Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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y ' .: ' The Class of ' 05 had a verse in the Faculty Song which went: Here ' s to those preceptor guys Who ' re coming here to make us wise. Too late to thrust ' em down our throats They ' ll make poor Ought-Six the goats. Despite these misgivings, poor Oughty- Six soon found the system was greatly to their liking. The preceptorial system be- came firmly entrenched in the Princeton plan. To provide the funds for this costly innovation, Wilson sought to increase the endowment. Fortunately, the interest and support of the alumni enabled him to reach his goal. The Committee of Fifty and the Graduate Council had recently been organized, and they backed Wilson to the hilt, and a sizable endowment was built up. An outward sign of the increasing wealth of the University was manifested in the buildings going up on the campus. New dormitory followed new dormitory, as ' 79, Patton, Blair, Campbell, and Holder Halls were rapidly completed under Wil- son ' s aegis. Nassau Hall felt the effects of the program, and it was remodeled along its original Georgic lines. The museum pieces were removed from the South wing and the beautiful Faculty Room took form. A group of benefactors contributed money for a new recitation hall to be built in memory of James McCosh. The scientific departments also got new buildings, as Palmer and Guyot Halls were built for their use. An interesting engineering project was taking place in the swamps along Stony Brook. One day Andrew Carnegie, who was riding the P. J. and B. across the brook, remarked to his companion, What a beau- tiful place for a lake— I mean loch. His companion said that this had long been the hope of Princetonians. Mr. Carnegie re- plied, I would like to give Princeton, that Scotch university, a loch. In 1906, the gates on the dam were closed and Lake Carnegie took form. Wilson had met with universal success in his efforts on the curriculum and en- dowment. But when he tried to reform the club system he met with tremendous op- position. Admittedly the club system was bad. Social distinctions had grown more acute, and even club groups were form- ing in the sophomore year. Wilson felt that the system was inimical to the traditional democracy of Princeton. To counteract the system, he proposed that the University be organized on the basis of a group of small colleges. Each college would be a self-con- tained unit, where the students slept, ate, and studied. Students, some faculty, the alumni, and most of the trustees opposed 28

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Wilson. With his inauguration on October 25, 1902 came an era of vitality and pro- gressivism, which was to carry Princeton to the top of the educational ladder. Wilson began the reform with in- internal reorganization. He revised the entire system of studies by restricting elec- tions and developing correlated depart- ments of study, and greater emphasis was placed on independent study. One student, shocked upon receiving a Wilsonian exam- ination, exclaimed, But, professor, this exam is not fair because it requires think- ing! Wilson required that the student s think in undergraduate courses, and he immediately began to eliminate the chronic loafers. The day of sending an underclass- man to take your place at a lecture was ended. A drawing in the Tiger por- trayed the President sitting on the steps of Nassau Hall, with a caption below, Wil- son—that ' s all. Wilson ' s greatest contribution to the educational environment was the introduc- tion of the preceptorial system. The prob- lem of increased enrollment with the corresponding decrease of individualized instruction had long vexed educational leaders. Wilson copied the English tutorial system to a large degree. He brought in a group of excellent young instructors, and each student, upon entering an upperclass department, would be assigned one of the instructors as a preceptor. This man would be the student ' s instructor in all courses which he took in the department. Thus the first preceptors had to be men of con- siderable ability and wide learning, for the range of their teachings was extremely broad. 27

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this solution. The situation was aired hi dormitories and reunion tents for several yeai-s. Mr. Dooley, personified by an alumnus, made a few pertinent remarks on the system. In the fur-rst place it does away with th ' existin ' evils in the club sys- tem an ' substitoots others just as good. . . . Should a b ' y choose his o vn friends? Niver in this wirld. . . . It ' s inconsistint with human nachuur and dimmycratic eye- deals. In 1907 the trustees took a stand in opposition to Wilson ' s proposals. His de- feat was eased with the building of ne%v dining halls and regulations which re- quired that underclassmen eat there. Fur- thermore the clubs took measures to de- crease pre-bickering and expand their facilities to take in more new members. Wilson ' s most famous fight was taking place concurrently. This vas the dispute over the location of the Graduate School. The argument took on the aspect of per- sonalities, for the feud bet veen President Wilson and Dean West seemed to focus the dispute on themselves. Outwardly the con- flict appeared to be whether the school 29 u ' ould be located on the campus or at a place separate from the rest of the uni- versity. Basically, Wilson resented West ' s complete assumption of authority on the matter. With that blind hatred of a man, a trait which later characterized his public career, the president fought each of West ' s proposals. A succession of grants of money con- fused the issue, for each contained specific qualifications. Dean West had a tremen- dous following, and had Wilson not been so obstinate, the Graduate School would have already been under construction. As it Avas Wilson fought off all efforts to build a separate school until, in 1910 Isaac Wy- man ' 48, willed his estate of several million dollars for the construction of a Graduate School. Dean West was one of the trustees. Upon hearing this Wilson smiled and said to his wife, We have beaten the liv- ing, but we cannot fight the dead. The game is up. Soon the Graduate School building began to rise on the heights over- looking the golf links. With this question resolved in favor of Dean West, it came as no surprise to Princetonians when Wilson accepted the nomination to be governor of New Jersey. His defeats at Princeton enhanced his repu- tation on a national scale, for he was pic- tured as the victim of conservatism. The trustees accepted his resignation with the realization that they were losing a great educator and leader, destined for greater things. The period 1910-1912 found Prince- ton without a president. Dean Fine carried on the burden of the administrative work in this period. Meanwhile, the trustees sought Wilson ' s successor. To fill the gap they found was no easy task; finally in January 1912 they acted. Professor John Grier Hibben was lec- turing to a