Boston University College of Practical Arts and Letters - Sivad Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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fx. I 2 ' c fw .J cc 7 . 9 . . . I P 9 . 9 9 2 4 A ' as . 7 .1 fv', , I cc ' I , 2 , . . -. I ,gg ,Q. eeee P.. It I P lil P.A.L gggg I P: ffEi training It will be recalled that secretarial stu-dies, with their allied sub temporarily 'The 4 ollege of Secretarial Sciencel. In my Annual Report to the President, for the y-ear 1920-21, I pointed out that we had accepted the traditional responsibilities of a real college for women and that we were not intending to conduct a mere professional school I expressed my conviction that the time had come for us to place more emphasis upon our general academic courses and less stress upon the vocational studies I knew that our success as a cultural college for women would be Jefopardized if we lingered too long about the door of the secretarial training department simply for the purpose of attracting stu- dents whose tuition fees were paying our expenses. By 1922, our curricu- lum had been developed to such an extent that it was possible for a holder of our degree to enter the graduate school of the University as a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts. By 1923, we had reached the stage where we were training many prospective teachers. Near the end of the year 1924 I saw that the time was ripe for the adop-tion of a permanent name for the college Even though we had been considering the question for five years it actually was with no little difficulty that we reached a decision as to the most appropriate name to present to the Board of Trustees. At last however at the meeting of the Board hfeld on April 23, 1924, the name College of Practical Arts and Letters' was recommended by me and adopted In listening to this story of progress, one might be inclined to think that the development of the curriculum had been brought about without the meeting of scarcely any obstacles. In order that our history may be accurate I think that I should make reference to the Dean's Annual Report to the President foi tae year 1925-26. In this report, Dean Davis wrote: Never since the day of the -establishment of the College of Prac-tical Arts and Letters have we overlooked the basic principles governing the under- taking to which we have dedicated our efforts. There has not been a day in our brief history when our vision has been obscured insofar as it con- cerns our opportunity as a new type of college for women .... On the other hand the greatest obstacle in our path has been the result of a mis- understanding of our true aims, even in some quarters where the educational policies . ought readily to be recognized and upheld. The College of Practical Arts and Letters owes its existence not to the type of courses described in its catalogue, not to any particular grouping of sub- Jects but to the simple fact that it is a college for women. . . . Our voca- tional courses could be oiered easily in the College of Business Administration, the general academic courses are duplicated in the College of Liberal Arts, but in no other school or college of Boston University does there exist precisely the same educational aim and the same educational method. It is principally this difference in aims and methods that war- rants our existence as a college. Following the presentation of this Annual Report to the President, at the beginning of the year 1926-27, a committee of the P. A. L. faculty was Q1 Xliiiiiixwfffi. -f?,S...., , ...?-.- 1- , ., - . 1- ------'--v:n- -e-,.,af..s. N, jects made up our curriculum at first. Thus we called the new institution ,M,,,-,.1,1,,,,,,-1 ...,.. ,Li 'fL.,.,.,.,.,-,,,- llle' Q. QINM, M g i ff-Y Lf fifjg w 'v ' 1

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, M'-Tl.!III'.' ' ,LTL HWMH ' rwtrf- fi Pita Advisers. if .,, Ii in 1. if .Avi 'wif .i . WI' l W. ,i X71 .1 , 1. 'ii' iw. up ,ii if 'fs ll .ist slit ,lil 'll Ella' ii . if ' I 1. .' itll. ,Els Alix VGA ll 4. 5, .i H H 1 if 1i'1 lin i-s J i ia l .lu iz 'iii 'lf iw Z.,i all lil il mtg E. 'Mia e . H Y ii dd M M dddd ' 'A 1 -and after the President had given his approval, my plan was accepted. Accordingly the new college for women came into existence on May 8, 1919. Incidentally, I want to make sure that Mr. Graydon Stetson and Mrs. f Francis Lee Higginson receive the praise which is due them for their in splendid assistance in forming the Board of Guarantors and Board of i It was evident, Dean Davis continued, that there was a definite it need for another separ.ate college for wioimfen in New England: a college providing a curriculum that would train girls simultaneously for life's journey and for the vocational work in which they might be engaged imme- W diately after graduation. It was evident, too, that the establishment of this ii new college would mean that Boston University could make an appeal to Eglflj some parents who otherwise would not be interested in the University. I am referring to those parents-and, of course, we do find many of them- who do not believe in co-education. Likewise, it was our feeling that ll certain philanthropists might be impressed with the uniqueness of our lflli opportunity when even the excellent work of the co-educational colleges and schools would not ap-peal to them. We knew that our greatest op-por- .2 tunity rested in the eventual creation of a large campus site for our college, ii a campus of at least seventy-five to a hundred acres, which would have all .V of the features ordinarily associated with a college exclusively for women. Qi Temporarily, however, we planned to use the property which we found to it be available at 27 Garrison Street, knowing that its convenient location ,gg would commend it to the average 'commuter'. While our womanls-college liffl campus plans called for the creation of a beautiful library building, we 11 knew that, for temporary use, a structure near the Boston Public Library li: would be beneficial to our young people. For these reasons, and for the ggi, reason that we had relatively little money with which to begin our experi- ment, we took over the Garrison Street building with considerable pleasure. gg We felt that on this site we could perfect our educational plan, study our permanent building needs, and attract the necessary endowment and build- ig ing funds. During the first nine years of the life of the institution, the ,ill co-operation of faculty and students resulted in a development which was QW eminently successful and which, in some respects, exceeded our fondest ii 5 hopes. That there was a place, in this section of New England, for the type t yi of college which we had proposed, was proved to the satisfaction of the Tl, many friends who had been watching our activities since 1919. , - A Dean Davis then spoke of the organization of the College. When the lg original plan was placed before the Board of Trustees, I considered it to be desirable to choose a college name which might be used only for a rela- .A tively few years, but which might be particularly help-ful, in that period of i prosperity immediately following the War, in attracting the large number ly of students whose interest and support would be essential to the early success of our undertaking. At just that time the head of the College of WE Business Administration was rather anxious to eliminate the secretarial il training program from his department of the University. Because of this QW sintulation, I could :see that it was decidedly -to our' advantage to adopt 'secre- tarial 'work' as our first endeavor in the way of vocational and professional if ii? I, N '1,-... ,J-a ' ., ,. .Si afTL,i,,,,...,,,,...,.i:: iff i'2.f.fI...,...,.-.LI..Q--3' ,f 3 f.i' .fun , aff , X lx MA.-. , , ,.,, .I4,.,-.,-.., I-.. L,,., ' ,,, -LM I . , 7 Q, J X 4. , A -AL ...,,:.,..,..-.,,,,1,,. ,.,, :NZM Y Yggmj ,Q ,S X 'LQITTQTQ'-TTiZ:!liJI'flT'l ' d ' ififp it itil? ',., 1 ' Vxfli lei 41.33 it ,...,,..1 1:1...Lg: 1-g 'Trf'tf'T '.i:i't.TQ1iii?'f'5AK 5 gg v, ,.-TJ. E11 l r

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. ' l l I I N I A I I that the University .Was to plan eventually to place all of its departments on Q f U V J2f '1I Bs-A pp gg! I .. appointed by the Dean to make a careful study of the educational pOl1C16S of the college, With a vieW to interpreting and defining these policies. The faculty committee pointed out that the curriculum of the College of Prac- tical Arts and Letters differed from that of any school or college ofthe University, in that ll?-I'610I'9S61'1lJ9d the actual duplication of courses given in the other University departments. In other Words, While some duplica- tion might be found in other departments of the Unlivers-ity, at the Col- lege of Practical Arts an-d Letters the entire curri-culum represented duplication In order thoroughly to clarify the statement of 2,-11'I1.S Which had been in the mind of the Dean since the establishment of the. college- and in the minds of the professors as they began to study the situation- the faculty committee said it Was evident that all of the individual courses guven at P A L could be continued by Boston University even if the Col- lege of Practical Arts and Letters, as such, should go out of existence. T-his could be done simply by scheduling .students for classes in the Departments of Liberal Ants, an-d Business Adlminilstnation, and Educa- tion But it stated that if We Were to consider that there Were educational advantages other than mere class instruction to be found in a compara- tively small separate college for Women, it must be admitted that the complete College of Practical-Arts-an-d-Letters-Training, even in its stage of development at that time, could not be provided in any combination of classroom subgects arranged by the other departments of Boston Univer- sity In other Words the faculty declared that the distinctive and essential feature of the college policy represented something more than a mere combination of courses It endorsed ent.hu.siastically the educational pro- grnam Which had been advocated and developed in the Wo2mian's collegeg and it pointed With pride to the fact that the Work of the students had been recognized favorably by other New England colleges. I asked Dean Davis if he Would have suggested the establishment of the College of Practical Arts and Letters, in 1919, if he had known then a relatively small single tract of land. He said that he Would not have done so if he had thought that the college Would be included in the centralized group and he made clear the incongruity of establishing a college With a separate cloistered environment, and With distinctive Woman's-college traditions Within the precincts of a huge co-educational center, situated on a feW acres of land and providing instruction for thousands of men and Women students At the same time, he said that When the plans for the centralization of Boston University Were announced not long ago by Presi- dent Marsh he recognized that the original plans for P. A. L., as a depart ment of B U might need to be sacrificed in the interest of th-e greater University development Dean Davis said that these facts should be recorded for historical purposes but declared that for practical purpose-s We should join hands in attempting to find a place for our group in the University center Which the President and Trustees have decided to bring into existence when funds for the project are available. i , 19 . ,. 90 I l 1 l 1 1 T ,I : ll f ff 1 fgijx M ,..,. o