Professor of Music. These changes are the more significant, coming
at this time, in the witness which they bear to the breadth and
elasticity of Mrs. lrvine's academic ideal. A narrower scholasticism
would not have tolerated them, much less pressed for their adoption.
Wellesley is one of the earliest of the colleges to place the fine arts
and music on her list of electives counting for an academic degree.

During the year 1895-1896, the Academic Council reviewed its rules
of procedure relating to the maintenance of scholarship throughout
the course, with the result that, "In order to be recommended
for the degree of B.A. a student must pass with credit in at least
one half of her college work and in at least one half of the
work of the senior year." This did not involve raising the actual
standard of graduation as reached by the majority of recent
graduates, but relieved the college of the obligation of giving
its degree to a student whose work throughout a large part of
her course did not rise above a mere passing grade.

In Mrs. Irvine's report for 1894-1895, we read that, "Modifications
have been made in the general regulations of the college by which
the observation of a set period of silent time for all persons is no
longer required." In the beginning, Mr. Durant had established
two daily periods of twenty minutes each, during which students
were required to be in their rooms, silent, in order that those
who so desired might give themselves to meditation, prayer, and
the reading of the Scriptures. Morning and evening, for fifteen
years, the "Silent Bell" rang, and the college houses were hushed
in literal silence. In 189 or 1890, the morning interval was
discontinued, but evening "silent time" was not done away with
until 1894, nineteen years after its establishment, and there are