Colleges in America Part 3

_The Presidents_ of the American colleges are usually clergymen. They are chosen with reference to their pre-eminent ability as scholars and administrators. The President has oversight of the plan of instruction, the maintenance of discipline, and is the representative head of the college before the public. Considerable importance is attached to the office of the President, since the success of the college in a great measure depends on his individual talent and character.

The American college _professors_, as a cla.s.s, may be characterized as having a living scholarship and a genuine speculative spirit, combined with tact and firmness in teaching. They are enthusiastically devoted to their work. There is a growing disposition to break away from mechanical and plodding routine, and adopt an intellectual, energizing style of questions in cla.s.s work, that elicit enthusiasm and aid the student. Lecturing is but little used. The teaching is more of an active, earnest conversation on a special subject between the teacher and the pupil. The instructor seeks to lead, but not to carry, the student through the study. There is also less inclination to dogmatize, and the student's mind is trained to habits of original and philosophical investigation.

_The students_ in our American colleges have been well estimated by Professor Von Holst in these words: "I have not only visited, but lived in a number of countries, and the results of my observations of their higher educated youth is that, though by no means as to knowledge, yet as to the earnestness, steadiness and enthusiasm in the pursuit of knowledge, the American students stand first. And nature has not been in a stingy mood when weighing out their allotment of brains! Give them but the opportunities, and you will soon see whether they need to shun comparison with the scholars of any other nation."

_College government_ is an important question. The college, as a distinct and separate community, has rules and regulations based on well-established principles, which aim to conserve the general good of the whole body of students. The college honor can not be sustained unless there is a recognition of authority and responsibility.

The college legislation and government rests princ.i.p.ally with the faculty, overseers and trustees, who aim to be liberal, yet firm.

College sentiment among students is often capricious and subject to sudden revolutions. Some of them have strong pa.s.sions, immature judgments, and impetuous and weak wills, and authority must be lodged with those who will sacredly uphold law and exercise a firm, rigorous discipline.

In the early stages of college life in this country the regulations were quite severe. In many cases the college authorities did not hesitate to inflict upon the students corporal punishment for certain offenses. College Presidents would sometimes personally attend to the flogging of students, resorting to this punishment with great solemnity. Mr. George C. Bush tells us what occurred at Harvard College in 1674: "On that occasion the overseers of the college, the President and Fellows, the students who chose to attend having been called together in the library, the sentence was read in their presence and the offender required to kneel. The President then offered prayer, after which 'the prison keeper at Cambridge,' at a given signal from him 'attended to the performance of his part of the work.' The President then closed the solemn exercise with prayer."

Possibly this relic of severe college government found its example across the water, where it is related that in a bygone age a Fellow at Oxford, "who had been proved guilty of an over-susceptibility to the charms of beauty, was condemned, as a penance, to preach eight sermons in the Church of Saint Peter-in-the-East." In the days of President Dunster, of Harvard, "no possible conduct escaped his eye. Cla.s.s deportment, plan of studies, personal habits, daily life, private devotions, social intercourse, and civil privileges, were all directed."

The student should feel that, in disobeying the rightful authority of the college, he abridges the rights and privileges of every student.

The college sentiment should be so strong against unworthy conduct that a student would as soon shrink from doing a mean action, and having it known, as any citizen outside the college community. When it is discovered that a student has mean and unworthy motives and wilful evil tendencies, he should be summarily dismissed.

In some colleges the students partic.i.p.ate in the governing affairs.

This is done by having representatives chosen from each college cla.s.s, elected by their fellow-students, who unitedly compose a College Senate, with power to interpret the college laws, and deal with all questions relating to the good order and decorum of students. The President of the college is chairman, and has the power to veto the decision of the senate. There are many favorable features of this system. In the first place, it lessens the antagonism sometimes manifest between the faculty and students. There are no less requirements upon all college cla.s.ses and duties, and it helps to remove any feeling of suspicion and the semblance of espionage. The students feel that they have been taken into confidence with the college authorities and will get strict, even-handed justice in college discipline. The result is that there comes to exist a more pleasant and friendly relation between the professors and students.

Again, this system gives the freest scope for teaching. The professor's time is not occupied doing police duty or sitting as a juror, but is given wholly to his work as teacher.

The self-responsibility of the student also has an educating influence, giving to the worthy and right-minded a better training for future citizenship. It is undoubtedly true that the autonomy of a college is an important factor in shaping the future liberties of our country. No college, however, can hope to uphold the highest standard of conduct by trusting to the force of rules and penalties. The spring of right action is in the heart. All college authorities must rely princ.i.p.ally upon appeals to calm reason and an enlightened conscience, reinforced by religious faith and feeling.

The general good order and morals of the students in American colleges are changing for the better. In a large proportion of our colleges only a small per cent. of the students use intoxicating drinks or tobacco. All reprehensible conduct must be carried on so secretly as to elude the college authorities. Those disposed to do evil represent only a very small proportion of the great body of students, but these give occasion for some supercilious and conceited correspondent of the public press severely to criticise the college government, and to give gross caricatures and exaggerated statements of the mischief done by this small percentage of students, and then include the entire academic body in the same general censure. It is generally believed by those qualified to know that the average morals and good conduct of the students in college are much better than those of the same number of young men outside the college community.

The chartered colleges are ent.i.tled to confer _degrees_ as a measure of honor the college wishes to bestow on men and women of merit. This privilege has been so much abused by some colleges that a little confusion arises as to the true value and significance of the degrees conferred. In 1890, there were 8,290 degrees conferred in course or on examination, and 727 honorary degrees, by 415 colleges and professional schools.

In the best American colleges, the student completing the cla.s.sical course receives the degree of _Bachelor of Arts_ (A. B.)--_bas chevalier_, a knight of low degree; it signifies "inception in arts."

If the student, after taking his bachelor's degree, pursues for a few years some literary or scientific study, he may receive the degree of Master of Arts (A. M.), meaning fitness to teach, a t.i.tle which began to be conferred in the twelfth century. These degrees are granted as a reward of merit, based on examination and general fitness. The degrees of Doctor of Divinity (D. D.) and Doctor of Laws (LL. D.) are granted as honorary degrees to men of pre-eminent ability or for conspicuous services. The student who completes a college course or its equivalent, and follows it with a professional course in a university, receives a degree recognizing the fact. Schools of Theology confer the degree of Bachelor of Divinity (D. B.) Schools of Law, Bachelor of Law (LL. B.), and Schools of Medicine, Doctor of Medicine (M. D.)

A post-graduate course of study, looking to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.), has reference not so much to the professional and practical side of life as to the original investigation and exploration of a special subject, with no other immediate aim than the discovery of truth and a philosophical insight into the same. The student, before receiving the degree in the best universities, is required, at the close of his post-graduate work, to write a thesis which would be regarded as an original contribution to the subject discussed.

There is no practical uniformity in the scope and requirement of the work for this degree. The Doctor's degree should stand in this country, as it does in Europe, for research, and a general knowledge of philosophy, with ability to open up original sources of information. The student should be a resident graduate for at least one year, and after rigorous examination be required to contribute something to the advancement of knowledge, and withal be a man of good character and judgment, before receiving this most desirable degree in American and European universities. With such a uniform standard, this degree will not likely depreciate in public esteem, but have, as all degrees should, a uniform value. A federation of colleges may help to attain this end.

College degrees are not essential to a man's success in life, but when they are obtained as a reward of merit have a certain social value which usually insures a speedier entrance into any chosen field of work.

Another characteristic of American colleges is that they are _endowed_ either by churches, by the state or by individual donors. The endowment is generally in the form of property or stocks yielding an annual revenue. It may be a sum of money given to the college, to be loaned and the interest to be permanently appropriated to the support of professors or applied to the current expenses. The amount necessary to endow a professorship varies from twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars. The fund thus given remains intact, and the interest or revenue of it alone is used to carry out the purpose of the donor.

No college of a high grade can exist without a generous endowment or aid from some source. Education in the colleges and universities throughout the world is given almost as a gratuity. It is maintained princ.i.p.ally through the benefactions of wealthy men who erect buildings, found professorships and establish libraries for the use of others.

The resources of American colleges surpa.s.s those of any other country in the world. In 1890, the value of grounds, buildings and apparatus for 378 colleges in the United States was $77,894,729, and the productive fund of 315 colleges aggregated $74,090,415. In Germany, the twenty-two universities are national property, and are supported out of the national treasury at a large annual expense. The annual incomes of Oxford and Cambridge in England aggregate more than $3,500,000.

Many of the American colleges have wealthy foundations. Harvard College has in grounds, buildings and productive endowment the sum of $12,000,000, with an income in 1892 of $978,881.92. Columbia College claims $13,000,000, with an annual income of $629,000. The estimated value of the funds of Cornell College is $9,000,000, with an annual income of more than $400,000, and Johns Hopkins University has $5,000,000 endowment. In 1892, Yale College had $4,019,000, with an annual income of $520,246. The Northwestern University has nearly $3,000,000 endowment and an annual income of $225,000. Boston University has more than $1,500,000 endowment and an annual income of $160,000. Chicago University is one of our youngest universities, and yet it has in property and endowment $7,500,000. These are only a small portion of the 415 colleges and universities in this country whose aggregate wealth and income are a source of satisfaction to all the friends of higher education.

The munificence of the wealthy men of this nation in behalf of higher education has excited the surprise and admiration of the old world.

Within the last quarter of a century nearly seventy-five million dollars has been given for this cause. We recall with satisfaction some of these distinguished donors: George Peabody left $6,000,000 of his estate to the cause of education; Isaac Rich, $1,000,000 to Boston University; Johns Hopkins, $3,140,000 to found a university in Baltimore which bears his name; Asa Packard gave $3,000,000 to Lehigh University; D. B. Fayerweather left a bequest of nearly $3,000,000 to various colleges; Cornelius Vanderbilt gave $1,000,000 to the Vanderbilt University; John C. Green gave $1,500,000 to Princeton College; Amasa Stone, $600,000 to Adelbert College; George I. Seney, $450,000 to Wesleyan University; Matthew Va.s.sar, $800,000 to Va.s.sar College for women; John D. Rockefeller's gifts to the Chicago University aggregate $4,500,000, and Leland Stanford's estate will yield from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 for the university that bears his name on the Pacific Coast. These men and a host of others will be remembered through succeeding generations for their generous liberality. The wisdom of these n.o.ble benefactions commends itself to the enlightened judgment of all good citizens. We believe, with President Schurman, that "the heart behind American wealth is at the bottom generous and discerning, and so long as money can foster intelligence, that heart will not suffer our civilization to become a prey to ignorance, brutishness and stupid materialism. No one knows better than the millionaire that man lives not by bread alone." The colleges are not founded to make money but to benefit the public by training and fitting men for the highest service. The majority of the students in American colleges are of limited means. If it were possible to sustain a first-cla.s.s college by means of the income from students, the tuition would be so high as to limit the great advantage of a higher education to a few children of rich men. The annual cost of each undergraduate to the University at Oxford is $700, at Cambridge $600, and at Harvard $300. If the actual expenses of running a college of high grade were divided proportionately among the students, they would have to pay three or four times the amount they now do for tuition. It is important that these educational advantages and incentives come within the reach of the humblest youth of the Republic, in order that they may be productive of the n.o.blest manhood and womanhood.

Time and experience confirm the claim that the wisest and most permanent use of money is to help endow a college. Large wealth imposes obligations to make the best and most permanent use of it.

Every man of means ought to be a patron of learning, because it yields the most satisfactory returns. "What better gift can we offer the Republic," says Cicero, "than to teach and instruct the youth."

Wendell Phillips says that "education is the only interest worthy deep, controlling anxiety of thoughtful men," and President Gilman makes an equally forcible statement when he says that "to be concerned in the establishment of a university is one of the n.o.blest and most important tasks ever imposed on a community or on a set of men."

Many of our denominational colleges are parsimoniously sustained. If their const.i.tuency, both rich and poor, would become imbued with the spirit of the Colonial fathers, and arouse themselves to give liberally, their power and influence would be multiplied a hundred fold. "Let it not be forgotten," says President Thwing, "that if the college and university have large need of the wealth of the community, this wealth has yet a larger need of the college and university.

Without the aid of the higher education in the past, much of the wealth could not have been created; and without the higher education of the present, wealth would now become sordid; gold-dust is no less dust because it is golden. The rich man needs the college as his beneficiary to help him to be a n.o.ble man quite as much as the college needs his benefactions to help it make n.o.ble men. A college in poverty can make men; a rich man (or a poor man, indeed,) cannot h.o.a.rd in meanness without degradation of manhood." The colleges are the agencies to help call out the constructive talent of the nation. They open the pathway of opportunity to every young man and woman who desires to do the most for himself and humanity. Each one may link himself through his means and prayers to these powerful agencies for good.

IV.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE--A SYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENT.

The function of the American college is to train and develop all the human powers and faculties and help the student to attain a complete individuality. The broadest educational theory estimates the worth of all the human powers and has the highest notion of personality, the development of which demands the impact of physical, intellectual, moral, and religious forces. A rounded human development provides for the fullest and freest exercise of all the powers of being. "Culture,"

says Matthew Arnold, "is a harmonious expansion of all the powers which make the beauty and worth of human nature, and is not consistent with the over-development of any one power at the expense of the rest."

Man is a unit, but inasmuch as G.o.d has endowed him with various capacities, his highest glory should be to develop them. The only limit to the college student is his native abilities and apt.i.tudes, modified by the parental training, various social influences, and the preliminary discipline in the public schools. The college that receives the students, with their different aims and predilections and acquirements, and leads them to appreciate the greater possibilities of their natures, and arouses and encourages them to strive for their fullest development, is worthy of confidence and support.

A symmetrically developed manhood or womanhood implies _the training of the mind to think accurately and systematically_. The tried and historic conception of education is expressed in the Latin word, _educare_: to lead out. It is to draw out of the living soul, by the aid of books, appliances, and instructors, all its latent capacities, to help in the formation of correct intellectual habits, and pre-eminently to form character, and thus to enrich and broaden the whole range of life. The purpose of a liberal education is not to cram the mind with facts and principles, but "to build up and build out the mind" by the natural process of growth, so that all knowledge from without will be a.s.similated by a living mental organism. The important work of the college is to develop intellectual power. It is to aid in giving such a directive power of mind as will enable the student, by a fixed determination, to recall facts, apply principles, and perform acts as if they were spontaneous. It is so to train the judgment and reasoning faculties of the student that in the end he will have acquired power to do earnest intellectual work.

The direct aim of the instruction in college is to give the student access to vital and formative knowledge by studying man and his works, and nature and her works. He is thus led to know himself and to know the world, and the laws which govern nature, and man as a part of nature. He comes to see things as they are and to understand the laws of things, and thus he thinks and acts on more perfect knowledge. If the student is to be trained to independent thought and action, he must have a sounder basis of knowledge than the teachings of those whose ideas and opinions are shaped by current, ephemeral literature.

The majority of men act on too imperfect knowledge, because they will not take the time and exercise the patience to study the facts and principles relating to any given subject, and to do their own thinking. Goethe says: "To act is easy, to think is hard." The remedy is found in the college courses of study which involve the study of ourselves through psychology, logic, and mental, moral, political and social philosophy, and the study of nature through the sciences and the laws of the world about us.

Another method, aside from the nature and scope of the studies pursued, to attain the end, is through the strong personality of the college professor. Alexander the Great said: "Philip gave me life, Aristotle taught me how to live well," and Emerson's judgment was that "it is little matter what you learn; the question is, with whom you learn." It is within the power of the college professor to help enlighten the understanding, strengthen and guide the intuitions and reasoning faculties, and to awaken within the student a consciousness of his new powers and capacities, and incite him to mental activity.

The highest scholastic training demands that the professor studiously avoid all those methods of instruction which tend to mechanical habits of thought, and which check the mind's spontaneity of growth and repress the individuality so essential to true scholarship.

Incidental to intellectual culture in college is the ability to find promptly the information we want. "Next to knowing a thing," says Dr.

Johnson, "is to know where to find it." No student can become a walking encyclopaedia, but he should learn while in college how to avail himself advantageously of reference books, libraries and other sources of information.

A college education likewise implies the ability to express one's ideas in a clear, appropriate style. The student should be able to tell what he knows. This clearness of thought and precision of expression is best acquired in the cla.s.s room, in the literary societies, and in the cla.s.ses devoted especially to the study of expression.

The intellectual aim of a college should be not only to awaken and develop independent thinking power as an abiding impulse which will prompt to effective intellectual work, but withal the will, the imagination, and emotive nature should be so trained that the student will have a mental taste and moral appreciation for the best and n.o.blest thought. Mental discipline and the dull routine of study will become cold and insipid unless the student is inducted into those fields of science and literature where he will find the richest sources of refined and elevating pleasures, and through them be incited to n.o.ble action. It is on these lines of study that the student acquires that spirit of study which becomes spontaneous, attractive, and joyous. He loves culture for culture's sake, and does not abandon its acquisition on leaving college.

A symmetrically developed manhood or womanhood involves _physical culture_. The ascetic idea of college life no longer prevails. The body, as well as the mind, is trained. The value to a student of good health and an alert and vigorous body cannot be overestimated.

Educators are coming to realize more fully than in the past that the physical and psychical factors of life are inseparable. The body and mind are mutually related and affected. Systematic exercise stimulates quickness of mental processes and promotes brain power.

The leading American colleges are conducted on better physiological and hygienic principles than in the past. The student, on entering college, is subject to a careful physical examination by a competent physician, and a course of systematic physical training is prescribed.

Any organic defect or incipient disease is discovered, and, if possible, corrected. Physical training has become an integral part of a good college course. Exercise is largely compulsory, because studious and ambitious students are likely to sacrifice physical for intellectual training.

A well-equipped gymnasium is essential for the most thorough physical culture. Bath-rooms, with facilities for plunge and shower baths, are an important adjunct in promoting that healthy condition of the skin which follows from frequent bathing. An athletic field for outdoor sports is, likewise, a valuable accessory to develop a lithe and active body.

The master of the gymnasium is generally a vigorous and enthusiastic instructor, who is able to conduct skillfully daily gymnastic cla.s.s work, and relieve monotony and evoke interest by introducing a variety of exercises for the different college cla.s.ses. He is also the hygienic adviser in all matters relating to study and recreation. The students are taught that regular exercise, sufficient sleep, personal cleanliness, and proper diet will correct most of the so-called pernicious effects of over-study.

Outdoor sports, under proper restrictions, promote health and foster mental qualities. Foot-ball and base-ball have gained an undue prominence in some colleges. It is questionable whether they are the most desirable forms of exercise for physical development, since only a very small portion of the students at any one time can engage in them.

The evil features of inter-collegiate games, especially as practiced, offset their advantages. The undue excitement and spirit of rivalry fostered is foreign to the true idea of an earnest student life. The college is no monastery to make the student a recluse, but it should be a place of solitude, a modern cloister, where the student may be kept in partial isolation and away from the turbulent stream of public life and distracting social influences. The student may keep in the midst of the current of actual modern thought and life without sacrificing the quiet seclusion which is an essential requirement for the best scholarship.

These inter-collegiate games have been attended with temptations perilous to character. Abundant testimony is not wanting to show that their tendency has been toward rowdyism, gambling, debauchery, and other disgraceful conduct. Some of the games scarcely rise above the brutality of the prize fight. They have no elevating tendency, and no apology can be made for their roughness and bad moral effects.