Tag Archives: Mary Colgate

p. 274 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

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1912. To meet the competition of other preparatory schools and the improved public high schools, the Academy had needed new equipment for science instruction, a gymnasium, and dormitories-all at a cost of about $150,000, which was not available. Furthermore, Principal Shepardson reported a small falling off in enrollment but more significant was the disadvantage of being in the shadow of the College for which the Academy was no longer a significant “feeder,” nor did many of its students enter the Seminary. Changed conditions made clear the wisdom of closing, a step which James C. Colgate approved but which his sister, Miss Mary, out of loyalty to the memory of their father whose “pet” the Academy had been, could never accept.

Statistics of over-all enrollment growth show that the total number of students on campus in 1908 was 492 and that there was a rather steady rise from that number to 678 in 1922. The most significant feature is the increase for the College from 307 at the beginning of the period to 624 at its conclusion. Except for 1918, the Seminary enrollment varied from a low of 36 to a high of 51. The Academy during its last four years, 1908-1912, had from 124 to 136 students. By 1920 the geographical distribution of students had broadened and become more cosmopolitan with 24 states and six foreign countries being represented, President Bryan reported to the Trustees.

The Bryan period also shows a notable increase in expenses for students in the College. The bare minimum of about $150 in 1908 had risen to about $500 in 1922. The tuition of $60 which was among the lowest in the East in 1908 rose to $180 in 1922. Tuition in the Academy was $45. Expenses for Seminary students were much less, of course, since they paid no tuition and could live in rent-free rooms in Eaton Hall. So far as scholarships and other funds would permit, the University intended that no diligent, worthy student should leave for lack of funds. Both Dean Crawshaw and the faculty were disturbed by an increased scale of expenditures, especially since a large number of students came from homes of limited means.

Student religious life, aside from required chapel attendance and occasional participation in village church activities, centered in the YMCA which had an energetic program under Professor Alton’s guidance which included prayer meetings and Bible study. After Taylor Hall became available in 1912, the “Y” established social rooms  there and for a brief period maintained a snack bar open from 8:00 to

TAYLOR HALL, HOME OF THE ACADEMY FRATERNITIES
TAYLOR HALL, HOME OF THE ACADEMY FRATERNITIES

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Memorial Chapel (p. 268)

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be well-organized appeals in the form of the annual alumni fund.

The early years of the Bryan administration saw renovation and adaptation of four old buildings. Work on the dormitories, West, and East Halls, which Dr. Merrill had planned and to which the growing enrollment of the College gave urgency, was completed-West in 1910 and East, with a Commons for feeding 100 in the basement, a year later. At the termination of Colgate Academy in 1912, its facilities became available for other uses. Administrative offices were moved from the Library to the academy building, henceforth known as the Administration Building, and Taylor Hall, which the Academy fraternities had occupied, was taken over for the post office and the YMCA.

The long recognized need for an infirmary was met in 1913 through the generosity of Mrs. James C. Colgate whose contributions enabled the University to acquire and equip the former Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on East Pleasant Street for this purpose,

Though the College, Seminary, and Academy each had its own chapel, the College chapel had become so crowded by 1915 that only a part of the student body could be accommodated. Plans for a new building were drawn by Harding and Seaver, architects of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and a location chosen which would bring buildings together around the north quadrangle. The donor, Miss Mary Colgate, sister of James C. Colgate, who gave it in memory of their father, James B. Colgate, specified that it should be in the simple New England meeting house style. Construction began in the spring of 1917 and it was first used for the September 1918 convocation. Miss Colgate dedicated the building in June, 1920, and provided an endowment for its maintenance. Its symmetry and simple classical beauty have made a focal point on the Hill ever since.

By the early 1920’s the campus had grown into the park-like tract that its planners and creators, especially the landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch, and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, James M. Taylor, had envisioned. The former died in 1918 and Dr. Taylor resigned two years later to be succeeded by Lt. Colonel James Ballantine, who had recently come to Colgate as Director of Military Instruction. Colgate’s buildings and grounds by 1922 had an estimated value of $1,100,000.

Though the size of the faculty had increased from 36 in 1908 to 48 in 1922 these figures are misleading since the first includes ,21 for the

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p. 173 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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Chapter IX – ADMINISTRATION, FACULTY, AND INSTRUCTION IN THE DODGE ERA

Ebenezer Dodge, President of Madison University, and James B. Colgate, President of its Board of Trustees, were the dominant figures in its development from 1869 to 1890. They were easy yoke-fellows as they worked and counseled together for its advancement. Dodge was fifty at the beginning of the period and Colgate fifty-one. Their families had been on terms of intimate friendship since the 1840’s when Dodge was pastor, first at New Hampton and then New London, New Hampshire; the latter was the home of the Colbys, Mrs. Colgate’s family. Dodge was a welcome guest at Glenwood, the Colgate estate overlooking the Hudson at Yonkers, and his host, of course, always stayed at the President’s House when he made his annual visits to the campus at commencement. Colgate confided to his journal soon after Dodge’s death in 1890, I had no friend like him outside my family, and again, “His entering my home was always a joy & when he left it, it was a Regret to all… his great & grand thoughts touched my nature and always after his leaving me I felt myself a better man & my home enriched by his presence.” It was singularly appropriate that Mr. Colgate’s daughter, Mary, when she gave the chapel in her father’s memory nearly a generation later, Should provide two marble plaques to commemorate him ,and his co-laborer and friend.

Dr. Dodge’s administration was to a large extent the reflection of his own personality, perhaps too much so, though he was devoid of ambition, self-importance or self-assertion. His role was somewhat that of a pastor who exercised his responsibility toward his people, not in a dictatorial fashion but in such a way that there could be no uncertainty as to his views or wishes. His quick temper, which he almost invariably kept in control, was well known and on occasion he could act swiftly

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