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The student governing bodies which operate for both men and women students in the coeducational colleges of the land-grant group partake more of the nature of leagues rather than of regulatory bodies. Nowhere, however, are the men's student governing groups nor the joint student government groups for both men and women nearly so strongly organized and clear in their purpose as the women's student government organizations, which have grown out of these earlier women's leagues. Even on the coeducational campuses where a joint student governing board exists, such as the all-college Student Council, the Women's Student Government Board also operates and controls certain of the living and social conditions, as well as the activities of women students. The two bodies exist side by side with comparatively little overlapping of function. Moreover, the women's student government associations now hold a national biennial council for a discussion of their joint problems with a regional conference meeting alternate biennial years.

The student-government organizations for men or those for both men and women usually concern themselves with the management of such functions as appointment of chairmen for the various recognized student activities, homecoming day and class scraps; setting of dates for all-university functions such as the military ball, the junior prom, the senior ball, the sophomore hop, similar social functions; the maintenance of some sort of social calendar with a fairly equitable division of desirable dates among the organizations and classes; the publication of student handbooks containing information deemed necessary for the incoming students, occasionally the maintenance of some sort of personnel service for incoming students; and occasionally also the maintenance of an honor system if there is such a system in operation in the college. Frequently this body maintains the point system and has some special officer from its own membership whose duty it is to enforce the regulation of the point system.

The student-government organizations for women have three distinct functions-legislative, executive, and judiciary-generally vested in an elected board with representation from the various classes. They seem always to have a printed constitution which has been accepted by the administrative officers of the institution. The main tenor of their work is altruistic. In most colleges the organizations do the main part of the work in assisting the incoming freshmen to become acquainted with the new college environment. The functioning of their "big sister" work is one of the finest examples of really unselfish, well-organized, and intelligent student enterprise to be found in any line of student activity. On all of the campuses studied they also were carrying out a definite social and welfare program for all the women of the institution.

An examination of the reports in the survey shows that the work of legislating for individual conduct, for checking up on the individual's observance of the rules passed, and for punishing those who failed to live up to the standards of conduct imposed, varies on the campuses of the individual institutions. On some there was evidently an elaborate machinery for this checking and punishment On others there was what appeared to be a good paper organization, but in the reports of the discussion at the most recently held biennial convention showed

little real accomplishment. A few of them made practically no effort to do much checking up of this kind, putting their emphasis instead upon providing a constructive social program for their college community.

The financing of all of these student organizations is apparently a common problem. In a very few of them an automatic membership fee was collected by the institution and turned over to an authorized group for disbursement. This was rare, however. In most of them finances were obtained by various money-raising devices such as sales, dances, and entertainments of various kinds. It would seem that if the activities of the student-government organization are worthy of recognition by the institution, some means ought to be found whereby they can be financed without eternal drives which take so much energy away from the real object of the organization.

A study of the projects sponsored by these women's student government associations indicates that the work with the incoming freshman is probably the largest single project that these organizations have in common. Next comes the provision of some form of social life, such as mixers, dances where both men and women are welcome; social hours for the women only, for better acquaintance among the women themselves; an occasional all-university party, or all-college party, where the student government organization may unite with such other organizations on the campus as the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A.

The giving of scholarships to needy students was another project that came in fairly frequently, though here again it was evident that this depended largely on ability to raise funds. In one university where the fees were automatic for the women students and were collected by the university and turned over to the women's student government association, the organization gave as many as 18 scholarships of $100 annually. In another university, almost as large, where the fee was gained by membership solicitation, the addition of the sum of $78 to a loan fund open to freshman women was mentioned as an achievement worthy of note. The maintenance of restrooms for women in the various buildings on the campus, including the furnishing of them and keeping them in reasonable order and cleanliness, was another project mentioned in more than one women's student government report.

Frequently, the women's student government board publishes a code, a creed, or a statement of the aims and purposes of the women students. This is usually highly idealistic, but none the less admirable. In addition, the women's student government association has in practically all of the institutions studied and drawn up a set of rules to govern living conditions, which are usually supplementary to the regulations governing living conditions for the women students drawn up by the college authorities. They control such matters as the number of nights a week that a student may use for social purposes; the hours at which women students shall be in their rooms; the time at which women students are required to leave dances; absence from their houses for overnight and methods of obtaining permission for such absences; hours for callers at the houses; maintenance of quiet hours; and registration when leaving the house as to place and probable time of return.

It was interesting to observe in one of the land-grant institutions for men that there is a student government organization for the resi

dence halls similar to that found in women's colleges. Its object is to regulate the conduct of the residents in the dormitories and to protect the college property. A fairly elaborate system of council government has been established with regulations as to quiet hours and care of rooms and furniture. It also apparently carried on all the types of activities that a regular judiciary committee of students. passing on each other's conduct, would be called upon to assume. The student government organization at this institution is supported by a blanket tax on all the students and the dormitory committee is a subcommittee of the governing body for all student activities. In the institutions for men with a military or semimilitary organization, student government seems to be at a minimum. This might be expected from the nature of the institutional organization. In practically all of the land-grant institutions where women form any considerable part of the student body, there is a separate women's selfgovernment association variously named. The title most frequently used was the Women's Self-Government Association, but sometimes this body was called the Associated Women Students or, as in the old days, the Women's League. This was true even in the organizations on the west coast where the Associated Student Body controls the entire organization of extracurricular activities more completely than in any land-grant institutions. Curiously enough, this separation of the governing of the women students does not seem to preclude the presence of women on the all-student council in any case, although they are represented there in much smaller proportions than their actual numerical strength in the student body would seem to call for. The question of student government bodies, of their functions, of their possibilities, of their actual practices, of the amount of power that they may safely assume, and of the amount of power that they are willing to assume, is one that demands much further study, and would be a fruitful source of research for any educational institution interested in vital collegiate issues. That this form of student activity as a laboratory for character development is in its merest infancy can not be doubted. These bodies have not by any means realized their full possibilities of development. Many times, too, at least as far as the women students are concerned, the emphasis on regulatory and judiciary procedure has dwarfed the larger constructive possi bilities of organized self-government. Much more exhaustive data should be collected from which a comparative study of the usefulness and positive values of student self-government might be drawn.

Student Unions

With the realization that some definite provision for student association on the campus was needed, an organization known as the student union has been established in a number of the land-grant

institutions. As so often happens, the name has come to mean the building wherein the activities of the student union are housed fully as much as the organization for the activities itself. In 12 of the land-grant institutions are student unions with some sort of building set aside for the housing of student activities. There is now a national association of college and university unions holding an annual meeting. Its definition of the term "union" is as follows: The word "union" is herein defined as an organization in any college or university whose service it is to further and promote social activities, membership in such organization being open to all male students.

In spite of this restriction in the wording, however, membership is open to women students as well as men on several land-grant college campuses. Such unions as those on the campus of Iowa State College and at the University of Wisconsin are typical of this practice. The facilities of these two union buildings are open to the women students as well as to the men and are freely used by them. On a few of the other campuses certain of the facilities in the union building for men are available for the women students, if their own. buildings are inadequate.

In nine of the land-grant institutions reporting student unions all male students are automatically members of the student union. A fee is collected through the financial authorities of the institution for their support. In three the membership is optional. The fee charged for membership in the union ranges from $2 to $9 a year, with the median at $3. The three institutions which do not have automatic membership report as high as 85 per cent of their male students join the union voluntarily.

In nearly every case the direction of the activities of the men's union is in the hands of a union board of governors, which is largely composed of students, though sometimes this board has alumni members and occasionally faculty members. It elects a manager who is a full-time official with a salary paid from the revenue from the building or from student fees. The activities carried on within its walls are sponsored by and directed by this manager and the board. The whole student union movement is less than 20 years old and the greatest number of buildings have been erected within the past 8 years. It is quite evident that this movement, though so new, fills a real need in the social life of the institution. In the future little doubt exists that many more of the union buildings will be erected and many more activities housed in this dignified way with proper sponsoring and supervision. Certainly any institution which has once had a building of this kind, managed as well as most of these buildings are managed, would not deem it possible to get along without such an organization.

111490°-30-VOL 1-37

Chapter XII. Social Calendar

The social calendar at the land-grant institutions and the concern of the administration itself with the regulation of the social life on the campus shows a wide variation. Six of the land-grant institutions report that they keep no calendar of social affairs, and that the students, therefore, make their own arrangement about fixing dates for such affairs. Thirty-nine of the institutions, however, report that such a calendar is set for all major social functions, and that the calendar is published with a certain amount of regularity. Twenty-five institutions state that it is published regularly, although the time of publication varies from weekly to quarterly. One institution reports that it is published only at the beginning of the school year. The chairman of the social committee seems to be the favorite person for this responsibility, as this official was named in 13 of the reports. The dean of women came next in frequency. She was listed in 11 reports. As the dean of women is frequently chairman of the social committee, it will be seen that her office handled this matter of the social calendar in a very large number of institutions. The dean of men was mentioned as the official to do this work in eight institutions; the registrar in three; the chairman of the calendar committee in two; the president in one; and the head of the student council in one. It was also quite evident from the reports that only major social affairs were listed on this calendar, and such private functions as fraternity and sorority parties were practically never listed on the official calendar.

The functions most frequently mentioned on the official calendar were such dances as the junior prom; the senior ball; the sophomore hop; the commencement ball; the opening reception, often sponsored by the president of the institution; the military ball; homecoming, and May-day dances. With the exception of the president's reception and an occasional all-student mixer or men's smoker, the functions listed were practically all dances. The data submitted on the cost of these functions were too fragmentary to permit of tabulation. For the most part, they appeared to be held in the campus buildings and to be under fairly strict control by the compus authorities, with definite closing hours and definite regulations including auditing of accounts.

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