in church and
chapel, where attendance was kept in each 'section' by one of
its members. A growing laxity permitted you to sit out of place
on Sunday evenings, provided that you reported to your section
girl. Otherwise you would be called to the office to explain your
absence....

"Very slowly did the idea dawn upon me that there was a faculty
back of all these very pleasant personal relations."

But in the late '80's, the advance toward student self-government
begins to be traceable, slowly but surely. In the spring of 1887,
on the initiative of the faculty, the first formal conference
between representatives of faculty and students was called, to
consider questions of class organization. Other conferences took
place at irregular intervals during the next seven years, as
occasion arose, and these often led to new legislation. The
subjects discussed were, the Magazine, the Legenda, Athletics,
the Junior Prom. In the autumn of 1888, students were first
allowed to hand in excuses for absence from college classes; the
responsibility for giving a "true, valid and signed excuse" resting
with the individual student. In this same autumn the law forbidding
eating between meals was repealed, but students were still not
permitted to keep eatables in their rooms.

Articles on college courtesy, quiet in the library, articles for
and against Domestic Work, begin to appear in the Courant and
the Prelude in 1888 and 1889. In May, 1890, we learn of a
Students' Association, which was the means of obtaining class
bulletin boards in the autumn of 1890. From this time also,
agitation on all topics of interest to the students is more openly
active. In September, 1891, the faculty consent to allow library
books to be taken out of the library on Saturday afternoon for
use over Sunday. In October, 1891, we find that the Students'
Association is to offer a medium for discussion and to foster a
scholarly spirit. In December, 1891, a plea appears in the Prelude
for occasional conferences between faculty and students on problems
of college policy. In 1892, we read that the individual students
are allowed to choose a church in the village and attend it on
Sundays, if they so desire, instead of attending the College
Chapel. In 1892 also, we have the agitation, in the Wellesley
Magazine, for the wearing of cap and gown, and in this year senior
privileges are extended, and the responsibility for absence from
class appointments rest