網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

State or Territory.

Statistical summary of number of professors, students, &c.—Continued.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Preparatory departments of colleges and preparatory students.—It is not possible here to exexamine the above statistics much in detail. Those relating to students in the preparatory and collegiate courses of the colleges are worthy of notice. In comparing the respective numbers of these classes of students in the colleges in various sections of the country great differences will be found to exist. The colleges in the States of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia report 2,667 preparatory and 6,235 collegiate students; the colleges in the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin report 9,472 preparatory students and 6,403 collegiate students; the colleges in the States of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania report 3,728 preparatory and 5,686 collegiate students; the colleges of the New England States have only 40 preparatory students and 3,201 collegiate students.

The colleges in Massachusetts have 1,502 collegiate students out of 1,542 in attendance; the colleges of Michigan have only 741 collegiate students out of 1,792 persons in attendance.

How can the collegiate revenues of Michigan be directed to their proper object, viz, superior instruction, as they are in Massachusetts? What measures can the colleges and the State of Michigan take to obtain as large a number of collegiate students in proption to population as Massachusetts has? But it is not necessary to multiply questions on this subject. Massachusetts has a large number of schools for training students for the colleges. These schools have been wisely fostered. The West and South have comparatively few schools of this class, and here doubtless is one of the main causes of the disproportion above indicated. It would seem, therefore, the obvious policy of the colleges of the South and West to encourage the establishment and generous endowment of collegiate training-schools, both public and corporate. Why cannot Michigan, Virginia, and the other States South and West have schools similar to the Phillips Academy at Andover or the Williston Seminary at East Hampton? The establishment of such schools would relieve the colleges of the burden of preparatory training and largely increase the number of collegiate students proper.

Of the 323 colleges, 289 report libraries, the aggregate number of volumes being 1,930,124; 159 report increase in libraries during the year of 85,092 volumes. The aggregate amount of corporate property reported by 170 colleges was $44,813,876; the aggregate endowments reported by 157 colleges was $20,232,511; the value of grounds,

Preparatory.

Collegiate.

Number of postgraduates.

State or Territory.

buildings, and apparatus reported by 256 colleges was $29,178,080; the amount of productive funds reported by 144 colleges was $21,960,322; the income of productive funds reported by 144 colleges was $1,876,873; the aggregate receipts for the year reported by 195 colleges (exclusive of that from productive funds) was $2,718,506; and the amount of scholarship-funds reported by 49 colleges was $1,641,743.

Statistical summary of libraries, corporate property, &c., in universities and colleges, in Table VIII.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

buildings, and

Value of grounds,

apparatus.

State or Territory.

Statistical summary of libraries, corporate property, &c.—Continued.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Material prosperity-benefactions.-The aggregate of benefactions to universities and colleges within the period covered by this report was $8,238,141. A detailed statement of them will be found in Table XXIV of the appendix.

This statement shows how largely the working means of the higher schools of learning have been increased during the year past by the generous bequests and gifts of liberal citizens. Contributions ranging from a few hundred dollars up to one bequest of

of abont $3,000,000, have come in to extend their buildings, augment their endowments, and enable them to offer wider advantages than ever previously could be presented.

Even the generally impoverished South gives evidence of sharing this advancement. Thus Richmond College, Va., holds $70,000 in hand for a new and elegant building which it is erecting, with nearly $200,000 more subscribed. Wake Forest, N. C., has had $40,000 given it; Emory College, Ga., $20,000; the University of Georgia $28,000; Center College, Ky., $80,000; Berea, Ky., $26,000; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., $511,000. The President of Emory College states indeed that "within the past five years more has been done for the endowment of southern colleges than within the twenty years immediately preceding. The tokens of this general prosperity are various in kind. Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., besides receiving $60,000 as a gift, has disposed of its old location in the city for (it is said) $400,000, with which sum it is preparing to erect an elegant new building on a commanding site near by. The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, receiving also $60,000, has erected for itself a fine new college-edifice in West Philadelphia, disposing of its old site to the United States for upwards of $600,000. The Northwestern Christian University, at Indianapolis, gains $150,000 by a like removal. Cornell has added to its previously large accommodations the new Sage College for Women, at a cost of $150,000. La Fayette, (Pa.,) Princeton, (N. J.,) and Yale, (Conn.,) have had erected for them each a noble building for its scientific school, costing, in the first-named, $250,000;* in the second, $100,000; and in the third, $110,000. The University of Michigan has linked its two extensive wings together with a great central hall costing $125,000. The Northwestern University, of Evanston, Ill., has had its property in Chicago so enhanced in value by the rebuilding of the burned portion of the city, as to be in the way to a prospective wealth which will possibly make it the wealthiest in the State, if not in the United States, the estimate reaching from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000.

The exceptions to this general prosperity are found chiefly in the South, where the prevalent impoverishment has caused the closing of six colleges, and in the West, where, amid the almost superabundant institutions of this kind, six that have died and three that are suspended can hardly be missed.

Degrees. For a detailed exhibit of the number and kinds of degrees conferred by the colleges in 1873, see Table XIII of the appendix.

Following the example of the University of Virginia and of Harvard University, many of the colleges have recently announced that degrees of bachelor of arts or of master of arts will only be conferred on candidates who shall have passed special examinations for such degrees.

Museums.-The statistics of museums of natural history and of art and archæology, connected with these institutions, will be found in Tables XVII and XVIII of the appendix.

Co-education in colleges.-The number of institutions embraced in Table VIII, which reported women in preparatory or regular collegiate classes, or in both, was 97, not including the five colleges for women in the State of New York, to which young men are not admitted as students. Of this number, 67 are situated in the Western, 17 in the Southern, 8 in the Middle, and 5 in the New England States. The total number of women reported in these 97 colleges was 7,357, of whom 5,410 were in preparatory studies and 1,947 in collegiate classes. The number of students in the five colleges for women in New York was 788, of whom 370 were in preparatory sections and 418 in the regular collegiate courses. For further statistics relating to superior instruction of women and for the Harvard examinations for women, see the preceding summary of Table VII.

*Pardee Hall, the new scientific school of La Fayette College, Pennsylvania, a generous gift from Mr. Ario Pardee, of that State, must rank among the finest buildings of its kind in the United States. Its cost of $250,000, added to Mr. Pardee's previous gifts, makes the aggregate of his benefactions to the college $500,000.

The rise of colleges for colored people.—The claim of our colored citizens to an education which may fit them for the full privileges and high responsibilities of their new position is leading to increasing openings for their entrance on a course of collegiate and professional instruction. Yale will graduate in 1874 one colored student from her academic department and one from her theological school. Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, especially designed to meet the wants of this race, reports now 81 students in its preparatory school and 94 in its college-classes. Howard University, District of Columbia, reports 60 unclassified and 36 collegiate, besides law-, medical, and normal students. Berea College, Kentucky; Fisk University, Tennessee; Alcorn University, Mississippi; and Straight University, New Orleans, La., have all opened their doors to students "without distinction of sex or race," and at Berea the experiment of uniting the colored and white races appears to be an entirely successful one. In the others colored students in large numbers are availing themselves of the opportunities for education and demonstrating their capacity to make rapid and encouraging advance.

Nor are these the only institutions open to them. The Hampton Institute, Virginia; the Freedmen's College, Tennessee; Tougaloo University, Mississippi; Talladega College, Alabama; and Atlanta University, Georgia, have been established for their especial benefit, mainly by northern friends; while Brown's University, Florida, and the new University of New Orleans have grown out of the efforts of the Baptist Church for their improvement. The Clark Theological School, South Carolina, is also meant to be the basis of a university for colored men. We have thus twelve existing institutions for their higher education and at least one more in prospect.

Elevation of standard, new departments, &c.—It is gratifying to note a constant and welldirected effort in most of the leading colleges to raise the standard of admission to the college-curriculum as well as the standard for the several degrees conferred.* The scope of studies is being widened; more prominence than ever before is given to English and modern studies; special and post-graduate-courses have already been established in several of the larger institutions, while in others initiatory steps have been taken for instituting similar courses; new and improved buildings are taking the places of the old structures, and the means of illustration, in the way of museums and cabinets of natural history and of art and archæology, are rapidly accumulating.

Harvard entrance-examinations.—Several important changes in the requirements for admission to Harvard University in 1875 and 1876 are set forth in the appended extracts from the president's report for 1872-73. These new requisitions by our oldest university, designed to secure a more thorough preparation of students in English subjects, (including some branch of elementary science,) cannot fail to produce a most beneficial effect on all grades of lower schools, both public and private. The reasons for the changes will commend themselves to every class of educators.

In the year 1875 the additional requisition will be made upon all candidates for admission that they shall be able to translate easy French prose at sight, with the option of substituting German for French. Already about one-half of the students come to college qualified to pass such an examination, and those who are not able to pass it are required to study French in their sophomore year in addition to the regular work of that year.

In the year 1876 all candidates for admission will be required to pass an examination in one of the following subjects of elementary science: Elementary botany, rudiments of physics and of chemistry, or rudiments of physics and descriptive anatomy, the selection of the subject being left to the candidate.

In all changes in the preparatory course of study which have been here set forth, the single aim of the faculty has been to make that course correspond more nearly wth the best possible course of study for young men, up to an average age of 18, who purpose to pursue non-professional studies for four years more. As the learning given in American colleges has been predominantly classical and mathematical, it is not surprising that the proficiency of a candidate in the classics and in mathematics has been the point chiefly considered in examinations for admission. That teachers and

The preparatory schools are already striving to grade up their classes to a meeting of these new requirements, the means of doing which occupied attention in the Classical Teachers' Association in 1873 and will further occupy it in 1874. Even so far west as Cincinnati we read of a city-school proposing to make its course correspond with the Harvard elevation.

« 上一頁繼續 »