A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 86

In the German universities, a term or period of three months.--_Webster_.

TRINITARIAN. The popular name of a member of Trinity College in the University of Cambridge, Eng.

TRIPOS, _pl._ TRIPOSES. At Cambridge, Eng., any university examination for honors, of questionists or men who have just taken their B.A. The university scholarship examinations are not called _triposes_.--_Bristed_.

The Cla.s.sical Tripos is generally spoken of as _the Tripos_, the Mathematical one as the Degree Examination.--_Ibid._, p. 170.

2. A tripos paper.

3. One who prepares a tripos paper.--_Webster_.

TRIPOS PAPER. At the University of Cambridge, England, a printed list of the successful candidates for mathematical honors, accompanied by a piece in Latin verse. There are two of these, designed to commemorate the two Tripos days. The first contains the names of the Wranglers and Senior Optimes, and the second the names of the Junior Optimes. The word _tripos_ is supposed to refer to the three-legged stool formerly used at the examinations for these honors, though some derive it from the three _brackets_ formerly printed on the back of the paper.

_Cla.s.sical Tripos Examination_. The final university examination for cla.s.sical honors, optional to all who have taken the mathematical honors.--_C.A. Bristed_, in _Webster's Dict._

The Tripos Paper is more fully described in the annexed extract.

"The names of the Bachelors who were highest in the list (Wranglers and Senior Optimes, _Baccalaurei quibus sua reservatur senioritas Comitiis prioribus_, and Junior Optimes, _Comitiis posterioribus_) were written on slips of paper; and on the back of these papers, probably with a view of making them less fugitive and more entertaining, was given a copy of Latin verses. These verses were written by one of the new Bachelors, and the exuberant spirits and enlarged freedom arising from the termination of the Undergraduate restrictions often gave to these effusions a character of buffoonery and satire. The writer was termed _Terrae Filius_, or _Tripos_, probably from some circ.u.mstance in the mode of his making his appearance and delivering his verses; and took considerable liberties. On some occasions, we find that these went so far as to incur the censure of the authorities. Even now, the Tripos verses often aim at satire and humor. [It is customary to have one serious and one humorous copy of verses.] The writer does not now appear in person, but the Tripos Paper, the list of honors with its verses, still comes forth at its due season, and the list itself has now taken the name of the Tripos. This being the case with the list of mathematical honors, the same name has been extended to the list of cla.s.sical honors, though unaccompanied by its cla.s.sical verses."--_Whewell on Cambridge Education_, Preface to Part II., quoted in _Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 25.

TRUMP. A jolly blade; a merry fellow; one who occupies among his companions a position similar to that which trumps hold to the other cards in the pack. Not confined in its use to collegians, but much in vogue among them.

But soon he treads this cla.s.sic ground, Where knowledge dwells and _trumps_ abound.

_MS. Poem_.

TRUSTEE. A person to whom property is legally committed in _trust_, to be applied either for the benefit of specified individuals, or for public uses.--_Webster_.

In many American colleges the general government is vested in a board of _trustees_, appointed differently in different colleges.

See CORPORATION and OVERSEER.

TUFT-HUNTER. A cant term, in the English universities, for a hanger-on to n.o.blemen and persons of quality. So called from the _tuft_ in the cap of the latter.--_Halliwell_.

There are few such thorough _tuft-hunters_ as your genuine Oxford Don.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Eng. ed., Vol. LVI. p. 572.

TUITION. In universities, colleges, schools, &c., the money paid for instruction. In American colleges, the tuition is from thirty to seventy dollars a year.

TUTE. Abbreviation for Tutor.

TUTOR. Latin; from _tueor_, to defend; French, _tuteur_.

In English universities and colleges, an officer or member of some hall, who has the charge of hearing the lessons of the students, and otherwise giving them instruction in the sciences and various branches of learning.

In the American colleges, tutors are graduates selected by the trustees, for the instruction of undergraduates of the first three years. They are usually officers of the inst.i.tution, who have a share, with the president and professors, in the government of the students.--_Webster_.

TUTORAGE. In the English universities, the guardianship exerted by a tutor; the care of a pupil.

The next item which I shall notice is that which in college bills is expressed by the word _Tutorage_.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 251.

TUTOR, CLa.s.s. At some of the colleges in the United States, each of the four cla.s.ses is a.s.signed to the care of a particular tutor, who acts as the ordinary medium of communication between the members of the cla.s.s and the Faculty, and who may be consulted by the students concerning their studies, or on any other subject interesting to them in their relations to the college.

At Harvard College, in addition to these offices, the Cla.s.s Tutors grant leave of absence from church and from town for Sunday, including Sat.u.r.day night, on the presentation of a satisfactory reason, and administer all warnings and private admonitions ordered by the Faculty for misconduct or neglect of duty.--_Orders and Regulations of the Faculty of Harv. Coll._, July, 1853, pp. 1, 2.

Of this regulation as it obtained at Harvard during the latter part of the last century, Professor Sidney Willard says: "Each of the Tutors had one cla.s.s, of which he was charged with a certain oversight, and of which he was called the particular Tutor. The several Tutors in Latin successively sustained this relation to my cla.s.s. Warnings of various kinds, private admonitions for negligence or minor offences, and, in general, intercommunication between his cla.s.s and the Immediate Government, were the duties belonging to this relation."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. p. 266, note.

TUTOR, COLLEGE. At the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, an officer connected with a college, whose duties are described in the annexed extracts.

With reference to Oxford, De Quincey remarks: "Each college takes upon itself the regular instruction of its separate inmates,--of these and of no others; and for this office it appoints, after careful selection, trial, and probation, the best qualified amongst those of its senior members who choose to undertake a trust of such heavy responsibility. These officers are called Tutors; and they are connected by duties and by accountability, not with the University at all, but with their own private colleges. The public tutors appointed in each college [are] on the scale of one to each dozen or score of students."--_Life and Manners_, Boston, 1851, p. 252.

Bristed, writing of Cambridge, says: "When, therefore, a boy, or, as we should call him, a young man, leaves his school, public or private, at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and 'goes up' to the University, he necessarily goes up to some particular college, and the first academical authority he makes acquaintance with in the regular order of things is the College Tutor. This gentleman has usually taken high honors either in cla.s.sics or mathematics, and one of his duties is naturally to lecture. But this by no means const.i.tutes the whole, or forms the most important part, of his functions. He is the medium of all the students' pecuniary relations with the College. He sends in their accounts every term, and receives the money through his banker; nay, more, he takes in the bills of their tradesmen, and settles them also. Further, he has the disposal of the college rooms, and a.s.signs them to their respective occupants. When I speak of the College _Tutor_, it must not be supposed that one man is equal to all this work in a large college,--Trinity, for instance, which usually numbers four hundred Undergraduates in residence. A large college has usually two Tutors,--Trinity has three,--and the students are equally divided among them,--_on their sides_, the phrase is,--without distinction of year, or, as we should call it, of _cla.s.s_. The jurisdiction of the rooms is divided in like manner. The Tutor is supposed to stand _in loco parentis_; but having sometimes more than a hundred young men under him, he cannot discharge his duties in this respect very thoroughly, nor is it generally expected that he should."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, pp. 10, 11.

TUTORIAL. Belonging to or exercised by a tutor or instructor.

Even while he is engaged in his "_tutorial_" duties, &c.--_Am.

Lit. Mag._, Vol. IV. p. 409.

TUTORIC. Pertaining to a tutor.

A collection of two was not then considered a sure prognostic of rebellion, and spied out vigilantly by _tutoric_ eyes.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 314.

TUTORIFIC. The same as _tutoric_.

While thus in doubt they hesitating stand, Approaches near the _Tutorific_ band.

_Yale Tomahawk_, May, 1852.

"Old Yale," of thee we sing, thou art our theme, Of thee with all thy _Tutorific_ host.--_Ibid._

TUTORING FRESHMEN. Of the various means used by Soph.o.m.ores to trouble Freshmen, that of _tutoring_ them, as described in the following extract from the Sketches of Yale College, is not at all peculiar to that inst.i.tution, except in so far as the name is concerned.

"The ancient customs of subordination among the cla.s.ses, though long since abrogated, still preserve a part of their power over the students, not only of this, but of almost every similar inst.i.tution. The recently exalted Soph.o.m.ore, the dignified Junior, and the venerable Senior, look back with equal humor at the 'greenness' of their first year. The former of these cla.s.ses, however, is chiefly notorious in the annals of Freshman capers. To them is allotted the duty of fumigating the room of the new-comer, and preparing him, by a due induction into the mysteries of Yale, for the duties of his new situation. Of these performances, the most systematic is commonly styled _Tutoring_, from the character a.s.sumed by the officiating Soph.o.m.ore. Seated solemnly in his chair of state, arrayed in a pompous gown, with specs and powdered hair, he awaits the approach of the awe-struck subject, who has been duly warned to attend his pleasure, and fitly instructed to make a low reverence and stand speechless until addressed by his ill.u.s.trious superior. A becoming impression has also been conveyed of the dignity, talents, and profound learning and influence into the congregated presence of which he is summoned. Everything, in short, which can increase his sufficiently reverent emotions, or produce a readier or more humble obedience, is carefully set forth, till he is prepared to approach the door with no little degree of that terror with which the superst.i.tious inquirer enters the mystic circle of the magician. A shaded light gleams dimly out into the room, and pours its fuller radiance upon a ponderous volume of Hebrew; a huge pile of folios rests on the table, and the eye of the fearful Freshman half ventures to discover that they are tomes of the dead languages.

"But first he has, in obedience to his careful monitor, bowed lowly before the dignified presence; and, hardly raising his eyes, he stands abashed at his awful situation, waiting the supreme pleasure of the supposed officer. A benignant smile lights up the tutor's grave countenance; he enters strangely enough into familiar talk with the recently admitted collegiate; in pathetic terms he describes the temptations of this _great_ city, the thousand dangers to which he will be exposed, the vortex of ruin into which, if he walks unwarily, he will be surely plunged. He fires the youthful ambition with glowing descriptions of the honors that await the successful, and opens to his eager view the dazzling prospect of college fame. Nor does he fail to please the youthful aspirant with a.s.surances of the kindly notice of the Faculty; he informs him of the satisfactory examination he has pa.s.sed, and the gratification of the President at his uncommon proficiency; and having thus filled the buoyant imagination of his dupe with the most glowing college air-castles, dismisses him from his august presence, after having given him especial permission to call on any important occasion hereafter."--pp. 159-162.

TUTOR, PRIVATE. At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, an instructor, whose position and studies are set forth in the following extracts.