommendations on the subject to the Trustees, providing for separate instruction for men and women in the Junior Colleges. These recommendations were referred to the Committee on Instruction and Equipment for ' consideration and report, and on being approved by the Committee, after a full discussion were adopted by the Board on February 18, 1902. It was not intended to put the new policy into immediate effect, large building plans being connected with its practical administration, although these were not, except in a very slight degree, essential to it. The Senate and the Junior College faculty had already approved the policy. No sooner, however, did it become known that the policy had been adopted by the Trustees than a somewhat serious conflict