Tag Archives: Board

p. 202 – Student Life, 1869-1890

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on 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

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p. 160 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 160 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

time winked at accepting those whose qualifications were doubtful. One alumnus of the Class of 1854 recalled:

 

We had students of every eligible age and previous condition of servitude, green blades and stubs; some with bald heads and corrugated cheeks, nearly fifty years old; some who couldn’t get a lesson; some who preached about as often as they recited and who used the name of the institution as a password rather than its facilities for qualifying themselves. The classes were medleys, not homogeneous. When students came from other institutions they were accorded class standings on ‘courtesy’ without examination.*

 
He also commented that some of the Seminary men tried to substitute “piety” for studies and outranked the smaller but growing number of “aliens,” or non-ministerial students. Returning from supplying in the churches, “jingling their pockets and sporting a gold watch or a set of furs,” the theologues excited the resentment of poverty-stricken “aliens” who, had to rely for their money on selling books or other vacation jobs.

Annual expenses for undergraduates rose from $93 in 1850 to $168 in 1869. The increase is explained principally by the rising cost of board-$1.25 per week in 1850 and $3.00 from 1864 to 1869. “Incidental Expenses” also advanced from $3.00 to $8.00, but tuition remained at $30.00, room rent at $9.00, and sacred music at $1.00. For students in the College who were preparing to preach, room rent was free. Seminary students likewise paid no room rent and, in addition, received their tuition; their other expenses were the same as those in the College. For the Grammar School, fees were identical with those in the College except for the lower tuition of $20.00. It was estimated in 1868 that a student could live “very comfortably and even genteely for about $250.”

The Stewards and their wives appear to have been successful in satisfying student appetites. There were mild objections to the fre­quency of “donation mutton” or dried cod fish, but one alumnus from the Class of 1856 recalled with pleasure “the plain yet toothsome hospitality” dispensed at the amazing low price of $1.25 per week and the clean dining room with its throngs of hungry yet gay and cheerful” boarders. The menus included flapjacks, molasses, potatoes, and coffee for breakfast, meat and apple pie at noon; and bread and butter, apple sauce, cookies and tea for supper.

* Madisonensis (Apr. 24, 1886), 176.

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p. 83 – Student life, 1833-1846

Posted on May 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 83 – Student life, 1833-1846

entered left to go into the ministry without completing their courses or even advancing to the beginning of the theological instruction. The principal reason was lack of funds.

The Education Society, so far as its means permitted, assisted poor students after they had been enrolled long enough for the faculty to judge their “character and talents.” As beneficiaries, they received board and tuition in return for a pledge promising to refund the expenditures in their behalf. In 1840 the Trustees refused to accept students as beneficiaries unless they gave clear intention of completing their course.

The total annual expense in 1833 in any of the three departments was $58.00, of which $16.00 represented tuition and $42.00 board and washing at the rate of $1.25 per week. By 1846 expenses for a lay student in the collegiate department totaled $93.00. Of this sum, tuition represented $30.00; board and washing, at $1.25 per week, $50.00; room rent, $9.00; incidentals, $3; and sacred music instruction $1. A non-ministerial student in the academic department paid the same charges except tuition, which was $20.00. Ministerial students in the academic and collegiate departments were not charged for room rent, hence their expenses were $74.00 and $84.00 respectively. Stu­dents in the theological department paid only $54.00 since tuition and room rent were free.

The quality of food which the Steward, in his efforts to keep down expenses, was able to provide for $1.25 per week would not be rated very high by modern standards. One student wrote in 1841, that breakfast consisted of coffee, bread and butter; dinner of meat, potatoes, bread and butter; and supper of milk, bread and butter. Today such a diet would be considered totally inadequate, but a century ago when Americans made relatively little use of fresh fruits, milk and leafy vegetables it was not so unsatisfactory as it now seems.

In the late 1830’s, Steward James Edmunds had great difficulty in getting provisions. Flour cost more than $60.00 a barrel and ordinary quality wheat $1.87 a bushel. Over three barrels of flour, or fifteen bushels of wheat, were needed each week to supply his boarders. Since the Steward did not find sufficient breadstuffs in the immediate vicinity, he had go as far as Ohio to buy them. He also resorted to substituting potatoes for the expensive wheat flour.

The Cottage Edifice served as the commons until 1838 when the

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