Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-07-06

a university in quiet country placs would
not wish to have law school or medical
school, as It has no law courts and no hos
pitals. Where there are no mines, we need
not set up mining school A city univer-
sity would find Q school Of agriculture to
be an Inconvenience to it. For myself, /
feel that it would be quite beyond me to set
up universities suited to every one locality.
But of this l am sure that, If the friends Of
education and Of Princeton College would
place at our disposal the sums they used to
give me, when we were putting the college
in order, could now establish an excellent
university at Princeton.
lam of opinion that, in the university,
both the faculty and the board of
Trustees Should Retain Their Place
Of trust. The discipline should continue,
with the faculty divided, when the college
is large, into sub.fsculties. to take charge Of
each class. The trustees should be the
bond of connection between the outside
world and the teaching body, serving much
the same purposes as the Government does
to the State endowed universities Of Europe.
They should provide the funds, take the
general management, and act as Q Jury in
all educational discussions
The public are demanding reform on
another point, and that is in regard to the
Mode of Comforting Higher Degrees,
and especially honorary degrees. The
terms on which such degrees as Doctor Of
Philosophy, Doctor of Science, Doctor Of
Literature, and the like should be granted,
might be reviewed with profit, and with
public appreciation. The general senti.
ment is that they should be given only
after coorse Of study in special depart
NEE. has been pursued, and an examina-
ton held upon it.
There is deep and growing dissatisfac.
ton with the mode in which honorary de-
grees are conferred at commencements and
on other occasions. They are bestowed on
no principle that can discover. The end
intended by all academic titles is to call
forth, encourage, and reward scholarship.
They are prostituted when they are turned
to any other ends. 1t is alleged that they
are given at times, merely from personal
friendship. believe that such cases are
not numerous in our higher colleges. The
avowed principle on which they are com.
monty bestowed is to secure friends to the
college, in ministers of religion, in teachers,
in wealthy or influential men. But this end
is not always secured. The public are
shrewd enough to see through the whole
thing and despise the action and the actors.
Trustees should see the sheer that gathers
on the face of intelligent people when they
hear or read of degree bestowed on some
person who has done nothing 10 deserve it.
A decent,
Respectable Minister gets DID,
and it is supposed that he is thereby pre-.
engaged to the college, to which he will send
all the boys in his congregation. But he is
surrounded by half dozen ministers who
feel that they are quite as good as he is and,
having been overlooked, they are tempted to
send their boys elsewhere.
Surely way may be devised by which
these evils, about which the public is now
sensitive, may be avoided, and honorary
degrees given only TO men who have pro.
NOTED scholarship or done some great work
fitted to elevate mankind. The recon-
mendation for degrees should not be left
with common board, which has no means
of making a scrutiny. 1t should pro.
coed from a company of select men who
make careful inquiry as to the qualitica'
tons OF the persons nominated. 1t might
be left with the senate or council, when
there is such body; when there is not, the
Board Of Trustees might appoint a standing
committee, consisting Of its most scholarly
members, to sift all applications and report
to the board. AS to American colleges
scattering titles over the world, the practice
might now cease, and every man be left to
seek the honor from his own country, where
they can best Judge of him. This would
certainly have one good effect; 1t would pre-
vent American degrees from becoming the
laughing stock of Europe.