252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a series of experiments along this line, whose results should serve to 

 guide other institutions toward the same goal of public service. 



Meanwhile, the middle west has been working out its own salvation 

 as regards the public duties of city bred educational institutions. Ohio 

 with its three municipal universities at Cincinnati, Toledo and Akron, 

 leads its neighboring states in this respect. 



When Akron, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, established such an in- 

 stitution upon the foundation of the old Buchtel College, many, good 

 citizens shook their heads in doubt as to whether a city of this size 

 could afford the " luxury " of higher education. Fortunately, however, 

 the young people of the city saw in this opportunity not a luxury but a 

 chance for practical preparation for life. In the two short years of 

 its existence, the university is already beginning to be one of the strong- 

 est factors in the community for civic betterment. 



Why can a municipal university offer more practical education than 

 other colleges or universities? As a matter of fact, any private insti- 

 tution can do as much. The municipal institution has simply by force 

 of its position, heard the call more clearly and for this reason leads the 

 way. Its activities are divided into two general lines: 



1. The training of students. 



2. Cooperation with city departments and activities. 



Either one of these two is impossible without the other. Students 

 can not be trained for practical life without contact with actual con- 

 ditions. Such contact can only be secured when every department of 

 the university is in close cooperation and contact with that part of civic 

 life to which it is most closely related. On the other hand, such contact 

 can only be secured by putting students directly into the activities men- 

 tioned and thus forming the connecting link between city and university. 



The beginning of this contact was made at Cincinnati about eight 

 years ago, when Dean Schneider established his courses in engineering 

 on the cooperative plan. It is scarcely necessary here to mention the 

 merits of this much discussed system. In brief, it means that engineer- 

 ing students work for alternate two-week periods in class room and in 

 factories, under actual shop conditions. Thus a graduate from this 

 course is not a mere theorist, but knows manufacturing and engineer- 

 ing from the standpoint of personal experience. 



To students of economics and sociology an especially broad field is 

 open for experience with the conditions of actual life. In my own city, 

 a thorough housing survey has been carried on by university students 

 under the joint direction of the department of sociology, the charity 

 organization and the board of health. Nor has this work been mere 

 play with no practical use. As a result of reports brought in by stu- 

 dent inspectors, the sanitation of houses and even of whole districts has 

 been improved through vigorous action of the building inspector. The 

 city has been benefitted by enlisting in its service a body of capable in- 



