Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/82

LEFT COLLEGES 58 COLLEGES were added English literature and rhet- oric, mathematics, logic and philosophy, with a little history. After four years of work the degree of A. B. was given. Between 1800 and 1870 8 new subjects were introduced into the admission re- quirements, viz., English grammar, Eng- lish composition, algebra, geometry, geog- raphy, ancient history. United States his- tory, and physical geography. Within the last 50 years the American college has developed greatly along many lines. Some problems it has solved, many are still in process of solution. Its pres- ent status may be discussed under sep- arate heads: 1. Material Resources: It is not easy to fix a definite standard of wealth as an essential condition of college organ- ization. The Association of American Colleges has published a suggestive bul- letin on "The Efficient College." The conclusion is that "an efficient college of 400 students should have a faculty of 40 teachers, total assets of about $3,000,000 and an annual income of about $125,000." At present this standard is ideal. A few of our best colleges reach it, but they have usually more than 400 students. The North Central College Association requires an endowment of $200,000 and this has been generally accepted by standardizing agencies as a minimum. But the enforcement of even this mod- erate provision would forfeit the char- ters of a large proportion of the institu- tions calling themselves colleges. But it should be said that these feeble institu- tions with little or no endowment or source of income other than student fees are not examples of the modern Amer- ican college. They are left-over exam- ples of the old-fashioned or even of the colonial college. No modern college can escape the financial burden involved in providing scientific laboratories, and a well-filled library carefully administered. From the standpoint of material re- sources we may recognize several distinct types of colleges. First, there is the small college with a faculty of 8 or 10, a student body of less than 200, and a limited election of work. Then there is the large college, still detached, with larger resources of every kind. Then there is the university college — a college still — the center of a university that of- fers professional work of the most varied character. Apparently the student trend is toward these large institutions. 2. General Purpose: Long ago the college ceased to be vocational, as were the earliest institutions in America. The next rallying point was the call for intel- lectual discipline. This end and aim of the college course was elaborately de- fended in 1827 in a report made by the Yale faculty. With this argument every college defended its rigid technical course of study. With the expansion of the curriculum, made necessary through the expansion of knowledge and madt possible through the expansion of mate- rial resources, the college relaxed its claims for the supremacy of mental dis- cipline and abandoned its rigid curricu- lum for securing the same. For disci- pline it substituted "culture," returning to the humanitarian ideas of the renais- sance. This ideal of culture has been weakened by attacks from two sides. A report of the Harvard faculty in 1904 says: "The easiest way to induce stu- dents to take a subject for culture is to make it not too difficult." There has also been a demand that the college course relate itself to the life purposes of the students. This has been heeded, espe- cially by colleges attached to large uni- versities, so that the college course is again becoming vocational. 3. The Curriculum: Perhaps the greatest academic struggle of the past generation has been carried on over the college curriculum, the introduction of new subjects, the adherence to old re- quirements, the adoption of a system of free electives or parallel courses, the length of the course and the degrees that should crown it. The whole question is older than 1870. It was brought distinct- ly to the front in the founding of the University of Virginia in 1825. Harvard, under the leadership of President Eliot, was the center of the liberal influence. Out of the confusion and strife there are some broad conclusions that may be stated: (a) The rigid college course is gone and will not be restored, (b) New subjects and new courses are introduced by every college to the extent of its financial ability, and beyond. Limitations are financial alone, not of educational theory, (c) Free election is making lit- tle progress at present. A corrective is applied by some form of parallel courses or group studies or requirement of ma- jors and minors, (d) Admission require- ments become constantly more liberal with the ultimate goal that no student is to be rejected — at least by the larger State universities — who has finished an acceptable high school course, (e) The typical course is to occupy four years, but some students will accomplish it in three and most professional students will have their first year credited as part of their college course, (f) The degree of A. B. will be the usual degree for any course. Some institutions will continue to give B. S., but other degrees, as B. L., or Ph. B., will be abandoned.