FROM BRYN MAWR TO THE HUDSON SHORE

 

natural because two Bryn Mawr people are active on the central board of the
American Labor Education Service.

Decisions made during the Bryn Mawr School’s session also have aided the
Board of Directors to determine policies. The students and instructors sitting
on the Board have brought to it recommendations, made during the summer
by separate student and staff groups which have held closed meetings at which
many problems have been discussed and voted upon. A School governing
council also has transmitted to the Board certain guiding principles. On this
administrative body, which meets once a week during the summer, the faculty
has two representatives and each of three units or student class groups has
elected two representatives. The president and secretary of the student body
and the Director of the School are members of the Council without vote. The
Director, however, has the power of veto.

Towards the close of the three-year experimental period, the Board of
Directors of the School authorized that a study be made of trends in workers’
education.” The purpose was to analyze to what extent the School had ful-
filled its aims in relationship to the movement of which it was a part. The
survey revealed that College representation on the controlling board had not
caused the needs of women workers to be neglected. However, participation
by students, faculty, and labor did not seem as dynamic as on comparable
school boards. In addition, the Bryn Mawr School, unlike many other work-
ers’ schools, did not have an advisory committee, which might yield more
contacts and a wider range of opinion.

In 1938 the investigators made several recommendations in line with their
findings. They suggested that student representatives on the Board have more
maturity and self-confidence so that they might be more articulate in helping
to formulate policies. To gain the necessary experience, it was suggested that
School alumnae be encouraged to serve upon local committees, and such com-
munity functioning be made a prerequisite to being elected as a Board repre-
sentative. To gain wide community support for the School, it was proposed
that an Advisory Council be formed and that it should include both men and
women representatives of trade unions as well as community organizations.
Others in workers’ education also made suggestions at this time. Some
emphasized that since the values of specific community and other organiza-

* Mildred Fairchild and Florence Hemley, op. cit.
71