The halls are finished throughout with hard wood of light color. Capacious parlors and a social hall upon each floor above the first brighten their appearance and provide for the social side of student life. The floors are oiled and covered with rugs which are removed at brief intervals, sunned and thoroughly cleaned.
The rooms are of suitable size and made equally accessible on all floors by means of elevators. The location of some may render them more agreeable than others, but all are equally comfortable and healthful. About half of them are intended for one person only, the others accomodate two. The only difference made in charges is when one person occipies a double room by her own choice, in which case an additional charge of fifty dollars will be made. When two persons occupy the same room each has her own bed, bureau, rocking-chair, and closet.
The dining-rooms are large, bright and airy, furnished with small tables around which eight persons may be seated. The fare is plain and simple, but carefully selected, wholesome, plentiful, well cooked and well served. The food of the sick and the convalescent is specially provided for under the direciton of the physician and the nurse.
Every student is required to furnish her own blankets, bed-linen, towels and napkins. No heavy furniture, such as etegeres, bookcases, tables or large chairs, must be added to that which the rooms already contain. This rule is intended to obviate expensive rivalries and to prevent overcrowding. Residents are encouraged to embellish their rooms with whatever is neither cumbersome nor costly. Trunks must be kept in the trunk-room. Injuries to furniture or rooms arising from abuse or carelessness must be made good by the occupants.
Each residence is presided over by a Lady in Charge, who endeavors to supply, as far as may be, the place of a mother among daughters.
The details of household management are under the charge of a housekeeper. All laundry work is done within the building, so as to guard against the introduction of cantagious diseases. A professional nurse is in constant residence to render prompt service in case of illness and often to prevent it by early attention to slight indispositions.
Students are invited to the comforts and privileges of these residences. It should, however, be borne in mind that they are not boarding-houses maintained for pecuniary profit, where those who pay charges may come and go and dispose of their time as they please. They are purely subsidiary to the educational aims of the College, and life in the m is regulated so as to enable students who reside there to pursue their studies under the most favorable conditions and with the fewest interruptions. Social pleasures are by no means discountenanced, but are not suffered to invade the student life to its prejudice. It is assumed that all who seek residence there do so for the sake of study and not for the sake of society, and the regulations are framed from this point of view. Other restrictions upon individual freedom arise out of a regard for widely accepted views of propriety and considerations of moral security. It owuld be too much to expect that some of the se rules will not occasionally be felt irksome by some who have been accustomed to greater freedom; every applicant for residence should therefore carefully read them and consider whether she is willing to be governed by them. Confortable boarding-houses may be found in the immediate vicinity of the College and in other parts of the city, and students who are not ready to acquiesce cheerfully in the rules should reside out of College.
At the same time it is presumed that those who come to us are not children, but young women of elevated aims and fixed principles. The College does not expect to exercise close surveillance over their doings. As long as their conduct keeps with in the bounds generally indicated above and more particularly moarked out in the published regulations, freedom of action will be accorded in other respects. The 'Chaperon' is unknown except when residents wish to go out at night or to promiscuous gatherings; care is then taken that they are properly accompanied.
Some matters which are dealt with in the regulations are of sufficient importance to receive particular consideration here. Residents will not be permitted to attend the theatre or opera and are forbidden to play cards, to dance or use wines either in their rooms or anywhere upon the College premises. Differences of opinion exist among good people as to the propriety of these practices at their own homes; but all will probably concede a serious risk when they are indulged in away from the safeguards of parental love and care.
In order that continuous and exacting study may be carried on without injury to health it is necessary that hours of rest be strictly respected. No one practice so speedily and so completely breaks down the student as keeping late hours. If this be less hurtful for some than for others it should be remembered that in order that any may rest without disturbance after a fixed hour all must retire and become quiet at that time. At the head of its routine regulations, therefore, this College places the urle that all noise must cease, lights be extinguished and residents in their beds at half-past ten o'clock. This is insisted on; violation of the rule is regarded as a serious offense, and repetition of it will be followed by withdrawal of the privilege of residence.
Of scarcely less importance, and to some of even greater importance, is carefulness in the matter of diet. It is impossible to do much more than counsel and urge our residents to abstain from excessive indulgence in sweetmeats between meals and at night. One matter does, however, come within our cognizance. Boxes from home containing a quantity of perishable food that must be quickly eaten are not allowed. 'Spreads' in the rooms continued late into the night are not permitted. Our residents will not be refused the pleasure of such social gatherings in their rooms or elsewhere in the buildings, but they must be arranged for in consultation with the Lady in Charge and at proper hours and under conditions that will not be detrimental to health.
Last Updated 9/17/99.