By offering free tuition, the state university reaches many who would otherwise fail to enjoy higher training. It tends to equalize the conditions for rich and poor in the struggle for the survival of the fittest.
The state university, as it develops and realizes its true function, must be thoroughly catholic in spirit, because it stands for humanity, truth, and progress. Nowhere is the professor or the scholar permitted to use such intellectual freedom as in the state university in Germany, and in the natural course of events the same freedom will be allowed in the United States. Not only will the free and inventive spirit become characteristic, but our Western universities, standing in the midst of the most advanced ideas of civilization, must furnish some of the most important contributions to the study of all social, economic, and ethical problems.
In the state universities the mental and moral atmosphere is healthful. A strong, honest manhood is cultivated. There all ideals are strongly maintained, not according to a particular creed, but with regard to all the implications of man’s higher nature. All influences tend to make citizens who are in harmony with the national spirit. An extended acquaintance with graduates of various state universities shows that, as a whole, they are broad-minded citizens, loyal to the public interest.
The relation of the religious denominations to the state university is one that commands serious attention. The university says to each class of people: “Here is an institution which is equally for the advantage of all—it is yours. Its platform, founded on ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness, is as broad as humanity. Since there must be diversity of religious views, establish your theological schools, halls, guilds, or professorships in the vicinity of the university, and, making use of what the state offers, supplement in your own way the work of the state.” The plan is in the highest degree economical; it combines unity of effort with variety of independent view; it makes the general good and the special interest mutually helpful. It is the plan of business common sense and of wise insight into the problems of the age. That the denominations—granting their point of view—should join their interest with that of the state university is shown also by the fact that often a given denomination finds more of its students there than at its church school.
Many state universities are beginning to receive private endowment. Every consideration of public interest in each state should turn the contributions for education toward the one great centre of learning. Very few states can support more than one such centre. Libraries, art collections, museums, laboratories, buildings, well-endowed chairs, beautiful grounds, should testify to the munificence of private wealth as well as to the benefactions of the state.
Speaking generally, the state universities have large incomes and good facilities. They require high standards for admission and graduation. Wherever feasible, they maintain professional schools and schools of applied science. They do this upon the theory that the state should both regulate and provide professional education in the interest of proper standards, and that, in the interest of the state and of the individual, such education should be made available to the sons of the poor. Every leading state university is developing a graduate school.
In the matter of electives, the state university occupies a middle ground. Yale and Princeton represent the conservative side, and Harvard and Stanford the liberal extreme. An examination of the curricula of ten leading state universities shows that the requirements for admission are definitely prescribed, although two or more courses are recognized; that about half the college studies are required, while the remaining half are offered as group or free electives. The state universities naturally show a tendency toward the German university system.
In America the college has been frankly maintained in accord with Platonic ideals. A full rounded manhood, drawing its power from each chief source of knowledge, and prepared in a general way for every practical activity, has been the aim. The American college is dear to the people, and it has done much to make strong men who have powerfully influenced the nation. There are, however, various tendencies which are likely to modify the whole organization of the American university, including that of the college.
The recent tendency toward free election, reaching even into the high school, is a subject of animated controversy. This tendency I have frequently discussed elsewhere, and must still maintain that, in its extreme form, it is irrational. One university of high standing makes it possible to enter its academic department and graduate without mathematics, science, or classics. This is an extreme that is not likely to be sanctioned by the educational world. If there is a human type with characteristics by which it is defined—characteristics which can be developed only by looking toward each field of knowledge—then a secondary and higher education which makes possible the entire omission of any important group of subjects is likely to prove a great wrong to the average student. According to some high educational authorities, no one can be called liberally educated who does not at least possess knowledge of (1) mathematics and science, (2) language and literature, (3) philosophy. Philosophy, as it was in Greece and as it is in Germany, may become a larger factor in our American education.