Tag Archives: Admission Standards

p. 273 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

dent to enable it to give greater attention to teacher training courses.

The Seminary failed to keep pace with the College in growth or performance. A major reason seems to have been the practice of admitting many poorly prepared students, several of whom enrolled in the abbreviated English course as an easy academic short cut to the ministry. In 1918 provision was made for such students by establishing a four-year course for non-college graduates to be taught by both Seminary and College faculties which would lead to the Bachelor of Theology degree. Further accommodation came in 1919 when the requirements for the Bachelor of Divinity degree, hitherto totaling seven years of college and theological work, were reduced to six and non-college men were admitted to the program.

Changes in the Seminary included the resignation of Dr. Sylvester Burnham as Dean in 1910 and the appointment of William H. Allison, A.B., Harvard, ’93, and a Chicago Ph.D., as his successor and Professor of Ecclesiastical History. Dr. Allison was followed in 1915 by John F. Vichert, a former student at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and Chicago, who taught Theology. Dr. Hinton S. Lloyd, for thirty-eight years Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist Education Society and, in effect, its chief officer, resigned in 1915 to be succeeded by Dean Vichert. Frank A. Starratt, A.B., Acadia, ’92, was Professor of Theology from 1909 to 1919 and Dr. William M. Lawrence, ’70, former President of the University Board of Trustees, in 1912 became Lecturer in Christian Ethics.

Though the Library did not play as vital a part in the educational process as later, this resource of the University nearly doubled its holdings in the Bryan period, growing from about 50,000 volumes to more than 90,000. Dr. David F. Estes, who had retired from the Seminary in 1920 as Professor of New Testament, retired as Librarian the next year. His successor was Charles W. Spencer, the former Professor of History who had resigned in 1905 and now returned after teaching at Princeton and the University of Nevada and receiving his  Ph.D. from Columbia. He was the first full-time University Librarian.  Perhaps best known on the staff were Miss Alice A. Guller, Circulation  Librarian, who came in 1914 and Miss Lida C. Vasbinder, Reference  Librarian, who came a year later; both will be remembered for their  generous assistance to generations of students and faculty.

` After several years of decline Colgate Academy closed its doors in

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-

p. 225 – Colgate in the 1890’s

mained the fundamental objective but a broader approach can be detected in James C. Colgate’s remarks at the dedication of the Library in 1891. He said:

It always seems to me to be a lack of faith rather than indication of reverence when people are afraid to have their beliefs examined in the broad light of day. A university should be a source of light. While we make no boast yet we believe that the principles for which this university stands . . . need never fear the white light of keenest criticism.

Five years later he explained to students that the chief aim of a college course was “culture” which he defined as a “passion for knowledge”combined with the ability to use knowledge intelligently. The educated man should be able “to reason rightly, to judge correctly, to perceive the beautiful and recognize the true.” In making his point, however, he did not overlook morality as the source for proper conduct and for sound religion. The college provided conditions congenial for the growth of culture, he asserted, but the responsibility for its attainment rested with the individual student. His advice to those unable to benefit from a college experience was, “Go to work, or, if you must go to college, go anywhere but here.”

Mr. Colgate’s statements suggest to some degree the extensive re-examination and revision which the faculty, spurred on by the younger members such as Terry and Brigham, were ‘giving to the entire educational structure. Fewer freshmen were admitted with conditional credits for uncompleted work and admission requirements in the ancient languages were lowered. The grading system and absence regulations were revised. The major changes, however, were to be found in the reduction of the amount of Greek and Latin required and the expansion of elective choices. From 1890 to 1893 there were five courses of study; that for the Bachelor of Arts degree followed the traditional pattern in stressing Greek and Latin; the two courses for the Bachelor of Philosophy gave a choice of Greek or Latin and required French and German; of the two for the Bachelor of Science one required Latin and German and one only German. In 1893 the five courses of study were consolidated into three-A.B., Ph.B., and B.S. with the requirements substantially unchanged except that the candidates for the last took French and German.

After 1896 all the work of the senior year was elective. The student was encouraged, however, to select courses which had some relation-

p. 202 – Student Life, 1869-1890

decade do not seem to have raised the number of admissions. The modest increase in the College enrollment may have resulted from the University’s growing reputation under Dr. Dodge’s leadership.

Tuition in the College remained at a low of $30.00 a year throughout the entire period while for the Academy it increased from $20.00 in 1869 to $36.00 in 1890. No tuition or room rent was charged the theologues. Room rents for College students and academes rose in 1887 from $9.00 to $10.50 and $15.00 a year and board was about $3.00 a week. Approximate overall costs per year for the College students increased from $168 to $180; for those in the Academy they rose from $159 to $200; but for those in the Seminary they remained about $130.

Until the new measures were taken for campus improvement in the early 1880’s, largely under Professor Taylor’s direction, student “house-keeping” in the dormitories was somewhat unsupervised and casual as it had always had been. The occupants papered, painted and carpeted their rooms as they chose and some even kept house plants in their windows. Each room was heated by its own stove, of course, and students furnished their own coal and wood and their banging coal scuttles and ash cans often resounded through the stairwells and halls.

After the Boarding Hall had been converted into apartments in 1874 students fended for themselves. Some took their meals with private families but the prevailing trend was to eat at fraternities or “clubs,” which occasionally bore such fanciful names as “Les Gens de Qualite.” At Thanksgiving Dr. Dodge, at his own expense, made it a practice to see that each group had a turkey.

The Seminary professors and the Education Society Secretary, Dr. Lloyd, seem to have had difficulty in maintaining proper standards for admitting theological students. There was a scarcity of well-qualified men and it would appear also that several of limited abilities and background were attracted by a rather generous financial assistance policy. Many supplemented their resources and gained vocational experience, as their predecessors had done, by supplying in nearby churches, occasionally to the detriment of their academic obligations because of activities not directly related to their preaching assignments.

Though the University had a standing rule prohibiting students from marrying, men already married were occasionally admitted to the Seminary, especially those who enrolled in the Shorter Course. The

Emily Taylor and co-education (p. 159)

methods the library seems to have been quite generally neglected. Its collections, which numbered 8,000 volumes in 1850, had grown to only 9,821 by 1869. One student remembered it as consisting chiefly of German editions of Greek and Hebrew classics “which gave forth an unspeakable antique odor.” Modern literature was to be found in the libraries of the literary societies which, with that of the Society for Inquiry, boasted over 3,000 volumes in 1858.

The practice of awarding prizes to stimulate students’ intellectual ambitions was not instituted until 1867 when James J. Lewis, not yet a member of the faculty, donated a fund in memory of his brother, Captain George W. M. Lewis of Utica, the income to be given on an annual competitive basis to the senior who delivered the best original oration. President Dodge, perhaps influenced by the system of awards Wayland had introduced at Brown, founded prizes for the best prepared entrants to the freshman class. George B. Lasher, Class of 1857, also established prizes for Juniors who excelled in English composition. These awards have all been maintained to the present.

Student enrollment statistics furnish a good indication of the University’s prosperity. Starting with an attendance in all departments of 33 in the fall of 1850, the number reached 90 by August 1851. During the Taylor administration it increased to a high of 228 in 1855 and thereafter declined to a low of 117 in 1864. By 1869 the figure had climbed back to 162. Registration dropped off seriously in the College and Grammar School during the Civil War years, as might be expected, the low for the College being 56 in 1865 and 20 for the Grammar School in 1864. The average number of students per year in all departments for the period from 1850 to 1869 was 164.

Admission requirements for each of the three departments remained much the same as drawn up in the 1830’s. The Catalogues from 1869 on, however, called attention to the fact that “Students from all denominations of Christians are admitted to the Seminary.” But there is no reason to believe that any considerable number of non-Baptists sought to enter its doors. The only instance of “co-education” to be found is the presence of Emily Taylor, daughter of the President, in her father’s class in intellectual and moral philosophy.

The faculty were sanguine over the first post-Removal student body, probably because they were pleased at having any to teach, and for a

p. 79 – Student life, 1833-1846

Chapter V – STUDENT LIFE, 1833-1846

The religious and intellectual interests which earnest youths preparing for the ministry might be expected to possess gave the dominant tone and color to student life in the 1830’s and ’40’s as it had in the previous decade. Most of them came from homes of modest or limited circumstances. If some lacked polish and sophistication, this shortcoming was offset by a resolute devotion to acquiring the training consid­ered necessary for their chosen vocation.

The faculty scrutinized prospective students carefully and required them to furnish satisfactory written evidence that they were church members in good standing and that, in the opinion of the churches, they possessed “talents which may, with proper cultivation, render them useful in the gospel ministry.” After the testimonials had been presented, the faculty examined applicants as to religious experience, call to preach, and academic preparation. Those accepted were permitted to enter on trial. If at the end of three months they showed “sufficient evidence of personal piety, or of talent, or of a desire for improvement” they became students in regular standing. After 1840 they were required to subscribe to a declaration to obey all the laws and regulations of the Institution and “Divine Providence permitting,” to complete the course of instruction.

Both the faculty and Trustees went to great lengths not to seem to interfere with the acknowledged prerogatives of the churches in selecting the candidates for the ministry. To have done otherwise would have invited sharp criticism, especially from the many Baptists who distrusted “man-made” preachers, as they called those who had formal training. The faculty repeatedly urged, however, that the churches exercise “the utmost caution in recommending young men as proper candidates for the ministry.” The Trustees noted in their report for