COLLEGE STANDARDIZATION 537 



that no special student should be allowed membership in an athletic 

 team. The mere fact of such membership is presumptive evidence that 

 he is a special fraud. 



The criticisms expressed in the present discussion are the outcome 

 of observation, conversation and correspondence extended through a 

 number of years. They are applicable, at least in part, to a variety 

 of institutions, no one of which is here singled out as a special object 

 of attack, either directly or by implication. The facts are well known 

 to many who are engaged in the work of college education, and there 

 is no wish here to individualize. One of the worst causes of their 

 existence has been the all-pervading pressure of intercollegiate athletics. 

 An institution with few professors and many students, which has much 

 ambition for athletic reputation and therefore has admitted athletes 

 with little discrimination, is confronted with an embarrassing choice of 

 alternatives. It is well established that the average scholarship of 

 athletic teams is low. Those who openly contend that a high standard 

 of scholarship is preferable to a high standard of athletics are exposed 

 to the danger of unpopularity among students, and perhaps- among 

 others. Unwelcome criticism based on known facts may be deemed 

 inconsiderate or in bad taste, but evils are rarely ever rectified by ignor- 

 ing them. 



About a thousand American institutions of learning are said to 

 have been chartered as colleges, universities and technical schools, 

 or at least permitted to call themselves by such names. There is no 

 hope that fraud will cease to be practised among them, for every one 

 of them is an index of local civilization, and legislatures are generally 

 willing to incorporate colleges whose standards suit their constituencies. 

 But a hopeful road to improvement is found if every legislature can be 

 induced to follow the example of New York, settling by statute the 

 conditions to be fulfilled for the issuance of a charter of incorporation. 

 Every such charter should be granted for a limited period, such as ten 

 years, and all charters should be revoked if the institutions holding 

 them are unable to meet the requirements of the law. The strong 

 institutions would not be affected, and would have no difficulty in 

 securing decennial renewals. Charters now in existence can not legally 

 be affected, but no new applications for charters would be made with the 

 plea that these are intended to meet future expectations rather than 

 present conditions. It is not to be expected that the law for Virginia 

 or California would be the same as for New York or Florida ; but the 

 valuable gain would be the establishment of a definite standard in 

 every state of the union, while the usual condition now is that of no 

 standard whatever. The crying evil is false pretense, the assumption 

 of misleading names, the claim to excellences that do not exist. 



In contrast with the New York standard may be mentioned a cer- 

 tain " university " in Florida. Its catalogue in 1903 presented a 



