Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 277]

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269

IN MINNESOTA.

President Folwell—In my State there has never been any legislation on the subject of admitting women to the University. There is no such thing as sex known in the charter, or act of incorporation. They came there in the beginning and have been there ever since. It has been with us entirely successful. There have been some difficulties, but small ones; they do not begin to compare with those turning up every day in the old colleges, as President Welch has remarked. The two sexes are mingled as they are in the family ; we could make no separation owing to the structure of the building. Thus far we do not find the male students get the start of the young ladies. I have no doubt of the result of the experiment. The young ladies can take care of themselves up to that point; whether they can hold their own in abstract studies, remains to be seen. I think they will. The manual labor question has not vexed us as yet. It strikes me it can be settled on general principles. Each institution must settle that for itself. In some places it cannot be practiced with success, and in some places not at all. President Fairchild, of Oberlin, wrote me that after an experiment of some years, they were obliged to give it up, because the expense of maintaining it was overwhelming. They could not afford to provide the material for the students to labor. Our farm is a mile from the building, and only a few of our students live in the University Building. The farm is so far away students are unwilling to go to it. The Agricultural College was attached to the University, and buildings have been erected in the meantime. It was not practicable to purchase a farm in the immediate vicinity, but we intend to build there one of these days. It seems to me it will be troublesome to provide labor for a large body of students. I do not commit myself on the question, whether it ought to be done. Some can do it, and some cannot. In principle it seems to me it is not necessary. I do not know we need a farm any more than we need a model cotton mill or machine shop to carry on the corresponding work in the arts; still it is v convenient, and if it is possible, we shall endeavor to conduct experiments in various departments of agriculture. It may not be possible to cooperate thoroughly in all the experiments proposed here. We are rather far North. Corn, for instance, is not a safe crop in Minnesota. If the frost holds off two weeks we shall have an excellent crop this year, but last year it was small. We do not want to do much in winter wheat; it is not a safe