University of Virginia Library

Whitney Sees Gain
For Men, Women
In Co-Education

"It is important that men and
women be able to benefit from
each other during the educational
experience. That's only natural,"
Mary E. Whitney, Dean
of Women, said yesterday.

In an interview with The
Cavalier Daily, Miss Whitney
said that she was "very biased
about co-education," having
never attended or taught at an
institution which was not coeducational.

'Determine Need'

Last spring the Board of Visitors
adapted a resolution empowering
President Edgar F.
Shannon Jr. "to conduct a study
to determine the need for the
admission of girls to the College
of Arts and Sciences at Charlottesville
If a need were determined,
another committee
was envisioned to study the
"feasibility and means of such
admissions."

Although enthusiastic about
the proposed plan. Dean Whitney
went on to explain that if the
Board of Visitors decided that
admission of women to the college
was feasible and advisable,
there would still be the fundamental
question of financing new
housing.

Mrs. Whitney described the
housing problem as the most
serious drawback to the plan,
simply because there is only
room for about fifty more girls.
To get that many would mean
moving many graduate and even
undergraduates into the town of
Charlottesville, she added.

Housing Problem

There are now 762 girls in
the combined undergraduate and
graduate programs, of which the
majority appear to favor a coeducational
environment, according
to a recent survey held in
McKim Hall.

One girl said that coeducation |

Dean Of Women Mary E. Whitney

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Finds Co-Education 'Only Natural' For Environment