PAN. TURK.EMP. American College for Girls At Constantinople. ANSWER OF THE TRUSTEES TO THE Statement by the Faculty, Dated March 15, 1893. ■-'^'■"K. ...... L-':..vi^W* Indorsed by the Corporation. BOSTON : Frank Wood, Puintkk, 352 Washington Stkeet. 1S93 To the Faculty of the A»iericau College for Girls at Co7isfantinople. Dear Friends : The Trustees of the College have recently received a printed statement, is- sued Idv the Faculty, "explaining their position under the present difficulties." This statement seems to the Trustees to be misleading, and they feel constrained to give their views on certain points contained in it. While they regret very much the necessity of bringing matters not yet settled before the public in print, yet, since this has been done by the Faculty, justice to the Trustees requires the following statement. In the beginning it may be well to state the exact point of disagreement between the Faculty and the Trustees. It is agreed by both bodies that the Home School, and later, the College, has diifered from other mission schools from the fact that it has been on a more independent basis in its relations to the Western Turkey Mission. The Trustees hold that this independence refers only to the internal management of the institution, and does not affect the relations of the Faculty to the mission. The Faculty consider that this independence includes both their personal relation and the internal man- agement. The Faculty believe that "to put the members of the Faculty in the same personal relations to the Western Turkey Mis- sion as other missionaries sustain, would be to cripple their efforts for the progress of their work." The Trustees believe that to accom- plish the aim for which the institution was established, the members of the Faculty should be, as they have always been, mis- sionaries of the American Board and the Woman's Board in regular standing, havin<'- all the privileges of other missionaries, and subject to the same rules^as members of the Western Turkey Mission. They fail to see how this connection "cripples" the best inter- ests of the College. In considering this ques- tion of relationship, it must be remembered that every permanent member of the Faculty, at the time she was elected, was a missionary of these Boards, had voluntarily entered into their service, had taken upon herself the duties of the position, and pledged herself to conform to its rules. It must ilio be remem- bered thatthe whole expense of the institution, outside of the income received from pupils, is met from the treasury of the Woman's Board. Since these things are true, it is im- possible to consider the interests of the College apart from* other missionary work. For this reason the Trustees consider that it *An exception to this is the salary of one of the Faculty, which is paid by the W. B. M. I. (4) is not right to recommend action which thev know to be contrary to fundamental principles and methods of the Board. With this explanation the Ti'ustees wish to call attention to the following points. I. The Facultj state (page 2) that the Home School " did not grow up in the ordinary way of a mission school, but was founded bj the W. B. M., for the special pur- pose of thorough education and Christian culture, from contributions outside of its regu- lar funds." (i) That the institution was not established primarily for "the special purpose of thorough education and Christian culture" is shown from the fact that the first plan included departments for medical and city missionary work. Ihe educational depart- ment is described as follows in a letter from Dr. N. G. Clark to Miss Rappleye, dated April 23, 1872. He recommends that this de- partment be "divided into three parts: (i) a training school for teachers ; (2) a training school for Bible women and city mission work; (3) a high school for those who seek the advantages of thorough culture." The work of the institution then was to be one- third educational, and of the educational de- partment one tliird was to be merely for Christian culture. J^etters show also that this part of the institution was expected to become self-supporting in the near future. (5) The education was expected to be of a higher grade than in other mission schools, and for tliat reason was to be independent of the mis- sion in the wajmentioned. (2) The contribu- tions spoken of as "outside the regular funds," were solicited for the erection of a suitable building, and were "outside" only in the sense of being an extra offering hy friends of missions for a missionary purpose. The regular running expenses of the institution, to the amount of over $4,000 a year, or nearly $So,ooo in the aggregate, have always been met from regular mission funds. 2. To the quotations from letters cited as proofs of the larger independence claimed by the Faculty (page 3-5), the Trustees reply : — (i) The letter from Dr. Clark, of Aug. 19, 1S76, was written just after the erection of the new and expensive building, and was rather a defense of this unusual outlay. («) He says : " Not a -dollar of the funds expended for the building is reported in our expenditure of mission funds." (That is, in reports of the American Board; they were fully given in those of the W. B. M.) "It was not built by distinctively missionary contributions, but hy offerings outside of, and in addition to, funds contributed for missionary purposes. We should never have expended so large a sum out of our missionary treasury for such a work. By far the largest part of the monev raised and expended has come from outside, as a special offering of love to the women of Turkey by the women of this country." This all refers to the expenditure for the building. (d) Dr. Clark then goes on to explain that the salaries of the missionary teachers are to be supplied, like those of other missionaries, from the regular funds. "The expenditure hereafter for the salaries of missionary ladies is believed to be a good missionary invest- ment, and it is believed that the institution, aside from the general purpose of high cul- ture, will subserve a most important mis- sionary purpose, and will justify the expendi- ture of missionary fvmds for its maintenance.'' (c) The closing sentence, — "It is as inde- pendent as Central Turkey College, or Robert College," has been said to have placed the Home on the same basis as these colleges. In Central Turkey College the arrangement is, with one exception, identically the same as that which the Trustees have maintained should be the case in ours. The President, Rev. A. Fuller, and one of the professors. Rev. C. W. Riggs, being missionaries of the American Board, are subject to all the rules of the mission, in exactly the same way as other missionaries. The point of difference is that the running expenses of the college are paid by the native community and from an endow- ment, and not from mission funds, as in our college at Constantinople. Since Robert College is, and has always been, entirely independent of the American Board, none of its faculty being missionaries of the Board, and receiving no money from its treasury, there seems to be no parallel as regards rela- tionship with the mission between this and our girls' college. That there was no definite intention that the Home should be on the same basis as Robert College is shown by many subsequent letters. We make an extract from a letter from Dr. Clark to Dr. E. E. Bliss,* dated Feb. i6, iS8o. He says: " It does not seem to be best to make any such enlargement as will practically do for women what Robert College does for young men, — that is, to educate those seek- ing high education rather than raising up teachers to do this educational work for others. Our idea of the Home was to raise up teachers preeminently to teach the people elsewhere. That was the missionary idea of the institution, — not to make it a foreign affair, as Robert College is largely, but a means of preparing those who shall go out and teach in the villages and country round about, and as is already successfully done." (2) Quotations are given, one from Dr. Wood (page 5), which says: "The estimates for appropriation of money and grants were * See statement sent July, 1S92. (S) not brought under the view of the mission, but sent by the Trustees directly to the Pruden- tial Committee of the A. B. C. F. M. and the ladies of the W. B. M. ;" and one from Dr. Pettibone, which says: "Estimates for the Home are not submitted to our mission meet- ings as the mission estimates are. The mis- sion does not legislate on the affairs of the Home at all." So far as these quotations refer to the personal finances of the missionaries they are contradicted by the statement of the Faculty, on page 7, which says that "about one half were recommended by the mission." The records at the Board Rooms show that before the Home became a College, in every instance where money was voted the request was regularly indorsed by the mission, and the same was true of every leave of absence. From what records the Faculty have obtained the fact that only a part have been so in- dorsed, we do not know. 3. As to the specifications on page 6, of the way in which the Western Turkey Mission exercises control over its members, we replv : (i) The word "new" in the first specification should be used in the sense of additional ; t e , the enlargement of the force in anj- given place, as mission action is not necessary for the supplying of vacancies. According to records, of the nine missionary ladies who have been permanent teachers in the Home (9) and College, two were regularly transferred from another mission, and four were sent out to fill vacancies. (2) While the mission has the power to decide the location of the mis- sionaries in Turkey, it is now a power very rarely exercised, the location being almost always arranged in this country, the young lady being appointed with a special field of labor in view. The records of ahnost any boarding school in Turkey would show the same facts as those mentioned of the Home on page 7. 4. The Faculty state (page 8) that when the Home became a college and a constitu- tion was adopted, there was no mention made of the Western Turkey Mission in the consti- tution. The reason for this was that it was thoroughly understood by all parties that the members of the Faculty were already mission- aries of the American Board and of the Wom- an's Board, and members of the Western Tur- key Mission , and since there was no disturbing of previous relations in any particular, no change which placed them on a difl:erent foot- ing from other missionaries, it did not seem necessary to mention their connection with the mission. The clause in the Constitution (quoted on page 11), "They (the Trustees) shall, in co-operation with the Board of Directors of the Woman's Board of Missions and the Prudential Committee of the Ameri- fio can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, appoint the president, dean, and all the American professors, and fix their sala- ries," was inserted with a distinct understand- ing as to the usage of the bodies to whom the matter was referred : /. c. , to secure the in- dorsement of the mission for anj change in salaries and other extra expenses. 5. The Faculty give as their reasons for objecting to the control of the mission (page [q), that the authority rests with delegates assembled at an annual meeting, that they must necessarily pursue a changing policy, that they would not understand the exigen- cies and demands of a growing college, and that women are not allowed a vote in these meetings. To this the Trustees reply : — (1) That the members of this annual meet- ing, although they change somewhat from year to year, yet they are all missionaries of more or less experience, and we f^iil to see why there is any more risk in this meeting than in that of any society where the per- sonnel is subject to change, but when those in attendance are recognized members of the society. (2) The Trustees are confident, — and it has also been acknowledged by members of the Faculty, — that nothing has ever occurred which shows that these missionary brethren, as a i)ody, are not anxious for the best welfai^e of the college, or that thej have ever done, or desire to do, anything to "cripple" its prog- ress. Since it is acknowledged by all that they are not to legislate on the internal man- agement of the institution, but only in per- sonal matters pertaining to the Faculty as members of the mission, the danger of "crip- pling," even were these good friends of the college so inclined, would be very small. (3) As to the right of women to vote in mission meetings, the Executive Committee of the Woman's Board, some months since, brought the matter to the attention of the Prudential Committee, and are confidentlv hoping for a change with regard to it in the near future. 6. As to the raising of the salaries (page 12-14), the refusal of the Faculty to ask for the usual indorsement of the mission, brought up a large question of missionary policy which the Trustees felt to be beyond their province to decide, and they referred it, with the ques- tion as to the separation of the finances of the college from those of the mission, to the bodies to whom such decisions belong, /. e., the Executive Committee of the Woman's Board, and Prudential Committee of the American Board. Since the request for an increase in salaries has been withdrawn, it is not necessary to discuss the matter at present. 7. The Faculty state that the present rela- tion places them under the control of five different bodies (page i6). While this may be technically true, in reality the five bodies — which are the Advisory Board in Constan- tinople, the Mission, the Trustees, the Execu- tive Committee of the W. B. M., and the Prudential Committee of the A. B. C. F. M., are integral parts of one great whole, identi- cal in interest and aims, being practically but one body. The change to a College added the Trustees to the already existing bodies. 8. Since the Faculty's statement seems to reflect on what has been done by Dr. Judson Smith, secretary of the A- B. C. F. M., the Trustees wish to say that, being the official correspondent of the Western -Turkey Mis- sion, they consider that he has only pursued the established method of the Board in all kindness and courtesj'. 9 In sending out this reply, the Trustees wish again to express their appreciation of the earnest and successful work that has been done both in the Home and in the College, and of the strong Christian influence exer- cised over its pupils. They very much desire that there should also be on the part of the Faculty a strong personal loyalty to the mis- sion with which they are connected, and to the existing methods of the Boards by whom they were appointed and by whom they are continued in their position. (13) «