Tag Archives: Faculty Organization

p. 300 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

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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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p. 174 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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President Ebenezer Dodge, 1868-90, Alumni Files, p174

and decisively. Referring to the presidency of Madison University, he once said in good Yankee language “If I were to give any advice to one who aspires to such a position as I now hold, I would say to him, first of all have grit and a good deal of grace. It is not simply grace that makes a man, but grit and gumption.”*

Dr. Dodge confined his interests and energies to the classroom and University and campus affairs. Though he appeared to be in good health, chronic intestinal disorders deterred him from much travelling and speaking. He was over six feet tall and slender. His gentle and sympathetic smile won affection, yet in moments of excitement and indignation his eyes would flash and his form take on majestic dimensions as he made his pronouncements. One student recalled that, “He seemed to me at times the very herald of Jehovah.” His unpolished and rugged preaching carried a direct freshness and assurance. “The closing of his sledge hammer sentences came upon the audience like a literary spile-driver,” one listener reported.

Dr. Dodge’s relations with the faculty seem to have been entirely harmonious. He maintained that “each officer is sovereign in his own

* Madisonensis (December 17, 1887).

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p. 153 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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East, West, and Alumni Halls, 1867, A1000-25, Campus 1872, p153

bonfire behind the unpartitioned building to the great irritation of people in the village who, seeing the flames through the parallel windows, had rushed up the Hill with buckets to save the structure. By 1862 the first and second stories, which contained a small chapel for everyday purposes, a library, and ten lecture ‘rooms, were at last completed and in use. Since Vogell’s accounts remained unsettled, it fell to Professor Spear to find the money to cover the discrepancies.

Also, through the efforts of Professor Spear in 1868 the University acquired a stone house and ten acres of land adjacent to the campus for the use of President Dodge. Seventeen ladies had contributed $6,000 to buy this property, Mrs. James B. Colgate being the largest donor with $1,300. With this addition, the University in 1869 possessed buildings and grounds worth about $60,000, an increase of approximately $20,000 over 1850.

Losing five out of seven professors to the new University and seminary at Rochester in 1850 posed a serious problem which the Trustees solved by calling three alumni to join Eaton and Spear in the first post-Removal faculty. They were Edmund Turney and Alexander M. Beebee, Jr., who have already been mentioned, and Ezra S.

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p. 143 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 143 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

President Stephen W. Taylor 1851-56, Alumni Files, p143

 

a salary of $1,000 per year. The definition of his duties and prerogatives they left to a committee of five of their own members and professors to determine. Three months later, Dr. Taylor accepted the offer, much to the distress of the Lewisburg Board, who deeply appreciated his exertions and sacrifice in establishing their university. The President-elect, appreciating the extraordinary and challenging responsibilities he was about to assume, wrote with reference to the Madison Trustees:

I crave & expect an interest in their prayers for constant purity of motives and all needful supplies of wisdom and strength; I crave a large share of their fraternal charity which covers a multitude of sins, &, in good degree, gives, to a fellow laborer, cheerfulness, &, success; &, finally, I crave & expect their own generous and constant cooperation.

The definition of presidential duties and authority which Dr. Taylor had requested was postponed. until after he took office in September 1851. The Trustees probably decided that since this matter was actually a part of the revision of the Laws of 1840 which they already had directed the faculty to undertake, it would be wise to give the new President a chance to participate in the discussion. They also knew they could rely on his highly developed sense of order and discipline in bringing the University’s administrative policies up to date. To confront so strong-minded a man with a set of regulations which he found unsatisfactory would have invited trouble as soon as he set foot in the campus.

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Seminary Church organized (p. 72)

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nized the Seminary Church, November 9, 1845. Pastoral duties were assigned to Professors Maginnis, Conant, and Eaton, and Brother Burchard was made deacon. Adoniram Judson, the famous Baptist missionary to Burma, who was then on his first visit to Hamilton, had come to the meeting and at its close gave the church his blessing. The founding members “felt that the occasion was rendered more impressive and memorable by his presence, and the spiritual prospects of the church were brightened by his prayer.” Granted fellowship by a church council a few days, later, the new organization from time to time added students to its roll and remained in existence until 1851.

Democracy characterized the procedures and practices of the faculty in the ’30’s and ’40’s. Their “Bye-Laws,” drawn up in 1834 and revised slightly in 1841, provided for a chairman, and secretary, and standing committees, elected from among themselves. The chairman presided at faculty meetings and public occasions and in general exercised functions relating to the internal government of the Institution similar to those of a college president. The secretary not only carried out the record-keeping duties normally associated with his office, but also prepared the annual report of the faculty and supervised the machinery for admitting students. The seven standing committees stipulated in 1834 included one for the reception of applicants for admission, one for examining them after they had been at the Institution for a term on trial, and committees on discipline, the monitorial system, requests (petitions), internal regulations (buildings and commons), and publications and public meetings. Committees on music and beneficiaries were added in 1841. Faculty meetings, held at least once a week, were limited to two hours’ duration and usually opened with prayer. The minutes reveal active participation by all members of the group. Important matters of policy and petty details, many of them in the present-day dean’s province, they treated with care and due deliberation.

Aside from, the faculty resolution, passed in 1833, “that it is expedient for the officers to open their recitations generally with a short address to the throne of grace,” no restrictions, theological or otherwise, were placed on what the professors taught or the methods they used. Professor Maginnis was so impressed with the fact that no one questioned him about his religious views or asked him to sign a creed before he was appointed that he commented on it in his Inaugural

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p. 60 – The expanded program, 1833-1846

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made him famous as a teacher. Conservative and independent in his views, once he had formulated them, he was not a man to be “persuaded otherwise,” nor did he hesitate to express his opinions, let the chips fall where they would. These, characteristics made him a formidable adversary whenever he chose to do battle. Since his position was considered second to that of Dr. Kendrick, he had hardly taken up his duties when he began to act as Chairman of the Faculty in the absence of the former.

As early as 1830, in response to student demands for instruction in science, the Executive Committee,”having long had an eye upon a brother of much promise,” selected Joel Smith Bacon as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He had graduated from Hamilton College in 1826 and was then studying at Newton. It was not until 1833, however, after completing a brief period as president of Georgetown College in Kentucky, that he accepted the offer. A year later, in accordance with a previous understanding with the Board, he exchanged his chair for that of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. After a teaching career of only four years, he resigned in 1837 to go to Massachusetts for the settling of his father-in-law’s estate. From 1843 to 1854 he was president of Columbian College.

George Washington Eaton came to the faculty in the fall of 1833, probably through the influence of Bacon who wanted to be relieved of his work in mathematics and natural philosophy in order to teach intellectual and moral philosophy. As professor of Greek and Latin, Eaton had been associated with him at Georgetown College. After Bacon resigned the presidency there, Eaton, despairing of the college’s future, was glad to leave. After his appointment seemed certain, he wrote Mrs. Eaton: “I think…that this of all the places in the world is the place for us. We Can both be happy and useful here…”Thirty-eight years of devoted service bore out his initial response to the life of the Institution and village.*

A native of Pennsylvania, Eaton had grown up in Ohio where he attended Kenyon College and Ohio University at Athens. After a year’s interruption during which he was a private tutor in Virginia and studied briefly at Princeton, he resumed his education at Union College to which President Eliphalet Nott’s fame attracted him. Graduat-

*George W. Eaton to Eliza B. Eaton, Lee, Mass., Nov. 15, 1833.

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p. 34 – Administration, setting and staff, 1820-1833

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carried heavy administrative as well as teaching responsibilities. Though these two senior members were the only ones in the group who served as trustees, other members acted with them on the Executive Committee or “took agencies” for collecting funds. Such an arrangement, which obviated lines of distinction between the administrative and teaching staffs, made for close cooperation in the common cause of education.

At first faculty organization was informal, though there is mention of a set of by-laws in the early ’20’s. In 1830 the Trustees, in place of the Executive Committee, were empowered by the Society to “appoint the Professors, determine their salaries and time of service.” Three years later the Society granted the faculty broader power “to administer in general the internal government of the Seminary” subject to approval by the Board.

As might be expected at a seminary supported by a denomination not entirely cordial to the idea of a trained clergy, faculty salaries were low. During 1822-23 Hascall received $350. The next year $400 became the standard salary for professors and remained so until 1829  when they were granted $500. The average income of college teachers for the period was about equal to that of clergymen. Alfred Bennett, one of the best known Baptist ministers of the state, never received over $400, often only $300, with some of it in produce. However, professors at Auburn Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), Brown, and Amherst earned from $200 to $600 more than Hascall and his  high-minded associates. The latter were reasonably contented with small incomes. Their great purpose was to train as many young men as
possible to become the spiritual leaders of Christians, from Hamilton to Burma.

Hascall’s teaching career started in 1818 when he began to receive young men into his home to study for the ministry. Most of the ten students present at the opening of the Seminary in the ‘brick academy” in 1820 had studied with him privately. His appointment as the first teacher seems to have been tentative, hut in 1822 the Executive Committee “Voted that Brother Daniel Hascall be considered as has long been the design of this Committee, Professor of Languages in this Institution.” From 1828 to 1832 he also taught “Natural Philosophy.”

Hascall’s background and experience fitted him very well for instructing

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