All such subsidiary helps in learning lessons, he classed … under the opprobrious name of "facilities," and never scrupled to seize them as contraband goods.—Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D., p. lxxvii.
FACULTY. In colleges, the masters and professors of the several sciences.—Johnson.
In America, the faculty of a college or university consists of the president, professors, and tutors.—Webster.
The duties of the faculty are very extended. They have the general control and direction of the studies pursued in the college. They have cognizance of all offences committed by undergraduates, and it is their special duty to enforce the observance of all the laws and regulations for maintaining discipline, and promoting good order, virtue, piety, and good learning in the institution with which they are connected. The faculty hold meetings to communicate and compare their opinions and information, respecting the conduct and character of the students and the state of the college; to decide upon the petitions or requests which may be offered them by the members of college, and to consider and suggest such measures as may tend to the advancement of learning, and the improvement of the college. This assembly is called a Faculty-meeting, a word very often in the mouths of students.—Coll. Laws.
2. One of the members or departments of a university.
"In the origin of the University of Paris," says Brande, "the seven liberal arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) seem to have been the subjects of academic instruction. These constituted what was afterwards designated the Faculty of Arts. Three other faculties—those of divinity, law, and medicine—were subsequently added. In all these four, lectures were given, and degrees conferred by the University. The four Faculties were transplanted to Oxford and Cambridge, where they are still retained; although, in point of fact, the faculty of arts is the only one in which substantial instruction is communicated in the academical course."—Brande's Dict., Art. FACULTY.
In some American colleges, these four departments are established, and sometimes a fifth, the Scientific, is added.
FAG. Scotch, faik, to fail, to languish. Ancient Swedish, wik-a, cedere. To drudge; to labor to weariness; to become weary.
2. To study hard; to persevere in study.
Place me 'midst every toil and care,
A hapless undergraduate still,
To fag at mathematics dire, &c.
Gradus ad Cantab., p. 8.