Functions of the College and University

Functions of the College and University* By George Thomas, Ph. D., President of the University of Utah Pioneering With the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, and Plymouth in 1620, the pioneering of what is now the United States began. From these early beginnings, the movement of the Anglo-Saxon race has continued westward, until it has finally crossed the American continent. During this long period of over three hundred years, pioneering in some form or place has been going on continuously, and it is only now, in the commonly accepted sense of the term, coming to a close. Every part of our common country has undergone the hardships incident to pioneering and has likewise felt the inspiration and the quickening impulse of new settlement and has experienced the joy of conquering the natural resources and making them contribute to the support and maintenance of man. To do this work successfully it required a certain type of men and women, and the earliest settlers who pioneered in the glacial hills of New England, in the fertile valley of the Mis- sissippi, on the Great Plains, in the rugged valleys of the Rocky Mountains, or in the sunny valleys of the Pacific slope pos- sessed as a whole similar traits of character. They were strong men; they were self-reliant men; they were men possessed of determination, persistence, and a high degree of common sense. In a great majority of cases, these qualities, in connection with their love of adventure and their desire for economic inde- pendence caused them to pioneer and to settle upon new west- ern lands. Early settlement made it necessary that they should build roads and bridges, establish homes, break the resisting sod and plant it to crops in order to secure a living. Preceding the accomplishment of this task, it was frequently necessary to subdue the native savages. Many of these men were illiterate, according to the ordinary usages of the term, but they were far from being ignorant men. Comparatively few of them were skilled in the trades or educated in the higher sense. Here and there were groups that formed exceptions to this generaliza- tion. Wherever political liberty or religious freedom were the actuating cause of the move, a higher percentage of skilled and "Inaugural address, delivered, April 5, 1922.

790 IMPROVEMENT ERA educated men were usually found. For instance, among the earliest settlers of New England, there was one college gradu- ate to every two hundred fifty of the population. Taking them as a whole, it is generally conceded that the pioneers were a very well equipped body of men and women for the tasks at hand. We can go further, and say that while they lacked train- ing and education suited to our age and did some of their work in a haphazard way, yet the fundamental qualities of their char- acters were and are essential to successful living in every age. In the tasks of cutting timber, breaking sod, etc., physical strength usually predominated over technical skill and knowl- edge. For untold ages vast areas of fertile land had remained undisturbed and, to produce food, all that was necessary was to till the soil in a crude way and plant it to some sort of crop. Ordinarily the soil was so rich as to yield many fold, although this was true in the arid region only after irrigation water had been made available. A knowledge of soil physics and soil chemistry was not known or needed; for, should the soil under cultivation become exhausted, there was a practically unlimited supply of rich, fertile lands nearby to the west. Many of the pests now requiring high skill to control were then unknown. Even the timber supply (until the West was reached) was more a problem of getting rid of than of conserving, and the task was to pull it out of the soil and burn it. These early expe- riences gave our countrymen initiative, resourcefulness, and power of achievement — the qualities which have made our na- tion great. It gave them extension of vision, even if they lacked exactness of detail. On the other hand, we cannot fail to rec- ognize that out of their plenitude of natural resources has come waste, superficiality, and a disregard for the welfare of the future. We waste and destroy annually almost as much as some nations have to live upon. These latter qualities must be eliminated if we are to achieve as a nation the highest possible goal socially, educationally, and industrially. If we turn from the physical to the economic and social conditions, we find that life in the early settlements was very simple. The complexity of modern life was entirely unknown. The rural population then lived alone or in small villages, and was self-sustaining. In general, the exchange of products con- fined itself to very limited areas, except where settlers were lo- cated along a stream or on a bay or lake. Church activities and community amusements were equally simple. In the beginnings of many settlements there were no churches. Amusements, in the main, consisted of dancing, corn huskings, quilting bees, horseback riding, and house parties. The males also indulged in fishing and hunting, which furnished amusement, and also

FUNCTIONS OF THE COLLEGE 791 diversified and supplemented the food supply. Every con- dition of this sort of life tended to develop strong, individual- istic types of men, who came to feel that any man potentially could be or could do anything, and that the way to learn was through a practical apprenticeship, in which theoretical train- ing played a very unimportant part. This strong individualism of character was intensified by the natural surroundings. On every hand great natural resources were found in abundance. The pioneers came to look upon them as practically inexhaustible. Even the rapidity of the conquest of the continent did not cause them to doubt their con- clusions. The spirit emanating from this strong individualism and material security came to influence the social outlook and the individual and community habits. Prodigality naturally grew out of the whole environment, for why should care and economy be exercised where nature had been so lavish in her gifts that her supply could never be used, to say nothing about being exhausted. Prodigality in the use of resources was justi- fied to a certain extent under pioneer conditions, as the people crossed the continent, but it should have ceased with the passing of that period. Unfortunately some of these habits have re- mained with us to influence our present-day industrial, social, and educational activities. The persistence of these pioneer habits is shown by the following examples. A few years ago the speaker visited a farm of about ten thousand acres in north-central California. For thirty successive years the land had been planted to wheat. When the land was first cultivated, it yielded thirty-two bushels to the acre, but after thirty years it yielded eight to ten bushels. The economic conditions of a generation before had entirely changed, but old methods of cultivation still persisted, and the proprietor confessed that he could not change. In other words, wasteful habits were so firmly fixed that the cultivator could not change to better ones, even when it was more profitable. Two or three years later the speaker visited several farms in Wisconsin and Illinois, and on many of them the fertility of the soil had been exhausted, but the American farmers were still growing corn — and at a loss, while the Germans and Scandinavians, through dairy farming, were building up their soil, making a profit, and gradually buying out the Americans. The American farmers could not change the pioneer habits of their grandfathers and adapt themselves to a different form of agriculture; they would rather sell out and move to the Far West than think of returns in other than wheat or corn. These illustrations have been given because the examples will be

792 IMPROVEMENT ERA readily recognized as illustrative of similar conditions else- where. Habits once established among a people do not always con- fine themselves to one field but frequently express themselves in other activities. To show this it is only necesary to examine our wasteful methods of coal-mining. Furthermore, old habits and traditions do not readily give way to new ones; note the apparent inability of our people to qualify themselves to manu- facture the finer and more artistic products. It is frequently maintained that this is entirely due to cheap labor in European countries, but in instances where the tariff has been made so high as to compel the transfer of an industry from a foreign country to the United States, it has been found necessary in certain cases, in order to make the industry successful, to bring the skilled labor along with it. During the last three-quarters of a century, there has been a rapid change. The social and industrial simplicity of the early period has been rapidly disappearing. There is no longer a vast area of public domain open for entry; it is practically exhausted, except for the lands that can be subjected to irriga- tion or dry-farming. In the future, thousands of citizens can- not annually move West to seek independence and a competence and thereby increase the national food supply. The increased food required by a growing people will compel the doing away with the old superficial methods of treatment of the soil and the substitution of intensified culture. As the industrial con- ditions have influenced our habits in the past, so they will in the future. Frugality, of necessity, will replace prodigality, and undoubtedly this will be carried over into our social and educa- tional policies. Development of fihe Common Public School In the beginnings of the settlements of all pioneers, an in- stitution that they early established was the common public school. Even though often they could not read and write them- selves, they regarded a school for their children next to the necessities of life. As the life of the people was simple, so was the school. The three R's were the maximum, and often fewer subjects were taught. The equipment was simple indeed. One small log room, a slab stool, no desk, no blackboard, a reader, a speller, and a slate constituted the entire equipment and sup- plies for the first summer season. The same books were used the second season, but a tracing copy book was added to the list. For six hours a day pupils were supposed to apply them- selves to reading, writing and spelling. The teachers were usually devoted souls, who sacrificed themselves at a very low

FUNCTIONS OF THE COLLEGE 793 wage to the children. Educationally, however, they were fre- quently no better equipped than the school room. It should be readily observed, that as regards simplicity, these schools were typical of the pioneer life itself. For a long period of time, there was little change, either in the life of the people or in the curricula of the schools. However, as new industries arose and as new fields of knowledge were developed, the com- munities felt that the information so gained should be organ- ized and introduced as studies into some part of the school system. In the last half of the nineteenth century, the indus- trial development was rapid, and the pressure for the expansion of the school program was great; so that the introduction of new subject matter has gone along at a rapid pace. As a matter of fact, a study of the history of this movement for half a century leaves the impression that the introduction of new material has been of increasing interest, regardless of whether the material had been properly organized for the mind of the child or the youth, or whether the instructors were qualified to teach it or not. If the so-called "non-progressive school officers" would not listen to "reason" and find a place in the curricula for the new studies, resort was frequently had to the legislature, and laws were passed compelling the teacher in many instances to give instruction in subjects which they themselves did not un- derstand. The nation was determined to have the schools cover every field of human knowledge as rapidly as it had expanded over the continent. Unfortunately, and too often, the methods of cultivation and of teaching were equally superficial. From what I have said, I would not have my hearers be- lieve that I am opposed to new subjects or to new material, for, on the contrary, I am strongly in favor of it and of making education serve the people, but I am here attempting to show the development of a spirit that has gradually influenced school policies and that it was similar to industrial policies. The process of adding subjects continually and with a tend- ency toward superficiality appeared inevitable. We were treat- ing our schools as we were our broad acres, and this condition is today too generally true. The older sections of the country have been able to overcome these difficulties to a greater ex- tent than the newer sections, but they are far from being eliminated. A New Era of Industry, Education and Spirituality A new era is upon us industrially and educationally. In this new era, it is the duty of the educational system to play its part. It must perpetuate the rich traditions and high prin- ciples and ideals of the past. The youth must be taught the

794 IMPROVEMENT ERA great value of their heritage. This heritage embraces art, sci- ence, literature, philosophy, ethics, law, religion, etc. It is the basis of civilization. It is equally the duty of the educational system to eliminate superficiality, waste, unscientific methods, outworn practice and wrong and injustice wherever possible, whether of past or pres- ent origin. In field and factory and on college campus a change is im- minent. If we are to have food, we shall have to intensify the culture of the present acreage; if we are to have timber, we shall have to conserve the present supply; and if we are to have scholars, we shall have to intensify our studies. You can build great buildings in a few months, you can reclaim vast areas in a few years, but you cannot build spiritual or educational ideals in a short time. When it is attempted to carry methods of quick action into the spiritual realm, it does not bring imme- diate results. We should, therefore, organize the schools so that the children of the nation shall pursue both physically and mentally a progressive program but shall not be the prey of every individual who wants to establish an educational quick- lunch counter. To accomplish such a policy of thoroughness, it has fre- quently been advocated that a return to the pioneer school, with its few subjects, should be made. Undoubtedly a certain amount of simplification should take place, but it would be no more possible for the simple schools that served the pioneer of three- quarters of a century ago to return and to meet the demands of our complex civilization than for the farmer and the manu- facturer to return to the simple ways of a century ago or for the nation to return to live on the eastern seaboard. Moreover, if elimination is to take place, each subject must be carefully considered in respect to fundamental human requirements as they now exist. Society, which supports an educational system, is justified in expecting it to respond to social needs, though not to follow every fad that crosses the country. When duplication and non-essentials have been eliminated, the remainder must be studied with a serious thoroughness and intensity hitherto unknown. America has done more for her schools than any other nation and, as a whole, the people have accepted this great opportunity altogether too lightly. Intensity and Thoroughness Demanded of Higher Educational Institutions Education is really a serious business, and those in control of it and those who are participants in its benefits must fully realize this. There must be change in attitude, and to bring

FUNCTIONS OF THE COLLEGE 795 a change from superficiality to intensity and thoroughness is one of the chief functions of the colleges and universities. If we have inherited or created conditions that are inimical to the development of leadership and to social welfare, it is our duty to investigate the causes and apply the remedies. In the undertaking of such a task we must realize that the colleges and universities have too often allowed ease and frivolity to substitute for studious effort. Social conditions no doubt have contributed largely to such conditions. The rapid increase of wealth in the country has brought thousands of families to affluence. Parents are very desirous of educating their chil- dren and doing the very best they can for them. In order to do this, the parents send immature youths in great numbers to American colleges and universities. Frequently the young men and women enter these institutions with no definite purpose. To the men in many instances athletics and fraternities consti- tute the inducement, and for the women, sororities and society. Even many parents have no definite idea of why they are send- ing their children to college, except that they have the money and the children are young and it appears the proper thing to do. With this class of college population constituting a con- siderable percentage of the student body, it is exceedingly dif- ficult to build ideals and motivate them in the right direction. They do not realize for a second the importance or purpose of college education. They do not appear to understand that a college is an institution purposely designed to develop men and women with ideals of high morality, spirituality, and intellec- tuality. It is exceedingly difficult to interest them, and if they cannot be interested, they are seriously interfering with the high purposes of the institution, — which are to help society to develop men and women of fine fibre, who will be ready and willing to give of the fruits of their finer achievements to aid in the betterment of human society and institutions. With the rapid increase in matriculation in colleges and universities, even many of the older institutions find it ex- ceedingly difficult to maintain the high ideals. For example, the honor system of examination is one of the ideals of many southern colleges and universities but, with the great influx of freshmen, it is becoming almost impossible for the influence of the faculty and the upper classmen to bring them at once to where they are willing to live up to these traditions, so that cheating in examinations is on the increase. It is the influence of outside life on this splendid ideal. A leading American educator, regretting these indications of the lowering of the moral standards of education, said to me last fall, "When mother makes home brew and father cheats the income tax, what can

796 IMPROVEMENT ERA be said if the son cheats on examinations?" This is a splendid illustration of the fact that institutions have not only to con- tend with undesirable conditions of the past but the influence of the present. Institutions and leaders of institutions of learning in Amer- ica are far from blameless in the matter of the lack of serious- ness and scholarship on their campuses. They have catered too frequently to the social and to the material side of the plant. The general public wanted the number of buildings to increase, irrespective of the scholarship of the institution. Too often the educational leaders have been willing to follow this drift. Buildings and equipment are necessary, but they are only the means to the great end. The things that build a great institu- tion are not the number of buildings but a scholarly faculty, im- bued with the divinity of its mission, and a student body, large or small, thirsting for knowledge. These conditions bring in- tense study and application and an almost divine joy to the par- ticipants. A Scholarly Faculty Without a scholarly faculty, nothing can be accomplished. With it the limits of achievement cannot be circumscribed. A center of learning must have the presence and inspiration of great scholars, and for a great scholar the days are too full and the nights too short for him to accomplish his work. In his hu- mility and earnestness, he does not measure time by hours but by achievements. His accomplishment is his compensation. It is useless to attempt to build up true scholarship in a university with men who count their service by hours on the campus and their achievements by poorly prepared subject-matter. We must not deceive ourselves with an idea that thirsty students seeking for knowledge will not find out. If the well is empty, they will draw no water; the instructor's unfitness in this re- spect is soon discovered; and the reaction upon the student is almost immediate. In our quest for educational theories, there is one fundamental theory that we have almost forgotten, though it is the greatest of all and as old as the ages. It is a crying need in American colleges and institutions today. It is that education in any form is the result of self ^effort. Scholarship is the result of work. Work is the requirement of achievement in every line and in all ages. This is as true of the students as of the faculty. A faculty of good, thorough scholarship is a faculty that works constantly. No matter how keen of in- tellect a man is, deep scholarship can only come to him after years of the hardest kind of work. Men who aspire to fill chairs in university faculties must realize that they must be intel-

FUNCTIONS OF THE COLLEGE 797 lectual and mental leaders and that their positions can only be maintained by a constant effort. A good professor is a rare combination of inspiration and intellectualism. In order to keep up this standard in modern life, where progress is so rapid, it is an administrative duty to see to it that every pro- fessor who is elected is a real student in the truest sense of the term and well qualified for the work that he is to have in hand, and that he is possessed of the highest ideals of manhood. In order to retain this enthusiasm and scholarship, and grow as the years go by, it is a like administrative duty to see that faculty members make use of their sabbatical years for study under a scholarly environment. What Traditions of University Students Should Be The best faculty in the world, without a student body, could not create a university. If there were no students to teach, one of the main functions of a university would fail. Yet student life is a matter of tradition, and traditions on a university campus are of slow growth. Students are apt in these traditions to emphasize the non-essentials and unimportant things. Some prank appeals as a tradition, even if it has been in use only a year or two. The great tradition of the students of a university should be high scholarship, hard work, and a true manhood. These ideals should permeate the student body so thoroughly that the new students, as they enter the campus, will soon feel the effects of the atmosphere and respond to it. The campus of a university should be recognized as a place of intellectual education, as a place for study and work, not for idleness. In fact, in every good university, either through tra- dition or by regulation, work must be strictly required, and the idler must find it an impossible place to remain. In our de- mocracy, it is desirable that education should be as widespread as possible. It is desirable that as many of the students be reached as possible, but it is equally important that when a university renders service, it shall be of a university quality. It is a grievous wrong to render a service of inferior grade to a people under the pretext of college education. It is, therefore, a solemn duty of a university to establish high standards. Stu- dents who enter the university seeking easy and inferior in- struction or social opportunities to the neglect of a student career should be converted from the error of their ways or they should be required to withdraw. If their attitude of mind cannot be changed, they become a corrupting influence on the whole population of the institution. The High Purpose of Life is not Individual Joy, but Duty Moreover, the State is carrying a heavy burden to edu-

798 IMPROVEMENT ERA cate its citizens, and it has a right to expect that those who take advantage of these opportunities shall apply themselves in such a way as to become real beneficiaries of the bounties be- stowed. This does not mean that all the joy and pleasure shall be eliminated from the university campus. It does mean, how- ever, that the real preparation of life shall take precedence over passing pleasures, for it takes only a few years out of child- hood to realize that the high purpose of life is not individual joy but duty. However, it is not difficult to understand the attitude of the average student. He too often comes from an environment which looks upon work as a hardship and po- sitions that require little effort as very desirable. The parents frequently take this same attitude, and they are constantly say- ing that they want to educate their children so that they will not have to work so hard as they have had to, — instead of tak- ing the position that they desire to educate their children so that they can successfully solve the problems of life. Conse- quently, when the students enter college, they possess the same philosophy, and endeavor to put it into effect, getting along as easily as possible. In other words, it is a case of extensive rather than of intensive culture. On Fraternities and Sororities Students, parents, and even faculty members sometimes forget that a record of good scholarship is a real preparation for life, while a record of social achievement on the campus is usually a poor preparation for life. The attitude of some par- ents, however, is somewhat difficult to understand. If the stu- dents do well in their studies, these parents take it for granted, but if these same students fail to get into a fraternity or sorority, they look upon it as a reflection; whereas, as a mat- ter of fact, it is frequently a great advantage to be denied ad- mission. Before membership ini such organizations can be properly evaluated, parents and the outside world must assume a different attitude. They must come to the conclusion that a university is a place for educational training; they must em- phasize the true university spirit and place scholarship high and membership in a fraternity or sorority low and not of vital importance. Both in the home and on the campus a correct valuation of college activities is very desirable if the students are to secure correct ideals. With so many young people on the campus, naturally a great many activities spring up. Com- ing as they do from a variety of environments, it is difficult to keep a correct balance. Some of the activities on the campus have to be developed, some to be supervised, some to be con- trolled, and some to be suppressed. For example, athletic ac-

FUNCTIONS OF THE COLLEGE 799 tivities up to a certain point should be developed as an open field for everyone. They afford proper exercise, particularly for young men who have lots of excess energy. However, when a student body assumes that the success of a football team is of more importance to a university than its scholastic standing, athletics has reached a point where it must be supervised, though we cannot expect too much from young people until the public changes its emphasis. The public knows the captain of the football team much better than it knows any other man on the campus. Moreover, it gives considerable more newspa- per space and publicity to this activity than to the scholar- ship in a college, and it is in a measure to this public feeling that the students are attempting to respond. The same difficulties occur in fraternities. Until recently fraternities have been an expression of social life on the campus of American colleges. Frequently they have been places for the idler and the incompetent. This has continued until just recently, when it became apparent to the leaders in these move- ments that there was a rising public sentiment in this country that would wipe sororities and fraternities out of existence if they did not change their ideals, and now the effort is being made by traveling secretaries for nearly all of these fratern- ities to bring them to a realization that unless they become centers of scholarship instead of centers of wasteful social ac- tivity, American public sentiment will eliminate them. This rising tide of public sentiment has been justified, and the prob- lem now before these organizations is whether they will adjust themselves, drop idleness and snobbishness, and stand for the highest in college life, — or be eliminated. Abundance of Money a Disadvantage A serious menace to scholarship on a university campus is the desire of some parents to supply their children with an abundance of money. This is not true of a majority, but it is true of a very noisy minority. A student needs good food, good clothes, good shelter, and a few luxuries, but when the ordi- nary student is possessed of more than this, it is a serious detri- ment to his scholastic achievements. This is particularly true of young men and women entering upon college careers. Duty of the American College In closing, permit me to say that it is the duty of the American college to perpetuate the rich traditions and prin- ciples of the race and the nation, to supplant the superficiality of the present and the past by a thoroughness which must char- acterize the future, to replace in the minds of the students the

800 IMPROVEMENT ERA idea of credit with the idea of scholarship, to implant in the hearts of the students the thought that high, thorough scholar- ship, is a splendid preparation for life, and finally that a col- lege campus, with all its hopes and all its disappointments, with all its joys and with all its sorrows, with all its achievements and with all its failures, is a place where hard, intelligent work will yield greater satisfaction, greater returns, and greater hap- piness than almost any other spot on earth. Elijah's Message (Tune: "School Thy Feelings?') Look! Elijah in the temple With a message from on high, Turning children to their fathers, As foretold by Malachi. When this glorious revelation Came as sunbeams from the sky, Songs from the imprisoned millions Shouted now's the triumph nigh! This vicarious work must follow, For the world was growing worse, And unless it was accomplished, Would be smitten with a curse. Thus the records of the fathers Are compiled in every land, Though the spirit that is guiding They yet fail to understand. In the temples of Jehovah This great work is going on, Linking all the chains together, Till we all become as one. Then, oh, what a welcome greeting, On that great eternal shore, Knitting all the severed kinships, Where the parting is no more. Let us then be all united In salvation for the dead, And be saviors on Mount Zion With our Master at the head; Ready for the Bridegroom's coming, In this last great work of love, With our lamps trimmed well and burning When he comes from courts above. Driggs, Idaho B. W. Driggs