460 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 742 



grounded in all that the college can give in its 

 four years of fellowship, aspiration and dis- 

 cipline. (These four years ought to end as 

 they did thirty years ago, with the year we 

 now call "sophomore," but that is another 

 story.) But Tale College and Tale Univer- 

 sity, aU together and equally great, that can 

 never be. 



Tale University needs books, apparatus, col- 

 lections, long-striding scholars and founders 

 of dynasties of scholarship and research. 

 Tale University needs millions ; Tale College 

 has enough. But Tale College and Tale Uni- 

 versity in one yard, under one body of teach- 

 ers, under one set of discipline, and forever 

 getting in each other's way ; this condition can 

 never be a finality. Until they are separated 

 in space, as in time. Tale College can not 

 escape the reproach all our colleges bear, that 

 she neglects her boys in the imagined interest 

 of research; that her professors do not love 

 their work, and slight it in many ways; that 

 if the boy becomes a man the college deserves 

 no thanks for it.^ On the other hand. Tale 



' Says Dr. George E. Vincent, a dean of the 

 University of Chicago : " The chief causes which 

 are alleged to be responsible for a perceptible 

 lowering of the standard of student work are: 

 less definite and disciplinary instruction in the 

 elementary and secondary schools; an elective 

 system permitting a haphazard, desultory, indi- 

 vidual course; the presence of an idle rich class 

 setting a standard of ostentation and luxury; the 

 exaltation of competitive athletics and the hero- 

 izing of successful athletes; the growth of fra- 

 ternities with their time-consuming activities and 

 social distinctions; the emphasis on social life 

 and the consequent prejudice against the diligent 

 student who takes little part in the 'valuable 

 education outside the classroom'; the over-crowd- 

 ing of classes so that attention to individual 

 students is difficult or impossible; the introduc- 

 tion of the lecture system for undergraduates 

 accustomed to the drill of the recitation method; 

 the putting of young, inexperienced, overworked 

 and illpaid instructors in charge of freshmen and 

 sophomore divisions; the competition between in- 

 structors in offering popular, largely elected, and 

 too often ' snap ' or ' soft ' courses ; the exalta- 

 tion of research at the expense of ' mere teach- 

 ing' and the consequent lowering of teaching 

 efficiency; the extension of the doctrine of freedom 



University will find itself blamed for con- 

 tributing so little to the advance of knowledge. 

 With a staff as large as that of Leipzig, more 

 or less, and an equivalent student body, its 

 scholarly output is less than half that of the 

 German institution. This sort of criticism 

 we hear again and again. Whether this be 

 just or not is a minor question. People think 

 that it is true, and it will be essentially true 

 so long as Tale College is interchangeable 

 with Tale University. 



Were I president of Tale, I would cling to 

 the one ideal or the other, letting all else go. 

 For the time must come when our colleges 

 can not fulfill our university ideals, by adding 

 scantily equipped professional schools and 

 hiring a dozen or two graduate students to 

 shift for themselves under overworked pro- 

 fessors. Meanwhile, our universities can not 

 make men out of boys unless they address 

 themselves most seriously to the business, 

 " bringing every ray of various genius to their 

 hospitable halls " that through their united 

 influence " they may set the heart of the youth 

 in flame." 



Tou will see that this applies to Tale no 

 more and no less than to Harvard, to Cornell, 

 to Wisconsin and to any other institution 

 which is trying to do boy's work and man's 

 work at the same time, in the same place, and 

 by the same educational machinery. We have 

 just now referred to the University of Leip- 

 zig. Let us suppose that to her three thousand 

 students, more or less, she should add as many 

 more from the higher grades of the gym- 

 nasium or high school, corresponding to our 

 freshmen and sophomores. Let us suppose 

 that she should add to her faculty of three 



of teaching to protect a careless or inefficient 

 instructor of elementary courses from investiga- 

 tion; failure to make college work seem vital to 

 the student, a means to his personal ends, in 

 marked contrast with the success of the profes- 

 sional schools which hold up a definite goal, arouse 

 interest and enforce a higher standard of effort 

 and accomplishment. The mere enumeration of 

 these charges raises many questions of fact and 

 interpretation. That some if not all of the influ- 

 ences are present in all of our colleges is not to 

 be denied." 



