Education News in the Sunday Times

"Education in Review" by education editor Benjamin Fine discussed the difficulty women seeking admission to colleges faced in the postwar years. The number of applications from women was at a record high but there was less space available to accomodate them. Fine speculated that the GI Bill might be playing a dual role. The obvious effect was that at co-educational institutions veterans received priority admission over both civilian men and women and they were entering or returning to college in such number that there was little room for anyone else. Fine thought the GI Bill might also be spiking the number of women applying since with veterans receiving free education, more families were able to afford to send their daughters to college. Classroom space was not the only problem. The schools also lacked dormitory space. During the war, schools had admitted more women than in the past to make up for the young men who had enlisted or been drafted. Now housing, such as fraternity houses, that had been temporarily turned over to coed housing had to be vacated to make way for the veterans. Many co-ed schools already had as many women students as they could house and were turning away almost all of their female applicants. As a result women's colleges were swamped with applications. Many of the better known women's schools had twice their usual number. These schools were not receiving government money to build additional housing so they were not able to accommodate the surplus.

During the witch hunts. Fine was called to testify about the one year he had spent in the Communist Party in the mid-1930s while attending Columbia Teacher's College. He took an anti-Communist position on the stand and a Missouri senator reprimanded the investigators for making Fine put in a public appearance after satisfactorily answering questions in a private session. His brother, David Fine, who ran the Stanley Theatre, a favorite place for the Leftist faithful to catch movies from the Soviet Union, and distributed foreign films, mostly Russian, was also called to testify but no real dirt was turned up on him either.

A feature article on the page reported on a series of community programs in New Jersey that had been started under the auspices of Rutgers that brought UN representatives to speak to local audiences. 'Education Notes" was a collection of brief reports from campuses across the country.