The first step toward informing the students concerning their marks
and academic standing was taken in 1897, when the so-called
"credit-notes" were instituted, in which students were told whether
or not they had achieved Credit, grade C, in their individual
studies. Mr. Durant had feared that a knowledge of the marks
would arouse unworthy competition, but his fears have proved
unfounded.

In this administration also the financial methods of the college
were revised. Mrs. Irvine, we are reminded by Florence S. Marcy
Crofut, of the class of 1897, "established a system of management
and purchasing into which all the halls of residence were brought,
and this remains almost without change to the present day." On
March 27, 1895, Mrs. Durant resigned the treasurership of the
college, which she had held since her husband's death, and upon
her nomination, Mr. Alpheus H. Hardy was elected to the office.
In 1896, the trustees issued a report in which they informed the
friends of Wellesley that although Mr. Durant, in his will, had
made the college his residuary legatee, subject to a life tenancy,
the personal estate had suffered such depreciation and loss "as to
render this prospective endowment of too slight consequence to be
reckoned on in any plans for the development and maintenance of
the college." At this time, Wellesley was in debt to the amount
of $103,048.14. During the next nineteen years, trustees and
alumnae were to labor incessantly to pay the expenses of the
college and to secure an endowment fund. What Wellesley owes
to the unstinted devotion of Mr. Hardy during these lean years
can never be adequately expressed.