18853 New Educational Methods 



retained by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had a 

 look-in on Indiana politics. With McMullen at 

 the helm, I succeeded in raising the income of the 

 University to about $50,000, besides securing an ap- 

 propriation for a new wooden building the origi- 

 nal Maxwell Hall with an additional sum for 

 books and equipment. This was only a start, but 

 never again did I have so hard a struggle with a 

 legislative body. 



When I became its president, the University of 

 Indiana contained 135 collegiate students, with changes 

 about 150 in the preparatory department, which 

 served as a high school for Bloomington. In 1886 I 

 made some sweeping changes, doing away with the 

 fixed curriculum and adjusting the work so that 

 practically all the subjects hitherto taught in the 

 University, being elementary in their nature, were 

 relegated to the first two years. Further than this, The 

 we instituted a "major subject" system, by which " m y or 



i . . i 1 i j professor 



each junior or third-year student was required to system 

 choose a specialty or "major," and to work under 

 the immediate advice of his "major professor," 

 whose counsel in details he was obliged to secure. 

 An individual course of study was thus framed for 

 each one. This system, which has now stood the 

 test of more than thirty years in Indiana, Stanford, 

 and elsewhere, was originally developed by a com- 

 mittee consisting of Dr. Hans C. G. von Jagemann, 

 Dr. William Lowe Bryan, and myself. Its purpose 

 was to enable every one to make the most of his four 

 college years, by seeking the best teachers and the 

 subject best fitted to his tastes and capacity. 

 This scheme immediately opened our doors to 



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