p. 269 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

College, 9 for the Seminary, and 6 for the Academy while the second includes 42 for the College, or double the number for 1908, and 6 for the Seminary. The salary scale gradually rose so that by 1921 it ranged from $1,600 for instructors to $3,500 for professors. In the absence of a systematic plan for retirement or for pensions it was customary for men to retire on half salary at the age of seventy.

Four Colgate faculty members were among the charter members of the national American Association of University Professors which first met in 1915; they were Dean Crawshaw and Professors Brigham, Child, and Berry. Believing their number too small as a basis for interesting local discussion meetings they recommended colleagues for membership in the organization and founded the Colgate Chapter late in 1917 or early in 1918.

Experience with the elective system at Colgate, as at other colleges, had made clear that the freedom of choice brought abuses. Dean Crawshaw asserted that the lack of concentration and continuity failed to give a well-balanced education adapted to individual needs and advocated a curriculum organized to give a student “mastery over certain subjects” rather than a superficial sampling. Primarily because of his, efforts, the faculty in 1909 adopted a program of majors and minors and the next year Professor John Greene, as Associate Dean, assisted Dean Cranshaw in giving students personal advice in selecting their courses. To supplement the program, the faculty in 1912 instituted a distribution requirement which provided that a student must complete a minimum of work in two groups, or subject-matter areas, outside that in which his major was listed. The groups were: Languages and Literature, Mathematics and Natural Science, and Mental and Social Science.

During the period immediately after World War I, the faculty felt that scholastic standards at Colgate, in common with other colleges, were declining or being maintained with increasing difficulty. Probable causes for the situation were thought to be the general unrest of the time, the non-intellectual reasons which induced many young people to go to college, extracurricular activities, ease of access to nearby cities, and the practice of the public and many alumni of rating an institution in terms of athletic victories. The two senior honorary societies, also, were concerned and so informed the faculty. In 1920 a committee headed by Dean Crawshaw reported after careful investi-

Comments are closed.