mittee to present to
the trustees a request for alumnae representation on the Board;
but as the Association met but once a year, results could not
be achieved rapidly, and in June, 1889, the committee reported
that it had not presented the petition as it had been informed
unofficially that the possibility of alumnae representation was
already under consideration by the trustees. In fact, the trustees,
at a meeting held the day before the meeting of the Alumnae
Association, this very June of 1889, had elected Mrs. Marian
Pelton Guild, of the class of 1880, a life member of the Board.

But the alumnae, although appreciating the honor done them by
the election of Mrs. Guild, still did not feel that the question
of representation had been adequately met, and in June, 1891,
a new committee was appointed with instructions to inform itself
thoroughly as to methods employed in other colleges to insure
the representation of the graduate body on governing boards, and
also to convey to the trustees the alumnae's strong desire for
representation of a specified character. And a second time the
trustees forestalled the committee and, in a letter addressed
to the Association and read at the annual meeting in June, 1892,
made known their desire "to avail themselves of the cooperation
of the Association" and to "cement more closely the bond" uniting
the alumnae to the college by granting them further representation
on the Board of Trustees. A committee from the Association was
then appointed to discuss methods with a committee from the Board,
and the results of their deliberations are given by Harriet Brewer
Sterling, Wellesley, '86, in an article in the Wellesley Magazine
for March, 1895. By the terms of a joint agreement between the
Board and the Association, the Association has the right to nominate
three members from its own number for membership on the Board.
These nominees must be graduates of seven years' standing, not
members of the college faculty. Graduates of less than three
years' standing are not qualified to vote for the nominees. The
nominations must be ratified by the Board of Trustees. The term
of service of these alumnae trustees is six years, but a nominee
is chosen every two years. In order to establish this method of
rotation, two of the three candidates first nominated served for
two and four years respectively, instead of six. The first election
was held in the spring of 1894, the nominations were confi