Tag Archives: Academic Freedom

University Studies established (p. 327)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on University Studies established (p. 327)

Sciences, and University Studies (embracing the core courses). Each was administered by a Director, subordinate to the Dean of the Faculty, for whom the five directors served as an advisory group.

Under Mr. Case the role of faculty as a deliberative body for discussing and deciding academic affairs was revived. Instead of meeting regularly only three times each year, as had been customary in the ’30’s, the faculty convened once a month. As a kind of “academic senate” there was the Educational Policy Committee which was set up in 1947 following the discharge of the Committee on the Post-War College after its report had been adopted. The membership included the President as chairman, the deans and some other administrative officers, and division directors, all ex officio, and elected faculty members who constituted the majority. Two ad hoc faculty committees, one on the Humanities and the Self-Study Committee, conducted extensive investigations of the curriculum and its possible revisions and of the efficiency of administrative and instructional procedures and made several recommendations, some of which were implemented. Likewise, four separate visiting committees of outside experts, invited to the campus in 1958, and 1960-’62, to examine the work of the Divisions, made helpful suggestions for improvements.

Closer relations between the faculty and Board of Trustees were promoted by the Faculty Conference Committee, first appointed in 1954 as a Liaison Committee, to consult with the Trustee Committee on Academic Affairs. It was useful in supplementing the President’s presentation to the full Board of faculty views and needs.

The faculty’s economic and organizational status improved greatly under Mr. Case’s administration. By 1960-61, the average salary for full-time members in all ranks reached more than $9,000. Fringe benefits, in addition, included the annuity and group insurance programs and payments of medical insurance premiums. In 1959 it was possible to revive the program of sabbatical leaves which had been in abeyance since 1929. Six months with full salary or a year on half salary was arranged to enable professors to travel, carry on research, and restore some of the energy expended over the preceding six years. Growing out of Post-War Committee discussions came a statement on academic freedom,tenure, and promotions adopted by Trustees and faculty in 1948-49.

Out of faculty and community discussions of the problems of the

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Posted in Chapter 15, p. 327, The Case Administration 1942-1962, timeline

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p. 300 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 300 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

Club of Colgate University “to furnish opportunities for social and literary association among its members.”

Faculty meetings at the outset of the Cutten administration were usually held once a month but presidential impatience with tedious professorial discussion led to scheduling them only three times a year-at the opening of the fall and spring semesters and in May or early June. Well-chosen committees were empowered to take action on many matters which would normally have come before the faculty and, from the late ’20’s on, their chairmen and the department heads met Sunday evenings at the President’s House. Meanwhile, the meetings of the Colgate Chapter of the American Association of University Professors became a substitute for faculty meetings and a free forum for airing opinions on campus affairs, especially in the late 1930’s when there was considerable dissatisfaction over the relationship of faculty, administration, and trustees in the operation of the University. Academic freedom or untrammeled classroom discussion the President staunchly supported.

The extensive curricular reorganization and innovation of the Cutten period may be traced to the Faculty Committee on Scholastic Standards, under Professor Greene’s chairmanship, which had been active prior to 1922 and which had been particularly concerned with freshman failures. Well-versed in literature on the problem as seen at other colleges, they recommended a special freshman course taught by a number of professors which was instituted in 1923. The first semester, called “Orientation,” covered such topics as: the University’s history, tradition and ideals; the meaning of college; the value of extracurricular activities; religion in the life of a student and how to study. The second, “The World of Nature and Man”, was an introduction to the physical, biological and social sciences. With the inauguration of the new surveys in philosophy and religion and in the biological sciences in 1928 and 1929, to be discussed later, and the promise of two more in the physical and social sciences, the course lost some of its usefulness and was abandoned. Meanwhile, in 1924, a special orientation program: in advance of registration had been established for a portion of the entering class, and six years later it became a project which the YMCA sponsored at nearby Lake Moraine. After 1937, however, all freshmen were required to attend a week of orientation on the campus.

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Posted in Chapter 14, p. 300, The Cutten Period 1922-1942

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p. 272 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 272 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

1911 indicates something of a vocational approach to the subject and it may be noted that a significant number of majors went into industry on graduating. Geology, too, under Professors Brigham and Whitnall won many devotees. Eugene P. Sisson and William F. Langworthy, both formerly of the Colgate Academy faculty, joined the College faculty in 1912, the first to teach mathematics and the second, biology.

In the mental and social science departments growth was moderate. Freeman H. Allen, formerly of the Potsdam Normal School faculty, replaced Adna W. Risley, ’94, in history and politics in 1909. From 1912 to 1920, Freeman A. MacIntyre, ’12, was a member of the department. Lionel D. Edie, ’15, who earlier had taught rhetoric and public speaking returned in 1918 after a year in the Navy to instruct in history for four years. Walter 1. Lowe, a Yale alumnus and Ph.D, and for twenty years professor at Wells College, joined the department in 1920 to remain until his death nine years later. Everett W. Goodhue continued as Professor of Economics and Sociology until 1921 when he resigned to accept a similar position at his Alma Mater, Dartmouth. Roy W. Foley, A.B., Oberlin, had joined him in 1914 to teach sociology. Goodhue’s successor was J. Melbourne Shortliffe, A.B., Acadia, ’01, who had studied at Yale and Harvard and taught at Dartmouth. Concerned about the University’s policy on academic freedom, Professor Shortliffe elicited, prior to his appointment in 1921, a strong statement in its behalf from Professor Melbourne S. Read, who had become President pro tem on President Bryan’s resignation. “There is no disposition on the part of anyone in authority in this institution to determine what answers shall be found for problems investigated,” he wrote, adding that “A professor here is entirely free to state his own conclusions either in the classroom or in print, provided those conclusions are … the result of careful, honest analysis and thinking.”* In formulating this policy he had the strong backing of James C. Colgate, as President of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Read, who had been Professor of Philosophy and Education, in 1910 became Professor of Psychology and Education and turned over his courses in philosophy to Ferdinand C. French, who had rejoined the faculty as Professor of Philosophy after teaching at the University of Nebraska. Three years later the Department of Psychology and Education became indepen-

* Copy, letter, Melbourne S. Read, President pro tem, to J. Melbourne Shortliffe, July 20, 1921

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Posted in Chapter 13, p. 272, The Bryan Period 1908-1922

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