Miss Shafer's day, habit had become precedent, and she would be
the first to point out that the "new curriculum" which will always
be associated with her name, was really the achievement of the
Academic Council and the departments, working through patient years
to adjust, develop, and balance the minutest details in their
composite plan.

The initiative on the part of the faculty has been exerted chiefly
along academic lines, but in some instances it has necessitated
important emendations of the statutes; and that the trustees were
willing to alter the statutes on the request of the faculty would
indicate the friendly confidence felt toward the innovators.

In the statutes of Wellesley College, as printed in 1885, we read
that "The College was founded for the glory of God and the service
of the Lord Jesus Christ, in and by the education and culture of women.

"In order to the attainment of these ends, it is required that every
Trustee, Teacher, and Officer, shall be a member of an Evangelical
church, and that the study of the Holy Scriptures shall be pursued
by every student throughout the entire College course under the
direction of the Faculty."

In the early nineties, pressure from members of the faculty,
themselves members of Evangelical churches, induced the trustees
to alter the religious requirement for teachers; and the reorganization
of the Department of Bible Study a few years later resulted in
a drastic change in the requirements for students.

As printed in 1898, the statutes read, "To realize this design it
is required that every Trustee shall be a member in good standing
of some Evangelical Church; that every teacher shall be of decided
Christian character and influence, and in manifest sympathy with
the religious spirit and aim with which the College was founded;
and that the study of the Sacred Scriptures by every student shall
extend over the first three years, with opportunities for elective
studies in the same during the fourth year."

But it was found that freshmen were not mature enough to study
to the best advantage the new courses in Biblical Criticism, and
the statutes as printed in 1912 record still another amendment:
"And that the study of the Sacred Scriptures by every student
shall extend over the second and third years, with opportunities
for elective studies in the same during the fourth year."

These changes are the more pleasantly significant, since all actual
power, at Wellesle