Colleges in America

by John Marshall Barker

In some colleges the students participate in the governing affairs. This is done by having representatives chosen from each college class, elected by their fellow-students, who unitedly compose a College Senate, with power to interpret the college laws, and deal with all questions relating to the good order and decorum of students. The President of the college is chairman, and has the power to veto the decision of the senate. There are many favorable features of this system. In the first place, it lessens the antagonism sometimes manifest between the faculty and students. There are no less requirements upon all college classes and duties, and it helps to remove any feeling of suspicion and the semblance of espionage. The students feel that they have been taken into confidence with the college authorities and will get strict, even-handed justice in college discipline. The result is that there comes to exist a more pleasant and friendly relation between the professors and students.

Again, this system gives the freest scope for teaching. The professor's time is not occupied doing police duty or sitting as a juror, but is given wholly to his work as teacher.

The self-responsibility of the student also has an educating influence, giving to the worthy and right-minded a better training for future citizenship. It is undoubtedly true that the autonomy of a college is an important factor in shaping the future liberties of our country. No college, however, can hope to uphold the highest standard of conduct by trusting to the force of rules and penalties. The spring of right action is in the heart. All college authorities must rely principally upon appeals to calm reason and an enlightened conscience, reinforced by religious faith and feeling.

The general good order and morals of the students in American colleges are changing for the better. In a large proportion of our colleges only a small per cent. of the students use intoxicating drinks or tobacco. All reprehensible conduct must be carried on so secretly as to elude the college authorities. Those disposed to do evil represent only a very small proportion of the great body of students, but these give occasion for some supercilious and conceited correspondent of the public press severely to criticise the college government, and to give gross caricatures and exaggerated statements of the mischief done by this small percentage of students, and then include the entire academic body in the same general censure. It is generally believed by those qualified to know that the average morals and good conduct of the students in college are much better than those of the same number of young men outside the college community.

The chartered colleges are entitled to confer degrees as a measure of honor the college wishes to bestow on men and women of merit. This privilege has been so much abused by some colleges that a little confusion arises as to the true value and significance of the degrees conferred. In 1890, there were 8,290 degrees conferred in course or on examination, and 727 honorary degrees, by 415 colleges and professional schools.

In the best American colleges, the student completing the classical course receives the degree of Bachelor of Arts (A. B.)—bas chevalier, a knight of low degree; it signifies "inception in arts." If the student, after taking his bachelor's degree, pursues for a few years some literary or scientific study, he may receive the degree of Master of Arts (A. M.), meaning fitness to teach, a title which began to be conferred in the twelfth century. These degrees are granted as a reward of merit, based on examination and general fitness. The degrees of Doctor of Divinity (D. D.) and Doctor of Laws (LL. D.) are granted as honorary degrees to men of pre-eminent ability or for conspicuous services. The student who completes a college course or its equivalent, and follows it with a professional course in a university, receives a degree recognizing the fact. Schools of Theology confer the degree of Bachelor of Divinity (D. B.) Schools of Law, Bachelor of Law (LL. B.), and Schools of Medicine, Doctor of Medicine (M. D.)

A post-graduate course of study, looking to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.), has reference not so much to the professional and practical side of life as to the original investigation and exploration of a special subject, with no other immediate aim than the discovery of truth and a philosophical insight into the same. The student, before receiving the degree in the best universities, is required, at the close of his post-graduate work, to write a thesis which would be regarded as an original contribution to the subject discussed.

There is no practical uniformity in the scope and requirement of the work for this degree. The Doctor's degree should stand in this country, as it does in Europe, for research, and a general knowledge of philosophy, with ability to open up original sources of information. The student should be a resident graduate for at least one year, and after rigorous examination be required to contribute something to the advancement of knowledge, and withal be a man of good character and judgment, before receiving this most desirable degree in American and European universities. With such a uniform standard, this degree will not likely depreciate in public esteem, but have, as all degrees should, a uniform value. A federation of colleges may help to attain this end.

College degrees are not essential to a man's success in life, but when they are obtained as a reward of merit have a certain social value which usually insures a speedier entrance into any chosen field of work.

Another characteristic of American colleges is that they are endowed either by churches, by the state or by individual donors. The endowment is generally in the form of property or stocks yielding an annual revenue. It may be a sum of money given to the college, to be loaned and the interest to be permanently appropriated to the support of professors or applied to the current expenses. The amount necessary to endow a professorship varies from twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars. The fund thus given remains intact, and the interest or revenue of it alone is used to carry out the purpose of the donor.