University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

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Front.. View of the New Chemistry Building

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thoroughness of the rnodern institution. The same story is told by the library. By 1854, there were 1,200 volumes-one-sixth of the number now exposed in the reading room. About half were gifts from A. S. Barnes gl Co., and a considerable proportion were public documents and theological works-all of the latter Protestant, nearly all evangelical. The President tells me he read the library about through in 1879. Iwonder ifhe read the theology? and the public documents? lf not, his task would not have been very heavy. Now, although Dr. Lathrop's hope of including everything worth preserving in all languages is not quite fulfilled, there are accessible to students 276,- 000 volumes,or two hundred and thirty times as many as in 1854, and the average usefulness and excellence of the books in the collection is higher than in 1854. In 1854, a candidate for ad- mission to the Freshman class passed an examination cover- ing about three years of Latin, one of Greek, and one of mathe- matics. Allowing that the dis- cipline of the school made up for any specific separate train- ingin English and any required reading of English literature, this makes about seven units for entrance. Fourteen are now required. During the col- This New Exoixnianrxu Buitnixo lege course, students kept on with their Latin for two years, their Greek for one, having as an option an additional year in either language or a year of French or German. They rode through a multitude of other subjects, being splashed with them on the way:--Physics and English Literature, Chemistry and Civil Polity, and ahalf dozen more-thirteen weeks to each. They did not learn to read or write Greek or Latin easily, but read with minute attention to grammatical precision a small number of classic works, historical, dramatic, philosophical, oratorical, and epic. NVhat most astonishes us is the entire absence of any provision for history, except for the classic historians in the course. The existence of Christianity would be inferred from the moral philosophy, and the professors were more uniformly and openly devout than now, but the conception of Christianity and the church as a force in the development of society, the creation of the modern European nations, the Renaissance or the Reformation, were ideas of which the course gave no suggestion. A little later thirteen-weeks' courses in text books on history were added. XVe sometimes hear the Old-fashioned Classical Course praised as giving a liberal culture and an unequaled discipline. If a student could now elect such a course as was given in W'isconsin Hfty years ago, you would call him very lazy. It corresponded, subject for subject to about two years of college work as now carried on. In the quality of the instruction given, it was in the main dry, narrow and superhcial in its view, though thorough in enforcing its moderate demands. By its little detached courses, it gave students 3 notion that they were intelligent in many fields, and as compared with a specialized course nourished vanity. The College Senior is not now usually conceited. I-Ie has learned how much too vast for his powers is mastery of the smallest subdivision of the field of knowledge, and he goes into his hfework with humble readiness to begin at a low place in his chosen vocation, Far I6

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more to be rejoiced in than the increase in the size and impressiveness of the University is the enrichment, enlargement, elevation and variety of its curricula. To the old learned pro- fessions new ones have been added. Within the college of Letters and Science- the philosophical faculty -the course of study has been greatly varied and the instruction greatly improved. By the modification of the entrance requirements, the college has been opened to many hundreds who under the old regime would never have profited by its training, and this with a constant elevation of requirements. Whatever one's judgment as to the disciplinary value of Latin and Greek, there can be no doubt that any set of requirements for admission, calling for four years of any language, represents a more thorough education, a more liberal culture, than was obtained in Professor Sterling's preparatory class of 1851. As for the college course itself, the student of to-day is trained for activity in a more complex world, with a thoroughness of real discipline quite beyond any conception of the older time. VVe lack two things belonging to the old education. The first is a training in the use of the English language derived from a study of foreign languages, which insisted on a delicate rendering of the original. Greek in old times taught English. German nowadays teaches German, and often has bad English as a by-product. Secondly, in the old education students consciously prepared to be men and not merely lawyers. ' In 1854 organized athletics did not exist. Some vigorous play was common, though it would seem that students probably exercised less than now. At least there was no exercise by proxy, artificial galvanization of enthusiasm, and monetary exploitation of sport. lVe have on the whole gained by the cultivation of athletics g but there are weeds still to be rooted out. A half century ago this sacred sod Could D6'61' by wo1nan's feet. be trod. Women began to attend only in 1963, as normal students. Then a female college was organized, with an easy course, mainly in befles leiires. The women students were admitted also to college classes, but in separate recitations. lt is a quaint piece of the !zm7z'brz'a rerum- the sarcasm of fate-that the name of the President who insisted on this regulation should be given to the women's dormitory. Fifty years ago the annual charges paid by a student were twelve dollars for tuition, nine dollars for light,.heat, and janitor's service, and nothing for incidentals. Total, twenty-one dollars. Next year a charge for fuel was added. North Hall was heated by three furnaces in which wood was burned, at a cost of from twelve to sixteen dollars a year to each inmate of the dormitory. As to the cost of board, the catalogue states that: Several of the Faculty reside in a portion of the new edifice fNorth Hallj and take their meals in the hall. Students are admitted to the several tables of the faculty at a charge not exceeding two dollars per week-usually not over 51.85. Many board themselves in their rooms at rates varying from a dollar to a dollar and a half. These charges have certainly not increased unreasonably, all things considered. The five dollars a week of the present is as easily paid as the two and a half of that day. Yet in the loss of the dormitories much has been lost. Centers of associa- tion, they contributed to college friendship and youthful comradeship more healthfully than our very useful modern substitute, the fraternity, for they brought about acquaintance on a broader and better basis. To Cardinal Newman,a university was essentially a gathering place where young men were given the highest kind of instruction, the gathering being of more importance than the instruction. We have lost something in general comradeship and the beneficial attrition of all sorts of men on each other. The dormitories have been outlived by the literary societies, the Athenaean and the Hesperian societies being almost as old as the University itself. We may observe that debating alone soon became the dominant element in them. They have been very deeply rooted in the institution, and profoundly influence the 18