October 1, I'JO'J] 



SCIENCE 



419 



state, this method of fixing a standard 

 within state limits has been available from 

 the beginning. But the states have been 

 slow to apply it. The state of New York, 

 in its univei-sity of the commonwealth, has 

 had at hand the apparatus for making ef- 

 fective a legal provision touching this mat- 

 ter. With its growing sense of the possi- 

 bilities of this organization, in recent years, 

 it is not strange that New York has led the 

 way in the making of definite requirements 

 for degree-giving institutions. 



The university law of 1892 authorizes 

 the regents of the University of the State 

 of New York to incorporate educational in- 

 stitutions and provides that no institution 

 shall be given power to confer degrees 

 in the state of New York unless it shall 

 have resources of at least $500,000 and 

 shall have suitable provision, approved by 

 the regents, for buildings, furniture, edu- 

 cational equipment, and proper mainte- 

 nance. Among the ordinances adopted by 

 the regents under this enactment is one 

 which provides that 



An institution to be ranked as a college must 

 have at least six professors giving their entire 

 time to college and university work, a course of 

 four full years of college grade in liberal arts and 

 sciences, and must require for admission not less 

 than the usual four years of academic or high- 

 school preparation or its equivalent, in addition to 

 the pre-academic or grammar-school studies. 



An act of the legislature of Pennsylvania 

 approved June 26, 1895, provides that no 

 institution of learning shall be given 

 power to grant degrees until the merits of 

 the application from an educational stand- 

 point shall be passed upon by a College 

 and University Council created by the act. 

 The act further provides that 



No institution shall be chartered with the power 

 to confer degrees, unless it has assets amounting 

 to five hundred thousand dollars invested in build- 

 ings, apparatus and endowments for the exclusive 

 purpose of promoting instruction, and unless the 

 faculty consists of at least six regular professors 



who devote all their time to the instruction of 

 its college or university classes, nor shall any 

 baccalaureate degree in art, science, philosophy or 

 literature be conferred upon any student who has 

 not completed a college or university course cover- 

 ing four years. The .standard of admission to 

 these four-year courses or to advanced classes in 

 these courses shall be subject to the approval of 

 tlia said council. 



Whei-e there is present a state univer- 

 sity of high grade, this institution can be 

 made to serve as a rough-and-ready meas- 

 ure for the state. This is what was done in 

 California, where the definite need of a 

 scale of requirements arose when the licen- 

 sing of teachers for public high schools 

 was separated from similar provision for 

 the elementary schools. 



The provision referred to was enacted in 

 1893 and provides that no credentials for 

 high school certificates shall be prescribed 

 or allowed unless the same, in the judg- 

 ment of the state board of education, are 

 the equivalent of a diploma of graduation 

 from the University of California. This 

 law, therefore, makes of the state board a 

 body for the classification of higher insti- 

 tutions, with the university of the state as 

 the standard of measurement. 



In 1907 the state educational board of 

 examiners of Iowa were granted authority 

 to accept graduation from the regular and 

 collegiate courses in the state university, 

 state normal school, and the .state college 

 of agriculture and mechanic arts, and from 

 other in.stitutions of learning in the state 

 having regular and collegiate courses of 

 equal rank, as evidence that a teacher pos- 

 sesses the scholarship and professional fit- 

 ness for a state certificate. They were au- 

 thorized also to validate certificates from 

 other states where such certificates were 

 issued upon scholarship and experience 

 equivalent to that required under the laws 

 of Iowa. 



While such provisions as these have been 

 adopted in a few of the states, there have 



