Nelson Eveing Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1907. AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 10 June 1907, Page 2

Nelson Eveing Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1907. AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES.

I I nothing to upwards of £50; but tho average is about £30. 'I'ho business affairs are usually in the hands of trustees, generally business men, lawyers and others; "while the educational aifairs ars conducted by the Faculty and the President. With the President generally rests all educational initiative. Now plans originate with him, and American institutions are continually trying experiments. All appointments, promotions, and removals usually originate with the president, and cannot take effect until approved by the board of trustees, and usually tho faculty or a Senate of professors must also approve. . The president is the executive officer and representative of the insti tution. He may bo a clergyman, i business man, or a scholar. The mosi successful have always been scholars for only a scholar really understands ; scholar s business. The salaries of pre fessors range from £1200 to £400 -, thos. of University presidents from £2401 downwards; those of instructors am 1 intermediate professors from £160 ti £600. The highest salaries are pai< in tho schools of p.-ivate foundation, ani to these tho Carnegie retiring fund c a little more than half-pay is grant : ed at the age of 65. The admission to the Uuiversities i usually on certificates of efficiency fror the lower schools. In most colleges ther is no fixed curriculum, the studen choosing his work under the advice o : a dean, an appointed adviser, or "major professor." Each man i 3_-anted his degree when he has met th retirements. The students have great range of activities — athletics, dis " matics, debates, journalism serious an humorous. In the student bodies ar various long-established fraternitie ' known by Greek letter names, each hav ing chapters in the various Universities 1 Highly distinguished also are the sc 1 siei.iVs" of honour, the Phi Beta Kapp f-.r literary, and Siema Xi for scientili excellence. A student who is unabl , or unwilling to do his work properl, is dropped from the rolls. • ••••• Finally, in no country in the worh other than in America has such pre gress in University development beei accomplished; in none other has theo been such generosity in public and pri vate gifts. The membership o&l th 1 income of the best institution double in fifteen years and yet to-day says. Prof. Jordan, the system is stil in its early youth.

THEIR INFLUENCE AND THEII AIMS. THE visit to Australia of America] University professors has aroused mucl interest in tho wo.k those universitie: ar^ doin<; in the promotion of science art, and business knowledge, and a review of a lecture recently delivered bProfessor Jordan, of the Leland Stan ford University in California, maj prove acceptable to the general reader The keynote of the American system o: higher education is found in the phrase, "constructive individualism.' Prof. Jordan said it was not an attempt to raise a few gifted men up to £ high pre-arranged standard, but its aiir was to take the talent existing in the community, and to make the most oi it along the various lines in which it might be developed. It was a phase of what might be called the "Highei Socialism," the development of the individual for the sake of the State; for the State was effective and competent only in proportion as its individual units were effective and capable of self-direc-tion. The system is based on the idea that the most precious property of the State was found in the talents of its children. He admitted that one of the existing defects in Amerira, wns the carelessness exhibited in the use cf the terms "University" and "college," which was used almost interchangeably. A University was a large college, which blossomed out into graduate courses. j The four years leading to the Bachelor's degtree belonged to the college. No Amleit'can University was without a college or under-graduate department, and in most of them this constituted the main portion. Exceptions to this were the Johns Hopkins, and Clark institutions. • ••••• With regard to the American "degree," Prof. Jordan throws some light on the reason ic: the utter and pernicious worthlessness of some and the value of others. America, the land of ten cent colonels, is also the land of tho "dollar degree." The decorative, and even fraudulent, use of the alphabet as an affix to professional names is a hindrance to the higher education and a danger to the" world at large. Prof. Jordan explained that the habit of America was to leave its institutions to develop themselves in therc- own way, from the best to the worst. The matter .of degrees was left to the control of the individual State, and" for the most part was subject to no State regulation or regulation other than that of the individual institution. The degree in America was not recognised bythe nation itself. It was simply a certificate of the individual institution as to what work is done in that institution ; therefore it did not possess the national guarantees that the degrees in England and Germany enjoyed. It was simply a baby badge, belonging to the infancy of culture. The degrees of the inferior schools were not recognised by the better ones, and in America no degree carried with it any spocial privileges ; but in the Univer- _:*-... — i — 11 — a A.r tu~ C..+ „«,- „„ blUi-a itnu uuiitrt^cs w, .111; man anu accond class the standards for degrees were as high as anywhere in the world. • j « # • • # The American Universities may be divided into State, municipal, private, and denominational, and schools of ■ technicology. There are two ranks, The first rank comprises the Association of American Universities, constituted ot Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Princeton, Clark, the Catholic University at Washington, and thc State Universities of Wisconsin, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The Stato of Wisconsin, with a wealth not greater than that of New South Wales, and a popluation one-third more, has developed the strongest of all the State Universities, and. one which doubles its strength every 15 years. The line separating these from the best of the second group is wholly arbitrary. Among the most prominent of those of the second rank are the Universities of Minnesota, Illionis, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, lowa, Missouri, and Texas, with Dartmouth, Brown, Amherst, Colorado, North-western, Bryn Mawr, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley, and Mount Holyoke of the institutions under private endowment. In general, the denominational colleges are less effectively endowed than the others, and as thev grow in size and influence thr denominational control is usually cast off. In the lists of American colleges and technical schools granting degrees 507 are recorded. Of these about 25P rea-eh the definition of "college" lair nown by tne laws of New York anfl by the Carnegie foundation. To com ply with the definition the school must require four years of secondary study for admission and four years more foi graduation. It must have at least si: professors engaged wholly in collegiate wqrk, and its income from endowment: must not be less than £2000 a year The total wealth of these institutionand the Universities in the Uni'ce* States is now about £100,000,000, about three-fifths of this being invested en dowment funds, the other two-fifths Ji lands and buildings. The aegregafr income is now about £6,500,000. Of this about 40 per cent, come from tni tion fees, 25 per cent, from endow monts derived from private gifts, 2f per cent, from the State, 10 per cent from Federal aid, and the rest, abou' S p?r cent., from minor sources. Of •■>'" the Universities, the most characteristi rally American are those belonging to the State and equipped by it, this support consisting of outright appropriations, standing appropriation, a tax from one- tenth of one per cent, upwards on all taxable property, and, in most cases, special gifts of land. In general the fees in the State institutions are very low. These institutions have doubled in size, wealth, and influence in 10 years. • ' • • • It a The growth of schools, colleges, and universities in America is due to a variety of causes, the first being their distinct helpfulness to the people. In Wisconsin, for example, there is not a farmer who does not recognise that the investigations of the Chair of Agriculture has added directly to his personal welfare. In this University was invented the Babcock milk tester, and here also grains and fruit have been improved by selection, while studs of the best strains of domestic animals are maintained — Southdowns, Hampshires. Cheviot, and Dorset sheep, for instance Tt is in the Universities that all the secondary school teachers are trained, and in every State Legislature the alumni of the University hold commanding positions. The professors of the Universities are available for lecture courses throughout a State. With al! this have come the increase in material wealth due to having the industries of the State directed by trained men, and the belief that the University traininf *ivos each young man his opportunity. The private institutions not denomina'ional have #:-own equally in the same Ime. Rich men see the value of Universities, others in recognition of what they have gained through the Universities .others in recognition of what they had missed. The fees in Ameiican State UniversiJ 'ies range from nothing to £6 a year. J In private Universities they range from