University of San Francisco - USF Don Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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The Dignity of the Small College III American people must eventually come to the real ization of one important problem confronting them and demanding a solution. That is the educational problem. For the standard of citizenship in the future depends on the standard of education today. They know that vast sums are being spent on our schools and universities, and doubtless they are satisfied that the money so spent is sufficient. But how many know the returns from such a vast outlay? They give the money, but do they know that there is such a thing as an educational problem? Some of us, indeed, know it, but we leave it in the hands of professional educators, trusting that they will find a solution. Now these men of the profession have done much toward its working out, but it would be well for the people at large to take an interest in the situation which involves so many millions of their dollars, in which their sons and daughters are so vitally concerned, and upon which the future of this country so largely depends. This problem is a great one and to the close observer it presents many sides. To offer a solution, even in outline, would take up more space than this article is allowed, and so we must content ourselves with dealing briefly with one particular phase of it, namely that which concerns the value of the small college, and the place it holds among institutions of higher education in America. The first consideration in this question is relative to the province of the small college and that of the large university. It is the function of the small college to give a liberal education; of the large university to give higher training in special courses. ‘‘The world needs broad men sharpened to a point,” says President Nicholas M. Butler of Columbia University. Now to produce broad men is the object of the small Preston Devine.

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14 THE IQS ATI AN “a plot exposed. New York, May 5th.—A solution lias been found to the mysterious casualties due to lock-jaw, at the Bronx, St. Luke’s and Burnett Hospitals. The supplies of cotton and bandages were found to be inoculated with tetanus bacilli. The first casualty appeared at the Bronx Hospital, six months ago when Hubert Brown, who was operated on by the famous Dr. George Findlay, succumbed to the fatal disease. The incident attracted a great deal of attention at the time and terminated in the disappearance of Dr. Findlay. A plot being suspected, detectives worked upon the case, and they have found and laid bare the infamous intrigue connected with it.” The eyes of the listener dilated. ‘‘Give it to me,” he said, “give it to me. It is life and elixir to my soul. Thank God! Today and its wanderings are over, forever; tomorrow will be another day, the day of my return.”

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16 TIIE IGN ATI AN college; to sharpen them to a point by specialized courses should be the object of the large university. But the universities, ever seeking greater numbers of students, included all courses in their curricula so that they now accommodate those of both under-graduate and post-graduate standing. Recently, however, many educators have come to realize, as all eventually must, that the large university cannot do the work of the small college, any more than the small college could do the work of the large university. These educators have, as a result, turned to the small colleges in America, and they found that this country has a multitude of highly efficient small colleges which have been constant and persevering in the work of educating the youth of the nation. Consequently, nearly every large university in the country has fixed a limit to the number of students and has raised the requirements of its studies. The happy day when the large university, free from the great task of educating under-graduates, can more competently attend to its true work, that of training post-graduates, is drawing nearer and nearer. And at that same happy time the small college will come into its own; it will be recognized as the fountain-head of liberal education. So it is that we put great faith in the words of Doctor William R. Harper, who, when he himself was president of the large University of Chicago said: “The small college is certain of its existence in the future educational history of the United States. The future of the small college will be a great future, a future greater than its past.” Here the question naturally arises: Is the small college efficient in its work of educating; can it carry on the great work that lies before it? To answer this, let a little comparison be drawn between the large university and the small college of today. Perhaps the greatest asset of the small college is the personal contact of students with professor. For here, the student is daily in close touch with his teachers; the limited size of the classes permits of a great amount of individual in-