University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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The University in the World of Scholarship. is difficult for one who is himself a member of a university to estimate correctly its relation to the outside world of letters and scholarship. Familiarity sometimes breeds a lack of appreciation of the valuable work of an associate which is, perhaps, known and esteemed a thousand miles away. And, on the other hand, there is danger of the opposite error of overestimating the worth of men and things with which we are intimately acquainted. Moreover, our own University now includes so many departments that it is almost impossible for one man to be familiar with them all. I must, therefore, begin by asking indulgence for all oversight and omissions. I can only touch upon a few aspects of the subject, and speak of the facts with which I happen to be acquainted, leaving it to others, who have wider information, to fill up the inevitable gaps. The scholarly standing of a university to-day depends largely upon the repu- tation of its professors (often based upon their published writings), the scope and thoroughness of its graduate instruction, and the number of its graduates who win recognition as scholars or writers. I shall endeavor to glance at the position of our University in each of these directions, trying to preserve a standpoint as purely objective as possible. I shall say but little, however, of the first topic named. The scholarly repu- tation of our faculty is too vital a question, and one upon which it is too difficult to judge at short range, for me to handle with propriety. But we know that we have at least a few names upon our roll which are familiar to the whole world of scholars, and which the country at large, as well as our own community, delights to honor. Some of the best-known men upon the list have so far published but little, and yet, as my eye passes down the line, I am reminded that we are not deficient even in mere book-making. My own knowledge is here undoubtedly incom- plete, but I am myself acquainted with standard text-books, or other works of solid value, which bear upon their title-pages the names of President Kellogg, Professors Le Conte, Hilgard, Moses, Stringham, Putzker, Howison, Gayley, Bradley, Setchell, Edwards, Flagg, Campbell, Plehn, Margolis and Syle. And if we should consider not merely books, but pamphlets, monographs, review-articles and contributions, to the transactions of learned societies, which may often mean quite as much as books for the building up of scholarly reputation, the list would become a very long one, as may be seen by consulting the bibliographical notes in the President ' s biennial reports. I think we may safely affirm that our University ranks among the first eight or ten in the United States, when judged upon the basis of its tangible contributions to the thought and scholarship of the world. As regards the scope and thoroughness of graduate instruction, our situation is not unsatisfactory. In number of graduate students we rank perhaps seventh or eighth among the universities, and the growth has been very rapid during the past four years. Our graduate work is generously recognized at the best uni- versities in the East, and students who go from us to those institutions are given

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PROFESSOR JOSEPH LE CONTE

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full credit for the work done here. But this is the bright side, and there is still much room for improvement. Our graduate work is much hampered by the fact that very many of our best students are obliged to carry on their studies while engaged in teach- ing, or in some other occupation for self-support. This outside work consumes their energies and prevents that complete absorbtion in study which is so essential to the highest success. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and Chicago are all well provided with graduate fellowships, which are given to ambitious students purely on the ground of scholarly promise, and these are a means of attracting to those institutions the ablest and most energetic students. Until the University of California is similarly endowed, we cannot hope to compete on equal terms with our eastern rivals. A gift of two hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of twenty fellowships would do more to build up the graduate , work, and so the scholarly reputation, of our University than any other use to which a similar amount of money could be put. Along with our lack of fellowships must be mentioned the inadequacy of our library. Seventy-five thousand volumes, well-chosen though they are, seem insig- nificant in comparison with the hundreds of thousands in the libraries of Harvard, Yale, and Chicago. Harvard expends at least twenty thousand dollars annually for books. We have barely three thousand. The library is the heart of the University, and here, too, the slender funds which our Regents have at their disposal must be eked out by private gifts. The limits of my space will allow me to touch but very briefly upon the interesting topic which remains. It must suffice to say that the number of our graduates who enter upon careers of scholarship is constantly growing, and the recognition which many of them have obtained is more than we could expect, when we remember that the oldest of our alumni have hardly yet reached their full maturity. In the single department of Philosophy, for example, Professor Royce of Harvard, Professor Mezes of Texas, Professor Bakewell of Bryn Mawr, Professor McGilvary (soon to be) of Cornell, all hold degrees from this University, and all, except Professor Royce, received most of their philosophical training here. Nor is it our philosophers alone who have received recognition abroad, as the names of Stanford ' s chemist, Professor Stillman (of our class of ' 74), Professor Adolph C. Miller ( ' 87), of the University of Chicago, and many others, will testify. Meantime much of the best scholarly ability of our graduates has been employed at home, almost forty of the professors and instructors at Berkeley being them- selves alumni. To conclude this very inadequate sketch, I will express what I believe is the feeling of every loyal member of the University. While we are not ashamed of the position which our University has already attained, and while we believe that no other American university, save Johns Hopkins and Cornell, can show a record for its first thirty years which approaches ours in brilliancy, still we are far from satisfied. But we hope that at least solid foundations have been laid, and that in the era of expansion which seems to lie before us, the scholarly reputation of the University may keep pace with its fame for beauty of situation and splendor of architecture. EDWARD BULL CLAPP. Chicago and Stanford, fortunately for this statement, are not yet thirty years old. 10