SKIRTED STUDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 107, 9 May 1927, Page 19

SKIRTED STUDENTS.

STUDIOUS MALE ATTITUDE.

WOULD BE RID OF THEM.

OUTCRY AT UNIVERSITIES.

Already there have been two protests this year, one from Oxford and one from Cambridge, against the ever-growing hordes of women undergraduates "afflict ing" the two universities. The protest from Cambridge, as befitted that somewhat less solemn seat of learning, took the form of a high-speed procession through the chief streets of the town, accompanied by motor lorries carrying extremely unflattering effigies of allegedly typical women undergraduates, and by enthusiastic members of the sterner sex carrying flaming torches and emblazoned banners.

To the unseeing eye the Cambridge protest against women students was more than the usual rag, but to those in touch with Cambridge feeling there was a note, even in the grotesque procession, of real feeling. And the truth would seem to be that Cambridge is not, at the present time, quite as pleasant a place for the woman undergraduate as formerly. So far her presence haa only been made the target of more or less good-natured badinage, but there can be no doubt that—not to mince matters—there is a large body of opinion at Cambridge that is heartily sick of the women undergraduates anil would give a good deal to be rid of them.

Oxford More Restrained. Unlike Cambridge, Oxford is seldom affected by these mass movements and sudden, violent reactions to questions of the day. The spirit of Oxford, as a single homogeneous unit, is far more difficult to gauge with. any accuracy. And the movement against women undergraduates there has taken the very retrained form of a motion being submitted to one of its innumerable governing councils to the effect that the number of women undergraduates admitted in any one term shall not exceed one-fourth of the number of males. , .

The motion has not yet come up for consideration, and when it does there will be an endless series of stages through which it will have to pass before it can cotme under- the notice of the authorities, who may be capable of taking any real action.

The fact, however, that such a motion ha 6 been drafted at a\l §hows that there is a very real feeling in the matter, and that in some sections at least it is beginning to be felt that traditional gallantry in keeping silent on any matter derogatory to the ladies has gone far enough.

U.S. Tonr Fiasco. And now there has come, the statement of Professor Albert Heckel, of the University- of Missouri,, who was jn charge of the/500 • American Riujlimts recently \isitimr Europe, ■' t«v

the presence of women undergraduates —was not the success that has been anticipated.

"In future," says Professor Heckel, "co-education is to be abandoned . . . some of the men appear to resent the presence of girls on the tour . . . some of the girls were inclined to be frivolous, and their presence did not tend to increase the value of the studies."

It may be sheer prejudice, says a London correspondent, but one cannot help feeling that the women undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge do sometimes tend to make themselves a little ridiculous, and by so doing lower the whole prestige of the universities to which they belong.

The spectacle of the recent interUniversity boat race between women crews, with women supporters on the bank exhorting the contestents to "Row like hell, chaps!" was somehow just a little futile.

After all, both Universities were founded for and by men, and have been endowed almost solely by men, and if men feel, rightly or wrongly, that their prestige is being lowered by these slightly childish demonstrations, they have at least an arguable right to object.

Must Men Suffer. And in the same way, if men are irritated by the presence of women undergraduates to such an extent that their studies are really impeded, then— they will just have to put up with it, or the women will have to got A recent not-too-serious debate at Cambridge discussed the motion "That the women's colleges of this ancient University should be razed to the ground."

The motion was carried, after a debate not quite as humorous as it had been designed to be, and as the audience was leaving the hall one undergraduate was heard to say to another, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if it were really true? "We'd feel as if we could breathe again}"

There is a good deal of that feelins in the universities just now, and it will not be remarkable if before long it does not find some more official, and therefore more intent, means of expression.